Just hear me out what if he gives it to me.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates says that most of his $200bn (£150bn) fortune will be spent on improving health and education services in Africa over the next 20 years.
The 69-year-old said that “by unleashing human potential through health and education, every country in Africa should be on a path to prosperity”.
Speaking in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, he also urged Africa’s young innovators to think about how to build Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve healthcare on the continent.
Gates announced last month that he would give away 99% of his vast fortune by 2045, by when his foundation planned to end its operations.
So no, he’s not giving it away in traditional sense. It’s still directed spending according to what he believes is correct. Over 20 years. So same old but with AI.
It’s in a trust. That’s now how wills and stuff work. The whole point of paying attorneys and shit is for this kind of stuff. They are getting paid handsomely to make sure it happens. No reason to get disbarred for money that will be seized if you’re caught.
Has anyone else spent that kinda money effectively ? If I was billionaire looking to donate my wealth I’d probably donate it to Gates fund.
Not $200B no. Here’s the list of total dollars, but no data on effectiveness. Notice Bill is already on this list while alive in the #2 spot:
China has, with different strings attached.
As for individuals or NGOs, I don’t know. That said, as GiveDirectly have shown, it’s not complicated to spend effectively if you don’t want to exercise significant control. All you have to do is give the money directly to poor people. That’s about it. They will circulate it and recirculate it in the local economy, multiplying the effects.
Or you could get China to build the equivalent of a fifth of the B&R infrastructure on your dime without the strings attached. Trains, roads, ports, power generation, etc.
Or if you wanted to help curb the ability of someone else accumulating as much as you did, establish funds for worker co-op startup firms, unions and socialist politicians’ campaigns.
Pretty sure the work he’s done on helping to eradicate malaria, HIV and tuberculosis is more effective than giving them cash.
When has China done that?
Since 2013 or so with the Belt and Road Initiative.
doesn’t that just put poor countries into debt with China?
not really the same at all. sounds pretty neoliberal if you ask me
So. No way he’s living to 2045. After he dies I bet someone just changes everything. This won’t happen. Even in the hamstring version he has written up at the moment.
His PR company doing the rehab work on his public image is top notch, but they need some new material. This one is such a rerun.
Anything to not help poor people in your own country, right Bill? His state has so many poor and homeless folks and he just doesn’t care.
Not that Africa doesn’t - he’s got enough money that he could do both, though.
And forcing the African nations into vaccine colonization, aka making them buy only USA backed one that he advocated to be patented asap
Last I’ve checked Gates donated $60B to his foundation and now the foundation controls $90B. They got so many other donations Gates now controls more money then before.
Yeah, real sacrifice Bill…
You make it sound like this is a money making scheme but he’s still out about $170 billion compared to other billionaires who pat themselves on the back for a $10k donation here and there or try to use their money to destroy democracy so they can be even more obscenely rich and powerful. $200 billion will go a long way in a developing continent.
Which still has no material impact on his well being and keeps most people distracted from his behaviours from all kinds of inappropriate conduct at Microsoft to his efforts to rehabilitate Epstein after his first conviction, with a bunch of economic crimes and things that should be economic crimes in the middle.
Not to mention, foundations like that are a frequent tax dodge, and is also reputation laundering.
Bill is basically a modern Carnegie. Sure he gives a shit load of money away, but also goes around paying people to fuck over anyone for a buck.
It’s like playing fable, going to a vendor and buying all their gems only to sell it back at an inflated price (rinse and repeat, you’ll be rich.)
Then going and fucking over the entire town to get rental properties.
Then going to the temple of light and paying to change your alignment.
You’ve still got all the properties and you’re still making money hand over fist but everyone thinks you’re some sort of hero.
He’s doing this to distance himself from Epstein, and him being ruthless business in the 80s and 90s. Even his vaccine initiative has a ulterior motive, look up vaccine colonization and gates.
That might be part of it.
But it’s hardly all of it. Gates is, and was, an evil man.
it was always a money laundering scheme.
Nothing any billionaire does will ever have any material impact on them financially.
Whether or not billionaires should exist on the first place is a separate topic that I’m guessing we both agree on. But they exist nonetheless, and they certainly have a material impact on the world, so all that leaves you with is comparing them against their peers to get a better idea of how truly greedy the worst of them are.
You make it sound like he actually lost some money. It’s all just for show. It’s not like he wanted to buy something but decided to donate money instead. He can still afford absolutely everything he could even want. He’s not poorer in any meaningful way. The money his foundation has gives him power. Power to influence governments and policy (like he did with common core). His foundation has now more money than he donated so he has more power than before. It’s a PR stunt.
surely lemmy will praise this right? or are we blinded by hate?
- What could it possibly matter to you, personally, if people praise a billionaire?
- No. Absolutely not, every time, no. You don’t get to be a billionaire by any legitimate means (note I did not say legal, this is a separate matter). That’s money that should’ve been collected into taxes, paid into systems to help the American people, and if properly supported, donated to Africa through the appropriate institutions.
You don’t just get to be a billionaire and then donate BILLIONS at the end of your life to wash away your indiscretions. Fuck him and every other billionaire.
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It matters because we are no longer alone. We are not some small collective of 50 people in a rural town with no access to the outside world. We must act as one. Pretending like one person can go off and do whatever they want and it won’t effect the whole is how we get people like Trump. We must all act for the greater benefit of humanity, and if you aren’t praising efforts that help achieve that goal, I have to wonder why.
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You aren’t wrong, but it doesn’t matter now, does it? Work on tax codes if that is your passion, but maligning the mistakes of previous generations and hindering current efforts doesn’t help anyone. The money is gone. It isn’t coming back. It may as well go to a good cause while we try to find a way to make sure it doesn’t continue to happen.
Hating someone because they are a billionaire is the same as loving one for being a billionaire. It doesn’t matter how much money a person has or doesn’t have. What matters is their actions. I’ll be the first to put an oligarch against the wall, but I don’t need it to be a billionaire. I just need them to be harming the world. I will concede that there are very few (read: nearly none) with that much money that do anything proper with it. Its pretty much all bad. But, in this case, we have on that is giving a portion away that can truly make a beneficial difference, and we should praise efforts like that so that they might continue. What’s the next billionaire gonna do when they try to give their money away and see that “All Gates got was vitriol and death wishes.” We don’t have to praise the billionaire directly, but I think we should agree that the money finally leaving the 1% to help the remaining 99% is a good step.
We must act as one.
I get that the point you’re trying to make is something about unity, but it’s weird to say that. That’s a weird thing to say.
Pretending like one person can go off and do whatever they want and it won’t effect the whole is how we get people like Trump.
This is my exact argument against billionaires. They are acting alone, making these sweeping decisions by themselves.
The money is gone. It isn’t coming back.
Disagree. It’s never too late to get the money back, you just need politicians that are willing to take the initiative to go after it. Currently I don’t see any, so I continue to say things that I hope will help focus people and bring attention to continue advocating for these policies.
I will concede that there are very few (read: nearly none)
K. Why we arguing? No good billionaires.
we should praise efforts like that so that they might continue. What’s the next billionaire gonna do when they try to give their money away and see that “All Gates got was vitriol and death wishes.”
Charity is not something you do for praise. I’m sorry the billionaires are so thin-skinned my insults would hurt them.
but I think we should agree that the money finally leaving the 1% to help the remaining 99% is a good step.
If I meet you on the street and beat you up and steal your wallet, then donate it to a local homeless shelter, are you gonna be mad at me? It was a good cause, bro, why you mad? It’s in the hands of people who need it more now. I admit the analogy is a bit strained, but that’s only because the means by which the billionaire class have gotten and maintained their wealth is more obtuse. Obscuring those means is how they continue to operate as they do.
I don’t want to argue with you, I feel like your heart is in the right place and you are coming from a place of unity. But billionaires stand so far outside any sort of class consciousness with the likes of us. There is no point, no good that comes from defending billionaires for anything they do, they should not exist and the longer they continue to the more of a blight on the rest of humanity and the literal ecosystem of the world is at risk.
See so many other responses in this topic about how this is just PR, the money is being used to push AI solutions, the amount of wealth spent not really leaving Gates’ control because it’s being shuffled through different orgs, etc.
I get that the point you’re trying to make is something about unity, but it’s weird to say that. That’s a weird thing to say.
It shouldn’t be. It should be the rallying cry of the last 50 years. It’s like you are saying that water tastes funny.
This is my exact argument against billionaires. They are acting alone, making these sweeping decisions by themselves.
Yeah, I know, but telling them to stop when they do something good isn’t going to stop them from doing something bad. We have to make the best out of a bad situation until we can make the bad situation better.
Disagree. It’s never too late to get the money back, you just need politicians that are willing to take the initiative to go after it. Currently I don’t see any, so I continue to say things that I hope will help focus people and bring attention to continue advocating for these policies.
I’m all for updating policies and making sure the future is brighter than the past, but there is a statute of limitations. We can’t just reach back as far as we want in time and start prosecuting based on what we hope will be future regulations. The money is gone. Don’t worry, they keep printing more of it, though.
Charity is not something you do for praise. I’m sorry the billionaires are so thin-skinned my insults would hurt them.
Billionaires and celebrities almost all have some form of narcism. They love the attention. Again, we have to make the best of a bad situation. Stroke their ego for doing good, and maybe they’ll do more of it. If every time a billionaire did something shitty we just kept it out of the papers and lets the courts handle it, but then flooded the papers when a billionaire did something positive, I bet we’d see a change. Granted, I think thats a terrible idea, and the public should be made aware of the issues when they are relevant, but I also think we go a bit too far in over-publicizing the bad and under-publicizing the good.
If I meet you on the street and beat you up and steal your wallet, then donate it to a local homeless shelter, are you gonna be mad at me? It was a good cause, bro, why you mad?
If you beat me up and took my wallet 30 years ago, and then I saw you in Africa doing humanitarian work, yeah, I wouldn’t be mad. I’d say, “damn, it looks like they got it together. Good work.” I might even go over and make an act of forgiveness. I have a very hard time believing people can change, so when I see it, I do try to acknowledge it.
Or if they change for the wrong reason , or have ulterior motives which gates has in all his charity work
Again, we have to make the best of a bad situation.
This is a big thing on many fronts. We let perfect be the enemy of good and ultimately we end up with a movement that is not serious.
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It doesn’t matter how much good he does, some people will never forgive Windows 8.
With classic shell, Win 8.1 was surprisingly good. Definitely underrated.
I liked Windows 8 :(
Windows 8 was actually pretty decent and had some good improvements under the hood. It handled dual monitor setups waaay better than 7 ever did, I don’t know if people remember how rough the support was for a lot of these modern amenities we now take for granted.
In typical Microsoft fashion, 8’s biggest sin was simply not letting people customize the GUI to their workflows and forcing that damned full screen Start menu. Once they shrunk the tiles to create 10’s Start menu it became my favorite, so of course they trashed it for 11’s generic look. Been using KDE now and it’s near perfect.
I liked it better than Windows Me
And don’t even get me started on Vista
I thought Ballmer was CEO at that time?
Doesn’t matter, Bill Gates is guilty of every bad thing that Microsoft ever did and I even heard he modelled clippy after Jeffrey Epstein.
Just because he’s less of an asshole than Musk or Bezos doesn’t mean billionaires should exist.
You don’t get $200bn by paying appropriate taxes or wages. Donating most of his money is a good deed and it’s going to help a lot of people, but you just don’t get that much money without stepping on a lot of people too.
I’m not going to shit on him for doing something good with the money but I’m not going to praise him for having that much money in the first place either.Bill Gates has the best public relations machine money can buy.
- The Nation: Why Bill Gates’s Philanthropy Is a Problem
- Jacobin: Bill Gates’s Philanthropic Giving Is a Racket
- Adam Ruins Everything: Why Billionaire Philanthropy is Not So Selfless
- Citations Needed podcast:
- Episode 45: The Not-So-Benevolent Billionaire: Bill Gates and Western Media
- Episode 46: The Not-So-Benevolent Billionaire, Part II - Bill Gates in Africa
- News Brief: Big Pharma, Bill Gates Spin Against Generic Vaccines for Global South as Biden a No Show
- News Brief: #VaxLive is a PR Scam So Those Causing Vaccine Inequity Can Pose as Saviors of Global Poor
- Episode 146: Bill Gates, Bono and the Limits of World Bank and IMF-Approved Celebrity ‘Activism’
Stopped reading after the first one used his listed illiquid wealth (which probably includes a notable chunk of Microsoft stock that he can’t just dump on market).
That can still be used to leverage loans, and is still very much a form of power, just like his on hand cash is.
Aye no shit. Still doesn’t mean it’s liquid. Can’t get a loan if you don’t plan to pay it back.
No. This is cool. He’s still divorced because of Epstein though. He also had enough money stop the fascists. Bill will have a very gray spot in history.
But he isn’t using his money to stop fascism, he part of the problem. He’s just dumping his money ill gotten gained from the US to a countries where you can’t recoup the losses and still leave a favorable legacy behindm
