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See "In Search of Stupidity" by Chapman.
P.S. I was in the industry throughout that era, and competed directly against Microsoft in programming languages.
Website needs some work for mobile view: http://i.imgur.com/vlwi2hh.jpg
Before you lionize a convicted monopolist ... 1) The USA tax code encourages wealthy people to create foundations. The money in the foundation is still controlled by them and has tax benefits. 2) In other countries, wealthy people are taxed to provide social services like education and healthcare. In the USA, they're not - the capital gains rate of 15% is basically a round-off error compared to 90% last century. 3) F…
Especially when the only thing his company was ever found guilty of was bundling a web browser with the OS...
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.
Before you lionize a convicted monopolist ... 1) The USA tax code encourages wealthy people to create foundations. The money in the foundation is still controlled by them and has tax benefits. 2) In other countries, wealthy people are taxed to provide social services like education and healthcare. In the USA, they're not - the capital gains rate of 15% is basically a round-off error compared to 90% last century. 3) F…
The former is commendable, indicating that a company has developed a product so useful that it becomes so widely adopted as to become a monopoly. Nobody is forced to buy the product - people just find it so useful that the it dominates in the marketplace. And there is nothing preventing the rise of a competitor other than the monopolist's success. Got enough smarts and money to beat them? Then go for it.
That's quite different than when a company uses regulatory capture to get regulations passed that maintain their monopoly and block competitors.
Before you lionize a convicted monopolist ... 1) The USA tax code encourages wealthy people to create foundations. The money in the foundation is still controlled by them and has tax benefits. 2) In other countries, wealthy people are taxed to provide social services like education and healthcare. In the USA, they're not - the capital gains rate of 15% is basically a round-off error compared to 90% last century. 3) F…
Before you lionize a convicted monopolist ... 1) The USA tax code encourages wealthy people to create foundations. The money in the foundation is still controlled by them and has tax benefits. 2) In other countries, wealthy people are taxed to provide social services like education and healthcare. In the USA, they're not - the capital gains rate of 15% is basically a round-off error compared to 90% last century. 3) F…
People fail to understand the difference between innovation driven monopoly and government enforced monopoly. The former is commendable, indicating that a company has developed a product so useful that it becomes so widely adopted as to become a monopoly. Nobody is forced to buy the product - people just find it so useful that the it dominates in the marketplace. And there is nothing preventing the rise of a competit…
Before you lionize a convicted monopolist ... 1) The USA tax code encourages wealthy people to create foundations. The money in the foundation is still controlled by them and has tax benefits. 2) In other countries, wealthy people are taxed to provide social services like education and healthcare. In the USA, they're not - the capital gains rate of 15% is basically a round-off error compared to 90% last century. 3) F…
"Convicted monopolist" really doesn't have much of a ring to it. Especially when the only thing his company was ever found guilty of was bundling a web browser with the OS...
Hey there, data geeks! I am doing research on the rise of social entrepreneurship and got sidetracked by what a badass Bill Gates is. I found out that his foundation is 4x larger than the next largest private foundation in the US. And if you add up the wealth pledged as a part of The Giving Pledge it is 10x larger than that. I compiled The Giving Pledge data on my own by researching net worths of each pledgee. Planni…
However, we need to see more data on the impact of the Giving Pledge, and whether it has led to more giving. In your chart, the assumption is that this money is more than would have been given without the Pledge. Also, the comparison to amount pledged (most of which will eventually make its way into foundations that will spread the money on their own time schedules) with the amount donated in 2014 is not a telling comparison.
Consider, for example, my billionaire mother. Before she died, a couple of years ago, we discussed whether she should be joining The Giving Pledge. She decided she didn't want to be seen in the company of billionaires who had pledged to give away only 50% of their money. "Why would a billionaire want to keep half of their money, anyway? What could someone possibly do, personally, with half a billion dollars? I don't want to join a group like that!"
To understand the impact of The Giving Pledge we'd need to know how much would have been given without the pledge? Does the Pledge provide peer pressure to give away more than they would have otherwise given? Or does this pledge lead to less giving, because it makes billionaires feel that it's morally OK to give away just 50%? Do you have the comparison data to answer these questions?
https://theintercept.com/2015/11/25/how-the-gates-foundation...