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Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

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Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#81

Post by kaoD »

foota wrote: post #53
dvtv75 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It always bothers me when those who worship someone for his wealth dismiss those who dislike that same someone for his actions simply as a matter of envy.

I would argue that many people are envious of his ability to succeed rather than his wealth.

I'm envious, but in a good way. I think there are good things to take from him, even from his so-called evilness. I'd like to be a bit more like him in many ways.

On the other hand, his business choices still frustrate me as an engineer, but I understand we just had opposing goals. I don't agree with a lot of what he and his company did.

Disregarding opinions as envy is more often than not a case of not putting yourself in other's shoes. Oversimplification is always wrong.

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#82

Post by eru »

TheLogothete wrote: post #67
eru wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think so?

Because your money would not be spent efficiently.

I don't get it. If you are looking for pure efficiency, most people on here are much better working in IT and giving money to efficient charities.

If by personal efforts you mean helping out in a soup kitchen or flying to Detroit to help struggling kids---that's pretty inefficient.

Or did you mean something else?

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#83

Post by bobcostas55 »

muntac wrote: post #20

The size of the Gates Foundation is only impressive if you believe public policy should be disproportionately influenced by the whims of a few rich individuals. Philanthropists may not be motivated by profit like lobbyists, but that doesn't mean they understand the needs of the people any better. For issues related to relatively concrete sciences like medicine this matters less. But in areas such as education for exa…

>McGoey (along with many others) is sharply critical of this movement. She cites studies that show that charter schools have performed no better or worse than traditional public schools

Oh come on now.

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#84

Post by zurn »

I was expecting to see a comparison to public sector development programs in countries with bigger government.

For example USA does only 0.22% of GNI in foreign aid compared to the 0.7% target and 0.3-0.5% realized in its cohort of industrialized countries. (http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/press/07.htm)

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#85

Post by sametmax »

adventured wrote: post #36
visarga wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, he is giving back the money he took, and then more. That also buys him a lot of forgiveness.

Gates didn't take his wealth, he created it and earned it. Having a monopoly isn't illegal in the US. Making billions of dollars with a monopoly is not illegal in the US. The abuses in the market that Microsoft was found guilty of, they were punished for. What else are you asking for exactly? Gates doesn't need any forgiveness. His former company's wrongs have already been accounted for - a long time ago - through an…

No but corruption is illegal. Stealing is illegal.

And many things he did while legal, were highly immoral, such as: lying, cheating, investing capital in weapon makers and companies doing the opposite of what he is defending now, tax optimization, heavy lobying, retaining a huge part of capital and not letting it flows in the economy, abusing monopoly, patent trolls (and other kind of extorsions), censorship, helping dictatures, etc.

He earned a lot of money doing so, and the cumulated consequences of those are huge. The fact that people are so quick to forgive and forget those prove that not only he got top noch PR people, but that people are ready to accept anything with a good PR.

Sometimes I wonder if humanity deserve freedom, because it seems it's wired to go in the exact opposite direction and love to allow bad people to shine. Democracy is a long term process, not a 5 minutes vote. It requires you to not allow those persons to mess with the system, then get your blessing years later.

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#86

Post by sametmax »

dharmon wrote: post #5

If you put aside the "M$ was evil and he is just atoning" arguments, Gates is a huge inspiration, at least for me. This guy finds problems that he's passionate about and attacks them with such ferocity that it is truly awe inspiring. I'm mildly embarrassed to admit it, but he was my childhood hero through the 90's. Even later when everyone thought Jobs was the bee's knees, I wanted to be as effective as Gates.

And that's a big problem: you are willing to ignore 30 years of bad behavior because now he changed is marketting strategy.

Even if he is doing good now (debatable, but for the sake of argument let's say he is), it's a good forget the past. As a society, we need to remember, and we need to stand against it, not praise a bad guy as soon as he start not acting bad.

If (and it's a big if), he is doing good right now, it's just normal. It's what he was supposed to be doing from the begining. There is nothing special here, except somebody less misbehaving.

It's like when a pop star stops coke. He/she get praises. What the heck ? Most people just don't do coke. You stop ? Good for you. Now let me read actual news.

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#87

Post by sametmax »

peteretep wrote: post #50
bcook wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if Microsoft was evil, Gates is still an inspiration to me.

Because Microsoft was evil, Gates is an inspiration to me.

Because my aunt stopped beating his child after 15 years and started to work in a dog shelter, she is an inspiration to me ?

Err... no.

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#88

Post by sametmax »

Don't you find very suspicous that since the past year, we get regularly those stories comming up in reddit, imgur, hacker news, etc ?

Think about it: there are a ton of nice people doing nice things around. Even tech people. But you hear only about Bill.

The Gate Foundation existed for a long time. It actually paid my bills 7 years ago (wasting half of the money before reaching me, BTW), and we didn't have this incredible "yeah, best man ever" crazy minset going around.

It smells a lot like well done PR, with a lot of money behind to give a better image of the man, targetting social networks by subtils channels.

And if you need PR and pays to much for it, you probably DON'T deserve the praises.

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#89

Post by Crito »

WalterBright wrote: post #74
dvtv75 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It always bothers me when those who worship someone for his wealth dismiss those who dislike that same someone for his actions simply as a matter of envy.

I gave reasons and even a book reference. It really is a good read and worth while.

> This book says that you are envious.

No.

Re: Bill Gates' Philanthropic Impact Put in Perspective

#90

Post by mcguire »

philliphaydon wrote: post #42
prodigal_erik wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we put aside that the money isn't his, he kneecapped better products with such ferocity that a generation later our industry is still struggling to make up for the lost progress.

The FDA, CDC, American Government, and Patent System, have all crippled progress far more than Bill Gates or Microsoft ever did.

That he is not literally Hitler is a pretty damning complement.

(CDC? Really?)

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