# Jerry Lewis - MDA Telethon

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-lewis-mda-telethon/509079>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 6, 2009, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-lewis-mda-telethon/509079 "2009-09-06T19:42:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-lewis-mda-telethon/509079/21 "2009-09-09T03:19:41Z")

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There’s inflation for starters, and people make more and Jerry Lewis probably has a lot of rich friends. Plus, I may be mistaken but aren’t these only pledges? Perhaps they don’t collect all of it.

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**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2009, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jerry-lewis-mda-telethon/509079/22 "2009-09-09T04:44:16Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> 1.46 billion dollars, and 50 years, and they still cant cure a genetic disease?

I can answer this. The “big name” disease foundations have HUGE overhead costs. Some of the money goes to research yes…but overall only a small percentage of total fundraised charity dollars, actually goes to research.

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