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Bill Gates to give away $200 billion by 2045, accuses Musk of harming world's poor - https://www.reuters.com/business/bill-gates-give-away-fortune-by-2045-200bn-worlds-poorest-2025-05-08/
Edit: Thanks much for the Accolades !
hotaru251
Gates is aprt of group of wealthy people who have agreed to give wealth away when they die and not just dump it down the family line. Not best outcome, but its far better than alternative of giving it all to family.
Larnoc
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/05/bill-gates-climate-crisis-farmland
mcglirkymeow
2045? Wow, you go, Speedy Gonzalez. 🙄
RUFingKiddingMe
How about he starts with selling all of the farmland he's acquired.
mrthewhitee
This isn't the win most people think it is.
Gates "charity" is in part of how the US school system became as fucked up as it is today.
cloudsmateria
If you read right-wing comments on this issue, the biggest complaint is the ultimate in "what-about-ism" in regard to tax money. "B-b-b-but, that's his OWN money, and Musk is saving taxpayer dollars!" If you're unwilling to shed a few bucks from your paychecks over a year's time to help feed poor kids while you whine about paying 6 bucks for an iced coffee at Starbucks, I have SO many words for you, none of which are kind. Bring that to church, you arrogant hypocrites.
memeseeks
I'll believe it when I see it.
TheobromineAddict
Didn't UN World Food Program head David Beasley develop a $6.6B to help 42 million people facing starvation? When Musk falsely claimed he would donate 6B to end world hunger?
Eridianne
"I need to be so clear I will cling to every last penny until the very hour of my death"
DMSledge
Is this all going to go to his foundation? So he's donating to himself?
thisiswhyicanthaveanythingnice
Why not spend that money keeping fascists out of power and the other part will get handled?
G0MeatCube
Bill gates the same guy just buying up a bunch of farmland and selling it to the chinese??
mars23fi999
Whenever billionaires do philanthropy, it's ALWAYS to save taxes. And listen to how Gates has spoken about his profits from investing in things like vaccines.
A leopard does not change its spots.
TacoPoweredHelicopter
Under the current system they are not paying taxes anyways.
PeaceBaby
1. This is what we need - billionaires attacking each other. 2. Gates should also call himself out.
drw16
fuck bill gates. monopolist, workplace sex pest, epstein island enjoyer, and billionaire. fuck the bill and melinda gates foundation. tries to use capitalism to incentivize good works, but it ends up just being cronyism because it gives giant corpos contracts to do shit, then they do shit ineffectively, and then high five each other and peace out. countries they "help" are then little to no better off than before, because they can't replicate the work done themselves.
LostCaterpillar
This. It's not even just foreign countries. My school district was unfortunate enough to receive his "aid." Purchased a laptop for every student in the gate program but required the district to get rid of every non-windows computer entirely. All those Mac computer labs had to go. It was years before they could afford to put computers back in the regular schools, ultimately costing the district something like twice the money he gave
Why did the school board accept the deal? 10K for each Yes vote
miklkit
Gates has also said he is ok with a tax rate up to 60% for his class. Economists think the sweet spot is 60-70% for them.
Housemaster
Every Billionaire is an attack on the human race
Becker37
To fucking charities and those fucking things tend to be scams.
bekkayya
"ill stop harming you when im dead" yes Mr. Gates we knew this already lets get you back to "bed"
SomeDetroitGuy
What an absolutely ignorant take.
bekkayya
in 2045 bill gates will by 90 years old. if elon musk is harming the worlds poor by clinging onto money, then necessarily bill gates is engaging in the same harm, and wont stop until he is all but dead. Did I miss something?
4zkdefragkki
A thief who gives back what he stole is better than one who doesn't. But how many people lived poorer, harder lives, and died younger than they would have, because Billy G stole? And he hasn't given the money back — he's said he'll do it, by 2045, when he'll be 94. If he cared, or felt guilty, he'd do it now.
t00tie
They're both criminal assholes. 25ish years ago Gates was one of the worst people. We seem to have forgotten.
BasinStreetDesign
Then he met Melinda and got married. Funny how that works,
FailedMitosis
He's got good PR.
autocorrectfailures
Book gates been trying to get rid of his money for a long time. What's the fucking hold up?
bekkayya
1. He cant, it accumulates faster than he can shed it. 2. His "chairitable foundations" arent just giving money to people who need it, its building institutions that have opinions on how that money circulates. and oh gosh wouldnt you know it just so happens to circulate to all his political goals that keep him on top. Weird that.
theproblemis
Pretty sure he pledged this with warren buffet like 25 years ago. when it was only 100 billion
TacoPoweredHelicopter
He has given away 100b so far... So I guess we can trust the new pledge?
theproblemis
so where did he get the 200 billion from?
TacoPoweredHelicopter
That's the new pledge.
4EverZw
No offense, Gates, but that money would be better spent on bounties on the mass majority of other billionaires. Start at 50M per, with a yearly refresh of the list as inheritances are doled out. Won't be long before the remainder realize an increased level of philanthropy has its benefits.
DustyLightning
I mean, all the more likely they'd post their own hits on him at that point. What's $250m to cut off the head of the snake that's gunning for you, after all? Pocket change.
4EverZw
I'm sure it'd be a risk, but any such offer could continue on posthumously. The legacy it would built for Gates would be huge. This is all hypothetical of course, as it would never happen. What a world we'd see in 50 years if it did though.
haveanupvotegif
I’m here for every comment pointing out he’s still a billionaire and therefore still eligible for the guillotine. Left or right politically, hoarding wealth is still hoarding wealth, no matter what you “pledge.”
SomeDetroitGuy
What an ignorant, idiotic statement.
brickius
What would you suggest he do?
Krakencrotch
Die.
brickius
Right, so his money just goes to his kids, and the government takes a massive chunk and fuckin blows it all on bombs....how the fuck does that help anyone?
Reinhoolahoop
Stop being a billionaire would be a tremendous start
brickius
Is that not literally exactly what he's doing here?
haveanupvotegif
*saying you meant to put instead of doing, because saying is what it is. What he’s doing is being a billionaire.
brickius
Right, so he's given away 100 billion so far, so CLEARLY he is doing, and he's going to give away 200 billion more, like, do you ... Do you not understand that?
smoldix42069
2045? Why not 2025?
wowbaggerthethird
RTFarticle
jasminedragonteashop
Because he will be very close to death by then and won't have much use for it
SomeDetroitGuy
He has already given away over $100 billion. He's doing it in a sustainable way.
battleofhastings1066
https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1NnI3bWVteTc5NGM5amNuZGZ0ZmJjenVyZDNjdGM5OGVyY2ZzMGN6ZiZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/X8omQqfFyeq1a/200w.webp
ryecurry9000
Probably because none of these billionaires have that in actual cash.
jrntn
He doesn't have to give it away as cash. I'm sure a set of charities would know what to do with his assets if he signed them over.
CormacTheCat
I can't imagine it's easy to give away that much money without wrecking the economy...
jrntn
Why is it that wealth changing hands is good and safe when it ends up in the hands of a billionaire but is bad and dangerous when it's out of the hands of a billionaire?
mrthewhitee
This is nothing to do with the economy.
First he has to wait for his massive wealth to accumulate that much in interest. Second it takes time to actually choose where to spend the money, which charities etc. Third, there's a limit to how much charity you can claim per year.
This isn't altruistic. He has an agenda and he's trying to avoid taxes too. Gates is part of the reason US school system is the disaster it is today. Because he decided he would spend billions on "education" to create today
ontarioOT
I'm not sure why you're being downvoted for providing info.
For the downvoters, the problems with billionaire philanthropy:
https://youtu.be/KWNQuzkSqSM?si=U8yzGV5Eo2hys">8">https://youtu.be/KWNQuzkSqSM?si=U8yzGV5Eo2hysep8
https://youtu.be/69AtkAHkKEc?si=IX9MHE0EvVt6av2m
(Lond">GV5Eo2hysep8
https://youtu.">g">d">GV5Eo2hysep8
https://youtu.be/69AtkAHkKEc?si=IX9MHE0EvVt6av2m
(Long)
And the education issue:
https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-melinda-gates-foundation-education-initiative-failure-2018-6
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/the-plot-against-public-education-111630
https://youtu.be/jSh9sUif69A?si=yBuviyc9Vguy5eH_
GroverKerr
Because he didn't become a billionaire by taking advice and using the poor planning skills of random idiots on imgur.
smoldix42069
Ok buddy
GroverKerr
Watch the interview, read what he says. He wants to eliminate polio and malaria, reduce global infant and women mortality, reduce global poverty. He says Musk is "killing the world's poorest children". He is not just talking, he has been planning and acting and spending for decades towards these goals, and is now accelerating. There is nothing disagreeable about what he is saying or doing in this area. If you want to fight stop reacting like a kicked animal and start learning and thinking.
Reinhoolahoop
Yeah, he became a Billionaire by ruthlessly destroying the livelihoods of his competition both domestic and worldwide
[deleted]
[deleted]
Reinhoolahoop
I can't tell you which destroyed company could have potentially made donations to charity because they don't fucking exist you prat
Seriously dense
SnowpersonHitInTheFaceWithALackOfCreativity
Who was his competition? Apple? Sony? They seem to be doing pretty well. Do you want to rethink?
lackinglife
The man literally started a charity that had closed down, because it was to fight a disease, and it fought that disease so well it ran out of the disease to fight. Bill Gates is about as close to a good billionaire as we can have.
CaptainScarfish
He is the most polished turd, but he's still a turd.
MidnaDS
A turd with sprinkles on top.
notmyrealface
JD Pritzker might be the best billionaire right now.
pontiacbandit
I was a Pritzker skeptic but goddamn has he proved to be a fantastic governor!
notmyrealface
Same here. I am pleasantly surprised but I still don't think billionaires should exist.
cosonfused
he really isn't.
Goldensands
Which still isn't close. He's a POS who needs to do better.
Kaze54
*looks at dolly parton who would be a billionaire if she didn't already give it away.*
magichal
I agree, but also, if you haven't given enough to stop being a billionaire, you're still a parasite.
bronsonmills9
Bernie sanders
Nykidemus
Bernie is not anywhere near that rich, but he is a good dude.
Nykidemus
https://www.opensecrets.org/personal-finances/bernie-sanders/net-worth?cid=N00000528
flipiflop
Not a Bernie lover or anything, but these comparisons are ridiculous and show how people entirely misunderstand scales. 500K/1B is 0.05%. On a scale of homeless to billionaire, $500k is literally closer to a homeless person. It's hard, but doable to make $500k through your own work. For example, a Google senior engineer can make that in a year. It's impossible to make a billion without sacrificing tons and tons of people.
InTangier
Remember when he argued against opening Covid vaccine patents so other countries could mass-produce it for their own citizens?
They both suck, and I'm rooting for the fight itself.
EntropyEJ
Bill Gates was the OG scumbag Billionaire of the internet era back in the mid naughties.
That same organisation fighting disease was instrumental in blocking the corona vaccine from being made available to poorer countries because it was super important to protect patent rights no matter how many lives that would cost.
Bill Gates has better PR people.
Briarcastle
The Gates Foundation was a deeply disgusting project that only existed to generate massive amounts of wealth on the backs of the nations most in need of its resources. It is actually wild how easy it is to slap the word 'charity' onto something and it is just accepted as so.
seehemewe
Ultimate example of how $ and PR can change one’s image?
Alfred Nobel
“Nobel” is now associated with Peace
Also Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature and (kind of) Economics
When Nobel was alive 130 years ago, he was known as “the merchant of death” for inventing dynamite
Nothing like leaving your entire fortune to a PR campaign instead of family members to change your image from “merchant of death” to “world peace”
Detacheddavid
There's no real Nobel in economics.
DumbB1tch
He invented dynamite to help with construction and deconstruction. So not quite Oppenheimer.
seehemewe
I feel Oppenheimer was largely motivated b/c he feared there was a race and if the US didn’t win, they’d be victim.
Don’t know if Nobel had any power to make sure dynamite was only used in construction.
Link: https://www.history.com/articles/did-a-premature-obituary-inspire-the-nobel-prize
xizar
MacKenzie Scott. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacKenzie_Scott
Elkarlo77
*Miranda Gates, which left Bill because of his Epstein connection.
TacoPoweredHelicopter
Yes but bill still is and was involved.
Bunnies007
*who* left Bill
yaddiex3
Melinda?
Longdickjohnson69
Wrong name......
Lionskull
He pushed to uphold the patents for the covid vaccine instead of letting perfectly capable countries from manufacturing it.
labyrinthconvention
wrong
LostCaterpillar
Oxford pledged to make their COVID vaccine free for anyone to manufacture to fight the plague as effectively as possible. A free vaccine would undercut Gates's pharma stocks so he demanded the university reverse course and engage in exclusive licensing to keep the price of the vaccine high. He accomplished this feat of persuasion by threatening to withdraw his charitable donations and grants if the schools didn't capitulate.
labyrinthconvention
sounds like it should be easy to provide a source. Here's mine as a start
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/apr/27/facebook-posts/no-bill-gates-isnt-fighting-keep-vaccine-ingredien/
LostCaterpillar
I'm sorry, I just can't get this out of my head. Can you explain *why* you think your link refutes my point?
LostCaterpillar
Uh, what does that have to do with exclusive licensing?
But here: "A few weeks later, Oxford—urged on by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—reversed course. It signed an exclusive vaccine deal with AstraZeneca" – https://kffhealthnews.org/news/rather-than-give-away-its-covid-vaccine-oxford-makes-a-deal-with-drugmaker/
andwings2go
He should do the end world hunger for 6B plan that Musk welched on.
LostCaterpillar
He should but he won't. The entire purpose of his "charitable" foundation is to exercise control over political decision making on a global scale. He wanted the cost of programers to come down so he engaged in a campaign of "STEM First" education the destroyed the arts and churned out so many coders that we'll never need as many as we have.
Reinhoolahoop
Wanna bet he won't?
ricpaul
Not to defend Musk, he should have done that but it would impact his endgoal of becoming the worlds first trillionaire, but this plan didn't end world hunger. It was a quick bandaid for that year. My tiny country spends close to 6B a year on development aid. If that little amount would end world hunger, there wouldn't be world hunger.
Leaps
Oh no children would only be able to eat for a year instead of not being able to eat at all! Guess we shouldn't do it then.
ricpaul
As I said, he should have done it. Would have been but a blip on his fortune radar, but it shouldn't be repeated to be a solution for world hunger. That is just fake news and I think it is important to combat that whether it aligns with or opposes your views.
andwings2go
Typo on my part, it was a 60B plan. With infrastructure and sustainability way beyond a one year thing.
ricpaul
Haven't heard anything about a 60B plan, the 6B plan is what was constantly in the news. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/18/tech/elon-musk-world-hunger-wfp-donation
BodgeandScarper
Why wait? If it's worth doing, it's worth doing now.
Not to be outdone, I myself will give away $400 billion by 2055, so there!
spacecowboyein
That'd be insanely stupid to just randomly give away $200bn. The logistics behind that is staggering.
Clockworkdancerobot
He made another pledge to give away most of his wealth, but still kept accumulating wealth at insane levels.
xizar
I am clearly the better billionaire, having never accumulated any money in the first place.
ColonKoala
Because it's not easy to distribute 200 billion dollars what's it's needed instantly. At least not for a private citizen. It's hard to make sure it doesn't get abused.
Will they do it right? Idk.
ColonKoala
Where* it's needed
MGMZ11
I think the wording is a little confusing. I understood the message as, he's not GIVING away $200 bil IN 2045. He WILL HAVE GIVEN away $200 bil BY 2045.
IWasACatAllAlong
May I have some of the money? I promise I will only buy the coolest things with it. Like a house with a pool.
Iaimtomisbehave
". . . Give it away, give it away, give it away now! . . ."
WalmartSecurityForce
I also pledge to give away $400 billion by 2055
SomeDetroitGuy
He is doing it now. He's already given away over $100 billion. He's doing it in a longterm, sustainable way.
Reinhoolahoop
**He's doing it in a way that makes richer
ThisNameUnavailable
by giving away money lol?
DumbB1tch
"How is McDonalds going to get more money if they give out all these 20% off coupons?" - someone who doesnt understand marketing.
ThisNameUnavailable
"giving away 10$ to make $1 is making money" - someone who doesn't understand basic math lol
ThisNameUnavailable
A coupon isn't analogous here lol
waddupitshqe
you don't exactly get to accumulate 200 billion without harming world's poor either, but it's something
imnotinthewitnessprotectionprogram
I was harmed by Microsoft knowledge docs
sfbiker
I'd rather that billionaires were taxed on their wealth so heavily that they are encouraged to spend or donate it. Even if they just invested the money into existing or new businesses, that would be better than just sitting on their hoard like a dragon. Like Musk could allocate $5B/year towards doing pure research at Tesla ala Bell Labs or Xerox PARC.
VodkaReindeer
I think it would better if we made them hoard it. If they don't spend it, they don't have the power to tell people what to do (by paying them). Musk could allocate $5B/year to make his AI chatbot better at convincing people to change their political leaning to the right. That's why them donating or investing is worse.
zachnanaman
Didn’t he get rich licensing software to large companies like IBM before they realized that this would keep them on the hook for life?
drinkthederpentine
Do none of you people understand how productivity works? It's not zero sun
TheForbiddenSemicolon
Angry goose meme “Where’d you get the $200B?” “How do you expect to get an extra $10B a year to give away, MF!?”
KillingTlme
What's crazy is that he accumulated 200 billion over 20 years of giving away 100 billion. That's how much money you can make just by having money. Had he gave away everything in the first couple of years, he would have given away 60 billion and been done. Instead, he has given away 100 billion, still is worth 100 billion, and knows he can give away 200 billion more.
khora
Still mad about Clippy?
VoetsekJouMoer
Google the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, and then ask yourself what you've done to help people.
BaddeJimme
Hell hath no Windows, but it hath Gates.
Cloudypoona
Did he get word of all the 3D printed guillotines being made?
Isgrimnur
Lutki
I do think that given his philanthropy, and the proliferation of personal computing has significantly improved the human condition. Given the constraints of the era he was born into, he is not particularly evil. Especially when compared to his direct competition literally ruining the planet and society for extra margins.
HypersonicHero
I realize I am probably going to be flamed for this. But I would wager that the vast majority of the people here have never donated money to help the "world's poor", and if the "world's poor" were to come across this statement they might say you can go pound sand. To those in need they are not concerned with where the money comes from, so long as the help arrives. And snark from the peanut gallery does not help them survive.
ignotoCiResto
...does it count donating to the red cross?
HypersonicHero
Is this a setup to a rhetorical question so that if someone says "yes" you can say "well I do donate" and everyone will stand up and give you a round of applause for your bravery and heroism?
ignotoCiResto
well, no. I should have explained better. The red cross here in italy share the name with the ambulance service that get you to the hospital. Basically a donation toward hospitals transport service. Moreover, unless it's a peculiar case where you cant contact the red cross, in a car/home/whatever accident it's *STRONGLY* recomanded to call the red cross instead of bringin someone to the hospital with a car, because you can cause more damage otherwise. It's free, so both rich and poor use it.>
ignotoCiResto
and since both rich and poor use it I asked if it still count since I saltuary (let's say every five months? twice a year?) donate em like 20€. I totally forgot that both organizations share the name, totally my fault.
jammer909
The man definitely believes in charity.
brickius
Can you detail how Microsoft harmed the worlds poor?
SalmySwims
I would guess e-waste polluting poor communities, but that's not so much on Microsoft as it is on the garbage companies of the West. Just my guess.
brickius
Microsoft are a software company, mostly, probably very little e-waste
insertwittyjoke
Also worker exploitation and tax evasion. With few exceptions the majority of billionaires have that amount of cash rolling around because they exploited the third world and dodged taxes like it was an Olympic sport.
brickius
Which workers were exploited? When Microsoft went public they made 12,000 of their own staff millionaires... How often does that happen? Like, are you using facts here or just making up horseshit as you go along?
insertwittyjoke
I really don't know how anyone in this day and age isn't aware that basically every tech company exploits workers in developing countries.
OvertleyBadpickuplines
I mean probably not completely innocent, but a lot of gates money translates to good business decisions at the right time that lead to a cornering of a highly in demand market. Did that mean some shifty business deals, probably. But gates doesn't brag about firing thousands, nor did he buy an entire propaganda machine to basically verbally suck his own dick. Also...and big plus..not a Nazi.
VodkaReindeer
I don't think the world's poor care much if their PC costs more because of a Windows license (they don't have enough money for a PC).
Zixtank
Maybe not, but Gates is somewhat respectable as far as billionaires go.
emu314159127001
I'm not sure what the world's poor have to do with the former monopoly of windows though. The policy was, at least for China, if they're going to be stealing an OS regardless, might as well be windows
Targe0
For a number of years, Gates earned more interest on his wealth than he was able to give away. Because the process of moving around that much money took longer to happen than the interest accruement did. He literally couldn't give it away fast enough.
WarThunderLeakedMySpecs
Bullshit. Go ahead and give him credit for what he has done but this is just bald-faced pandering.
He could put the entire sum of his fortune and investments in a trust inside of a month if that’s what he wanted. He could write a damn check for 200Bn and ‘give’ it away in seconds. But he still keeps a personal fortune so that he has sole discretion on how it’s used.
Targe0
When moving funds of that size, banks can't just wave a wand to make it happen. There are a lot of security checks that go into it, as well as solvency issues the bank must cover first. It takes months for the transfer to actually happen.
WarThunderLeakedMySpecs
Hence a trust. You don’t need to liquidate assets or move funds, you just transfer ownership. Assets stay where they are, all the bank or brokerage does is change the name on the account.
My point wasn’t about giving the money away, as in liquidating all assets and dispersing cash to individuals, but about control. He WANTS to retain control of his fortune, and pick and choose what to spend it on.
somethingnotyettaken
I would like to hope he doesn't currently _have_ 200 billion but within the next 20 years expects it to come in and be given out again, as I know his Foundation does charitable work currently, but that may well not be the case
StellarJay77
People are allowed to change their perspectives and realize the harm they have caused and try to make amends you know?
ladyvoldything
Bill Gates was a full villain yeah but I think he's gone through some growth arc or whatever, so I won't sneer at him for being a high profile billionaire who actually plans to give away his wealth
spiceass9000
This is what all the robber barons did. Destroyed the economy and people’s livelihoods through mass greed accumulation and market manipulation. Destroyed the free market capitalist concept. Then got old gave a bunch back and tried to play it off like they were good all along
wurth
I'm jaded probably, but hopefully he doesn't donate it to a PAC to advance his political interests like the Patagonia CEO
Sechran
We can't change how Mr. Gates got his money, and holding that against him when he's trying to do something good is only wallowing in our own self-righteousness.
If Gates wants to be better, we should encourage that, not condemn him for his immutable history.
WilliamHag
He got lots of his money not by shortchanging lithium miners or factory workers but by doing stuff like charging companies by the number of cpus in their servers. There's some exploitation somewhere but much harder to pinpoint.
3rdoption
https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1MjAyMGt5NDN0b2c4MGk5ajBoY2RrcWU4ajJuNDB1Nzc5cTV4d285YyZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/IuaM5sUvLCYTyNKV4J/200w.webp
knotch2
I completely agree. Many people online are so easy to just hate all extremely wealthy people. I hate the system that allows them to cheat and make money off of their money, but I don't hate them if they want to do the right thing and give it back to people who need it.
welluhwhatdoyouwantmetosay
He was a modern day robber baron who got rich off the backs of others, and while he will have given away billions, he has actually gotten richer.
villlllle
Gates got rich from Microsoft, I think we can agree on that. While MS products have seldom been perfect, I think we can agree Windows/Office "ecosystem" has benefited western world in a big way. If creating something that the whole world wants or even needs is being a robber baron, I wish we had more robber barons.
notbillybobbit
You can’t win with some people. If more rich people were like Gates our society would be vastly improved. Folks just can’t let go of their idealistic utopia for reality sometimes.
Boksha
Sadly, you only get one Windows/Office robber baron, because the whole reason it got big in the first place was making sure there was no competition.
khora
No, there were lots of competition from things like Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect. What Microsoft did was combine everything into "Office" which was incredibly expensive and difficult. They did shitty things when they started to lose dominance though.
greentights
Robber barons are not good things. Microsoft stifled growth and other technologies from developing as they created a monopoly. The monopoly isn't always the best thing for anyone.
And in terms of historical robber barons, Gates is following the same PR tactics as Carnegie & Rockefeller. If they give 5% for a public good like a library or hospital, it keeps people distracted. VS if they were fully taxed, even a modest 25% on all their ill gained profits, that would have built 5-10x of the goods
villlllle
That's on americans, as a people, not on MS or Gates.
Targe0
And he's also given a lot to charities across the globe for decades. He's just reached a level of wealth where actually making noticeable impact in it is actually rather hard, even if you are handing out millions every year.
ShieldAnvil1
100%, his wife's full time job is selling shares and giving that money to charities she thinks will use it responsibly. and she will make new charities where non exist if need be or if fraud is a concern in the needed area..
Targe0
Ex-wife. But yes, it takes a full-time commitment to pull off. And if you want to do it properly, it takes a lot of vetting of charities to make sure it's not going to the wrong places. There's a reason they started a foundation, just to handle where they would donate their money.
balloonlord
The foundation is also a good reason to avoid paying tax
ShieldAnvil1
I don't follow his life that close, sad to hear is marriage ended.
chiefrunswithscissors
He genuinely got his money by working basically non-stop and since he's gotten rich he's dedicated his life to philanthropy. He uses money his money for good and he's one of the few billionaires who deserves it. Never understood why he got lumped in with the rest
ShieldAnvil1
Actually it is fairly easy to do it with the right idea, if all your money is in stock in the company you created. You can pay proper wadges and run a good company and at the end if you're the owner of that company when you go to sell it you get the value. He has basically pledged to give away the money he would make from selling Microsoft. He did not have to take money from anyone who works for him to get that value it is just what the stock market says the company is worth if sold.
SomeDetroitGuy
How, exactly, does selling software harm the world's poor?
Djohaal
Virtue signaling
RoutemasterFlash
Was wondering that myself.
mike13815
The rich accumulate wealth by taking a disproportionate share of revenue generated by people who aren't rich. Doesn't matter the product.
RoutemasterFlash
How much of the "revenue generated" by people in very poor countries (e.g. in Africa/Latin America/S and SE Asia) is somehow being skimmed off by Microsoft, though?
Don't get me wrong, there's plenty you can criticise them for. It just seems like a stretch to blame them for the state of things in Sudan/Afghanistan/Venezuela.
moleander
Ok, tell me how he was harming the world's poor.
ignotoCiResto
what I know is less "harm the poor" and more "curbstomped whoever had half a chance do became competitor" by buying em at ridicoulus low prices (because he could anyway create a simil clone different enough to be copyrighted as a different product, so it was better to sell to him anyway) and either shelved away or dismembered and extracted just the piece he wanted to incorporate into his own product.
Basically he forced people out of the market he monopolized.
moleander
You are thinking of Apple, I believe. That's pretty much what they did to the open source / public OS Market.
ignotoCiResto
could very well be, not sure at the moment.
sleepinggreenidea
The other thing is that he's not exactly altruistic in his philanthropy. He's using it to influence politics and policy to his preferences, which is neoliberal economics with very strong IP protection. He's using his wealth to shape the world to his vision, which is in no small part weakening global democracy and transferring gov't power to billionaires and multinational corporations. NGOs like his wield significant more power at the UN and other internat'l governing bodies than most nations.
sleepinggreenidea
It's very telling that the Gates Foundation is intended to only wind up its operations after his death - he intends to hold onto his power and influence for as long as he's alive. He has enough personal wealth to live in luxury (and pay off any women he's a creep to) for the rest of his life, so he can afford to use his organization (which is a massive nonprofit investment fund that does charity on the side) to personally shape international policy and domestic policy of "developing" countries.
killbillsexwife
Tbf his charitable works are ridiculously extensive and have contributed to the progression of humanity as a whole in very significant ways. Pity he became mates with a pedo though.
sleepinggreenidea
He's also been a typical rich creep to women who work for him, even if he wasn't quite as blatant as offering horses in exchange for blowjobs.
Targe0
Epstein's whole business system was to get close to the wealthy. So even if they never took part in his private business, he would still use them to network and meet more people who might do. It's why basically every socialite had met him, but not all of them took part.
ThatRaccoonGuy
I will remind people that there were lots of legitimate reasons to go to the island as well, since business conferences and scientific conventions were held there, it wasn't all just little girl sex parties. I highly doubt Stephen Hawking was there for the sex parties, for instance.
RoutemasterFlash
I bet Hawking liked the watch, though, the dirty old bollocks.
TacoPoweredHelicopter
His wife giving him the boot after finding out he was going kinda tarnished that for him. I doubt it was all good stuff.
I do like his charitable work though.
Targe0
Yes, and that was all part of the cover for it. Sprinkle in enough legitimate events so that people never question the illegitimate ones.
They were a front for him to launder his island's reputation and events. And an opportunity to network with new people and find new marks to bring to the other island events.
[deleted]
[deleted]
Targe0
Yes, I was agreeing with you. And simply explaining why he did have legitimate events hosted there.
ikisswithmyeyeswideopen
I got this through an ex gf, who was told by her friend, an African woman who attended her school - so take this with a grain of salt: apparently, a lot of Africans are not a huge fan of Gates. A lot of the work he’s done in Africa has been perceived to be experimental, treating Africans like guinea pigs.
Again, take it with a grain of salt because what I’m saying is second hand. But a perspective that I totally could see.
sleepinggreenidea
That tracks. A common critique of the Gates Foundation is that a lot of the money it spends on aid to developing nations goes straight into western corporations' pockets to provide goods and services at western prices. It's a top-down "aid" model that doesn't necessarily help make developing nations, well... develop.
TacoPoweredHelicopter
This is more just a well earned distrust of white men coming and and fucking with everyone, from pesticides to baby formula.
Targe0
A lot of that is due to past actions from the west, long before Gates rocked up. It instilled a distrust of Wealthy White men claiming to be there to help them. Because they were just there to exploit them. Most of the work Gates has done has been on providing medical care using existing treatments, and working on clean water projects. And helping fund new medical centres. So their distrust isn't really about what he's doing and more about what was done in the past that left distrust with people
sleepinggreenidea
That's pretty damned patronizing to assert. The Gates Foundation has been frequently critiqued for dictating that gov't policy must fit their vision of "what needs done" even if local gov'ts identify other areas of public health, public policy, etc. as more important. The idea that people actually affected can't possibly understand how good they're being treated is deeply infantilizing... which is entirely consistent with how NGOs treat the global south.
Targe0
How wasn't saying what they do doesn't have bad executions sometimes. Just that in a lot of places they are just positioned against things like NGOs because every time they have come in before it's gone badly.
RoutemasterFlash
Genuine question. How is Microsoft keeping poor countries poor?
drinkthederpentine
They aren't. Imgur's echo chamber is filled with zealots and idiots.
RoutemasterFlash
That's what I thought.
I mean, obviously there is tons you *can* criticise them for, and people often do;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Microsoft
But at the same time, they're not Nestlé.
LostCaterpillar
Licensing. Labor exploitation. Naked corruption. Same as every other big company.
As one example, they could afford to pay for ethically sourced lithium for their hardware. Instead they, just like everyone else, use slave labor in the Congo to get materials as cheaply as possible.
RoutemasterFlash
How much of the world's lithium output does Microsoft buy, though? They're mainly a SW company, aren't they. I guess they must have backup batteries for their data centres and whatnot, but I can't imagine they consume a significant amount next to Tesla.
somethingnotyettaken
I also doubt they manufacture that kind of hardware themselves (though I'm sure someone manufactures it more ethically and they could buy that instead). But they've certainly created/licenced plenty of their own hardware in terms of Microsoft phones, Zunes (lol), etc, too.
RoutemasterFlash
Well the obvious bit of MS hardware is the Xbox, isn't it?
I understood their smartphones have sold about eight units ever, lol.
TacoPoweredHelicopter
Microsoft has one of the most Lenient enforcement of licenses ever.
WilliamHag
They will chase you if a server has more cpu cores then you reported. Also doesn't feel on topic to the comment because charging people for having >10k servers feels irrelevant.
ignotoCiResto
now. Microsoft has one of the most Lenient enforcement of licenses ever *now*. after being fucked sideway with a sandpaper condom in a courtroom multiple time.
LostCaterpillar
The company that's been literally convicted in court of illegally restrictive licensing is "one of the most lenient?" The company that tried to sue linux users for the crime of not using windows is "one of the most lenient?" Really?
TacoPoweredHelicopter
Yes.
Remmon1
Don't forget monopolistic practices. We don't have a near monoculture in the desktop PC space because Windows is better. We have one because Microsoft spent a lot of money crushing the competition and paying schools and governments to make their software the (incompatible with everyone else) standard.
RoutemasterFlash
Right, but is that really something that's badly affecting the poorest countries?
LostCaterpillar
Let's be fair. It's not "Microsoft" that paid schools to throw out everything else, it's the Gates Foundation that conditioned its grants on running nothing but MS products. You want $50,000 dollars for your charter school? Sure, you just need to throw out the $200,000 you have invested in computer labs throughout your whole district, but we'll throw in $10,000 for each member of the school board personally if you vote "Yes."