r/BeAmazed • u/LethaI____ • Apr 24 '26
Place While the world was watching his movies, Christian Bale was planning a foster care community that changes lives.
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u/FindIt7Ways Apr 24 '26
Batman is real.
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u/RageAgainstMSTeams Apr 24 '26
Well, belng rich is his true superpower.
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u/Salt-Power-3868 Apr 24 '26
Lots of rich people don’t do this: His superpower is compassion for and commitment to those with less.
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u/Saritiel Apr 24 '26
Honestly, what gets me? We hear about all these multi-billionaires out there. And compared to a billion dollars, $22 million really isn't that much. There are people out there that could build a hundred of these and it wouldn't impact their standard of living in the slightest. They wouldn't even have to make a real sacrifice to do it. But they don't.
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u/Banned3rdTimesaCharm Apr 24 '26
They didn’t become billionaires by giving their money away. The fact that they became a billionaire tells you everything you need to know about their character.
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Apr 24 '26
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u/PhoenixRisen95 Apr 24 '26
^ This
If I had that kind of money I would do the same :) there is not better legacy than helping people in the present and future.
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u/GrandSquanchRum Apr 24 '26
Well, no, this doesn't solve any systemic issues this is him helping children that wouldn't have gotten a chance to grow in a safe environment without him. The systemic issue will go on until at a government level we tax people taking part in our society and direct that money toward people in need like kids in the foster care system. There's almost half a million kids in the foster system and one millionaire like Bale can barely even dent it.
Not to take away from what he's done. This compound is a fourth of his networth so he's not doing it just for the tax writeoffs.
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u/JEFFinSoCal Apr 24 '26
It’s great he’s helping treat the symptoms, but we really need to focus on the disease.
Hint: the disease is billionaires.
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u/Firm-Advertising5396 Apr 25 '26
I don't know how the rich people who don't do similar humanitarian acts, live with themselves. I mean, what is the point of accumulating wealth if you aren't go to do something positively meaningful with it?
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u/demaandronk Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26
Please. Look at all the really wealthy assholes on this planet and their only goal is war and misery. Give this man the applause he deserves.
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u/joyeux_bordel Apr 24 '26
I think it was a joke about the movie Justice League (though it was Ben Affleck as Batman, instead of Christian Bale who quite obviously played Batman as well). Basically, it was the Flash asking Batman what his superpower was, and Batman replying "I'm rich".
I agree with you, though: Bale deserves recognition for doing this with his wealth.
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u/koolaidismything Apr 25 '26
He drives an older Tacoma. From what I've read he's kinda boring.. just a dude doing little projects (and large) spending his time exactly how I'd imagine him at 20 would if they thought "what would I do if I was rich and didn't have to work?"
He's a good dude.. he's gotten to see siblings ripped apart and how traumatic it is. I wonder where, you don't get this specific unless you had some event I'd think.
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u/MCE85 Apr 24 '26
He is rebuilding the league of shadows
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u/no_numbr_name Apr 24 '26
Ah. Hes turning orphans into assassins. I've seen celebrities do worse things.
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u/Z0idberg_MD Apr 24 '26
I’m glad it’s this character persona and not American psycho or swing kids. Swing Heil!
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u/ArticulateRhinoceros Apr 24 '26
This is what Bruce Wayne should have been doing with his generational wealth instead of beating up low-level criminals to feed back into the for-profit prison system.
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u/puresteelpaladin Apr 24 '26
If you read the comics, he does both. The Wayne Foundation practically shits money all over Gotham City.
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u/ArticulateRhinoceros Apr 24 '26
TBH I haven't read the comics since the 90's. This was back when Bane had broken Bat's back and Azrael was masquerading as an XTREME version with guns and stuff...
I did watch the shit out of Batman The Animated Series, though, and I do remember at least one episode where he goes to an orphanage as Bruce Wayne to help out.
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u/ZandyTheAxiom Apr 24 '26
This is what he does in the comicbooks. Free health and childcare facilities, and buying up run-down apartment buildings to renovate them and keep rent low.
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Apr 25 '26
That or he didn’t want anybody to go through what his character run Empire of the Sun went through.
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u/CliffDraws Apr 24 '26
Batman should have been doing this stuff instead of punching guys really. But that would make a boring comic.
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u/ImWhatsInTheRedBox Apr 24 '26
Bruce Wayne has created any number of charities and programs to help those in need, and not just in Gotham. Hell, even Batman helps kids find lost dogs.
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u/Qaeta Apr 24 '26
Batman should have been doing this stuff instead of punching guys really. But that would make a boring comic.
He does both.
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u/sentence-interruptio Apr 24 '26
https://giphy.com/gifs/ar71Hyi0ZKejXzMoNs
Bruce Wayne filing papers to fund charities isn't an interesting cinema.
But Batman punching baddies or Batman feeling sad in rain. That's what I like seeing, man.
Every Batman movie has to solve the problem that Bruce Wayne isn't as interesting as Clark Kent. And every Superman movie has to solve the problem that Superman isn't as interesting as Batman.
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u/ColdFix Apr 24 '26
I wish that instead of becoming super rich, more folks just settled for plain 'rich' and engaged in projects like this.
I really don't see the point in being Bezos/Gates/Musk rich.
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u/thexDxmen Apr 24 '26
There is something fundamentally wrong in their brain. Similar to a sociopath, or someone with autism. I believe there has to be a physical difference in the brain of someone who had that level of greed. Ask everyone you know personally what they would do if they woke up and had 500 million dollars in the bank. You hear a lot of interesting ideas and cool things to do. What I havent heard once is someone telling me a plan on how they would turn that 500 million dollars into a billion. That is because a normal brain doesnt think like that. A billionaire is fundamentally wrong, they are never happy with the amount of money they have. If they were, they would never reach a billion dollars.
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u/wallcutout Apr 24 '26
Just a note, sociopaths aren’t physiologically different from other people by default, you’re thinking of psychopaths.
Sociopathy develops as a coping mechanism to extreme circumstances and trauma, (where someone’s brain determines the only way they’d be safe is to dampen empathetic responses) psychopathy develops as a result of a differently-wired brain where their brain out the gates struggles with a lot of what we consider to be foundational social and empathetic processes.
Trauma -does- change the structure of the brain, but if you’re trying to compare it to autism as an example of people born with different brains out the gates, it’s better to distinguish between sociopathy and psychopathy.
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u/xombae Apr 24 '26
Agreed. It's like being a hoarder. They interweave their belongs, in this case their bank account, with their identity. Psychology tells us that once someone has internalised something and consider it an identity, it's very difficult to change their view.
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u/Golemfrost Apr 24 '26
It's more like a hamster wheel, once your in and running, it's hard to stop.
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u/Immortal_Azrael Apr 24 '26
My theory is that they've become so used to not having to struggle or worry about anything that life has become nothing more than a game to them, and the points are measured in money. All they care about is winning the game so having more money than anyone else means they're "winning".
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u/LarxII Apr 24 '26
I am not a fan of being compared (as an Autist) to a sociopath.
I'm good with data, and technology, I'm not burning down houses to collect the insurance.
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u/MountainDoit Apr 24 '26
Lmao, my autism means there’s something fundamentally wrong with me? Just throwing us in with sociopaths and soulless billionaires casually to make your point? Fuck you too.
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u/MrCrazieman Apr 24 '26
Agreed. That feels wildly out of pocket and disrespectful. I'd settle for "different" as opposed to "fundamentally wrong"
Tried to be the bigger person but yeah they can go fuck themselves. There's plenty of things wrong with me but my autism isn't fucking one of them
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u/MountainDoit Apr 24 '26
They’d get rid of us if they could. I respect that you want to, but I wouldn’t worry about being the bigger person anymore, this administration in particular has been driving towards eradicating us even more. We need to vehemently push back on this shit at every opportunity.
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Apr 24 '26
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u/Charming-Feedback173 Apr 24 '26
The actual quote is "The LOVE of money is the root of all evil." Not money itself.
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u/WhiteSkyRising Apr 24 '26
It's wild. At that level, their names could be plastered everywhere and heralded as the greatest men of our time. But nah.
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u/theirishembassy Apr 24 '26
It's wild. At that level, their names could be plastered everywhere and heralded as the greatest men of our time. But nah.
i literally just posted this elsewhere 2 days ago:
elon musk could pay off the national debt of gambia with 0.10% of his wealth. imagine just rolling up to a country, paying off their debt, building roads, houses, hospitals, farms, schools.. and still having 800+ billion dollars to screw around with?
he could have 2.5 million people, generations of families, talking about "our saviour, elon musk".
he could literally be the most liked man on the fucking planet if he really wanted to. instead he's the king of a gaggle of teenage losers and bots he's paid to call him "based".
literally, what is the point of hoarding all of that money? does he have fucking smaug DNA?
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u/ZenMasterOfDisguise Apr 24 '26
Ideally, we wouldn't have a system where the profits produced by human labor get concentrated in the hands of 1% of the people, and then have to wish for those people to share the wealth they gained through gaming a rigged system. Like we could just create a system that actually works for everyone and doesn't concentrate wealth into the hands of the few. Wishing we had this exact same rigged system, but the rich were more benevolent with their stolen wealth, seems like a waste of a wish to me
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u/Ok-Temporary-8243 Apr 24 '26
Well up until the epstein emails, gates was one of the "good" ones. Your issue is that money doesn't really scale well when it comes to social causes. Christian probably had tk vet a significant amount of people before he could find the right staff for the community etc. And theres an entire wasteland of schools that were funded millions only to fail because it turns out you can't buy educational success.
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u/Banned3rdTimesaCharm Apr 24 '26
Lots of people do settle for plain rich, they stop at 10 or 50 or 100 million, then they stop hoarding money and just live. The billionaires are the outliers. Actual psychopaths.
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u/GiantPandammonia Apr 24 '26
And the kids can all work selling newspapers. Then he'll have come full circle.
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u/succed32 Apr 24 '26
Now if only we did this as a people instead of waiting for rich people.
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u/ThaBuckNasty Apr 24 '26
But how does the shareholder make money?
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u/darewin Apr 24 '26
Or the war... The amount the US government spent in the first week of its war with Iran is more than enough to build 10 of these foster care villages in each state.
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u/Nvz42084 Apr 24 '26
Actually if every celebrity did even half that it would be so nice
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u/succed32 Apr 24 '26
Relying on the wealthy to solve social problem is a very quick way to end up in a monarchy
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u/HiSaZuL Apr 24 '26
I got 10 dollars to my name but you want be to build houses for others? Seems logical. Wouldn't want to burden Katy Perry or Something Swift and interfere with their photoshoot in space to promote environmental awareness. Or rich Jeffrey and his clock bunker thingy.
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u/xombae Apr 24 '26
How is it possible to miss the point so broadly.
No one is asking you to do this. The point is that people with this much money should be taxed so the government can provide these services, instead of hoping one rich person is ethical enough to give a damn.
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u/MPFuzz Apr 24 '26
I definitely trust this goverment with more of my tax dollars.
Magically having more tax money won't fix things when you still have an incredibly inept and corrupt government.
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u/hop_mantis Apr 24 '26
I think he meant more like tax the rich and/or divert tax money from our ridiculous military budget for things like this
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u/succed32 Apr 24 '26
We made 5 trillion dollars last year as a country… there is less than a million homeless in our country
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u/Burrito-tuesday Apr 24 '26
Like, own government? With money we already give them? Nah, that’s crazy talk.
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u/CommonSensei-_ Apr 24 '26
Bruce Wayne. This is right up there with Gary Sinise ( Lt Dan) and his role with veterans.
These huge roles inspired people on the silver screen, but much more importantly they improved hundreds / thousands of lives. I hope these acts inspire more good deeds
Well done.
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u/Granny_knows_best Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26
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u/Holiday-West9601 Apr 24 '26
Pocket change for the riches billionaires in America, instead they buy $400 million dollar yachts
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u/drhoduk Apr 24 '26
I think we should all appreciate the effort to help USING the money for the unfortunate ones
Bar is so low with billionaires buying people and having pedo parties
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u/amcl1214 Apr 24 '26
This is absolutely incredible. It’s too bad. There’s so many people that hoard mass amounts of wealth instead of doing good. I will never understand how these people have more money than they will ever be able to spend in this lifetime and for generations to come, but yet still refuse to do anything positive with it at all outside of the bare minimum to get tax write off. Not saying that there aren’t some amazing wealthy people out there like Christian Bale, who do things out of the goodness of their heart, but it feels like they’re so many more that don’t.
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u/MurkDiesel Apr 24 '26
the world has been doing plenty of other things besides watching Christian Bale movies
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u/LilMissy1246 Apr 24 '26
As someone that was in foster care as an infant - toddler, I thank him for helping so many orphans that need love and care.
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u/OriginalFine2689 Apr 24 '26
Already surpassed all Batman incarnations in the good he did for his community
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u/Joyjmb Apr 24 '26
Now is the time to seize the day
Send out the call and join the fray
Wrongs will be righted
If we're united
Let us seize the day!!
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u/celticdragondog Apr 24 '26
This should be an example for other people who have made millions from their fans . When you have too much, give, give, give!
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u/Hefty_Breadfruit Apr 24 '26
I’ve thought about how I’d do philanthropy if I ever had enough money to philanthropize and this is exactly it but for new immigrants. Way to go Mr.Bale!!
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u/AThiccBahstonAccent Apr 24 '26
I really don't understand the perceived need to get more and more money. I love stuff, I particularly love things, and don't even get me started on items. But I can get all of that by having a lot of money, not an unbelievable amount of money.
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u/arf_arf1 Apr 24 '26
Where is the crushing machine though? Is that the real purpose of the community centre?
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u/LM4LS Apr 24 '26
If California's government did this it would have cost $450 million and would have taken 12 years.
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u/ImPrettyDoneBro Apr 24 '26
Christian bale is in my top 3, if not my #1 actor. (The other 2 are Ralph Fiennes and Denzel Washington) It's just so fucking cool that he's using his shit for good like this.
(Stellan Skarsgaard is at #4)
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u/AdvertisingOnly9120 Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26
I really really wanna believe he's doing this for good. Please don't let us down Bateman, I can't take any more kids getting turned into jerky.
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u/beefmomo Apr 24 '26
Bale is worth $120M. Elon musk is worth $600B+.
Imagine what could be done if billionaires were good people.
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u/Lord_Frampton Apr 24 '26
If only we could tax his class of people and do this sorta stuff more institutionally
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u/Muted-Ride-6413 Apr 24 '26
best part of being wealthy is realizing you can really just do anything
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u/The_Bandit77 Apr 24 '26
What’s the name of his organization and how can we help?
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u/Maoleficent Apr 24 '26
If the wealthy paid taxes and/or gave back to the society that made them rich imagine what this country could be.
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u/JustAtelephonePole Apr 24 '26
Someone introduce him to Keanu and mention presidential aspirations!
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u/anynamesleft Apr 24 '26
That's putting money where your heart is. I've never heard of him even mentioning this.
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u/GobboZeb Apr 24 '26
You see, this is the shit i daydream about when i imagine like lottery winnings or something. Buy a Popeyes location, pay everyone 35 starting, free child and health care, pay me a salary so i can pay taxes on it, and have the best chicken sammich whenever i want.
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u/Default_Name_6969 Apr 24 '26
this is the kind of thing all people rich people should be doing to lift society.
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u/External-Basket6701 Apr 24 '26
SO incredibly beautiful to see an artist paid well, give back from the silly money they can make in their career.
Real life HERO. Keeping himself balanced and giving so many people all over the world a reason to actually have some hope for our world that seems to be falling apart. Thank you for the heart warming smile Christian 🥳😍🌻🌍🏠🥇
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u/RobotHavGunz Apr 24 '26
Didn't see an actual link to the project itself - https://togethercalifornia.org/our-village/
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u/vocalfreesia Apr 24 '26
Like half of US homeless people are kids who aged out of the care system. This is awesome. If he could pay for private social workers & trauma specialists it could be literally generationally changing stuff.
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u/aelosmd Apr 24 '26
Some men can be reasoned or bargained with. Some men just want to watch the world heal.
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u/ambercares Apr 24 '26
I love this it gives me hope for humanity in a world full of people who don't care.
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u/NookNookNook Apr 24 '26
Whats the name of the community? Who runs the org? How do people apply to live there?
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u/Holy-Crap-Uncle Apr 24 '26
22 million for 12 houses?
... okay, good on the surface, but for 22 million I think you could have built a 1+5 apartment building that would house a lot more people.
I'm wondering if this is some sort of tax trick where a retirement community was bought and then placed in some sort of trust to get tax savings.
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u/hankmoody699 Apr 24 '26
The part about aging out of foster care. Most of these kids are 18 chronologically, but maybe 12-13 emotionally or educationally. These kids rarely get all the things that most of us grow up with and that's parents who cared enough to discipline us, teach us, protect us, and most of all, love us. We had a kid move in with us after he had run away from foster care and was 18 at the time. At 19 yrs old my wife showed him how to turn the stove on. These 12 houses, with caring providers, have a big, big job ahead of them. This is beautiful.
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u/maxwellh74 Apr 24 '26
I was an orphan, good for him. Thank you for your good works. Milton Hershey, the guy that made the chocolate bar gave his money to a school for orphans. It is still going to this day and thank you Mr. Hershey!
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u/SlipAdditional5484 Apr 25 '26
… so, what Batman should have actually been spending his entire time doing.
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u/PenchantForNostalgia Apr 25 '26
We could instead just tax these ultra rich people so we can build things like this rather than waiting and hoping for their charity?
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u/fostofina Apr 25 '26
I love this but recent events have made me so skeptic of celebrities helping children in any capacity. Hopefully this is just him being a good dude and no foster children are being exploited in an isolated village.
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u/GirthyDave1 Apr 25 '26
$22 million for all that?! Other super rich people pay more for 1 house for themselves!
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u/Speedygi Apr 25 '26
A British actor loves this American community so much to do this. Bale is a kind soul indeed.
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u/Run_Rabb1t_Run Apr 25 '26
I hope he vets the qualifications of any caretakers with the fury of a man on set with an amateur.
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u/EclecticEvergreen Apr 25 '26
I’m sorry, how is it that he spent 22 million dollars on building 12 homes?
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u/victor4700 Apr 25 '26
He was so stressed out during this planning it led to some unsavory words to the crew member of the film he was working on 😟
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u/HistoryRebuilt Apr 25 '26
This isn't Bale simply donating money — he's been deeply involved in design details and site selection, saying "I get obsessive." He also recruited Leonardo DiCaprio to back the mission.
A truly remarkable long-term commitment to a cause he cares deeply about.
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u/qualityvote2 Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
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