Bill Gates at it again!!!

[emw]

Note that the donation is from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, not from Bill himself. Granted that the foundation was created by Bill, but it is run by his father. The assets used by the foundation do not come entirely from Bill himself, but also include donations from outside sources.

As a note, the foundation had assets at the end of 2003 totaling nearly $27 BILLION. So, while a $42.6 million dollar donation is nice, it is less than .2% of the Foundation's assets, which are separate from Bill's.

 

[gwangung]

Note that the donation is from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, not from Bill himself. Granted that the foundation was created by Bill, but it is run by his father. The assets used by the foundation do not come entirely from Bill himself, but also include donations from outside sources.

This is incorrect.

All funds came initially from Microsoft stock, donated by Trey Gates himself, which were then sold to form the asset base of short term bonds and other stock which are used to fund operations.

 

[wide]

When you say he is going to give 30 million USD to each child and the rest to charity, does it include his 30,000,000,000 USD stake in Microsoft?

Anyway, I don't think he's going to give that much of his money to charity. If I were one of his kids, I would be pissed off to get 30 million out of 60 billion (he'll be worth at least that much when he dies, probably over 100 billion by then).

 

[jaromski]

I think that he is a shrewed business man. Willing to do anything in order to secure his status. Now he is looking to his and his children's future. Since he is nearing 60, he realizes his mortality. Hopes to secure a better eternal life. Bill will need to do more than just giving money away. There has to be an actual relationship with God.

i think you are presupposing the existence of god on this one. why can't you just be good for goodness sake? you know like santa claus. i guess it makes life more interesting to have some big mystical force that tallies the fall of every sparrow but it seems hollow to me. why bother persisting in delusion if you can help it?

i do agree with you that he is trying to make up for a serious karmic deficit he has acrued his life ****ing people over. but i don't agree that god will make everything right in the afterlife. i seriously think billg is scared of being forgotten. everybody is fearful of being forgotten. i mean how long after you die will people remember you? that is the true power, money is irrelevant. god is irrelevant. he wipes his ass with $50 million, money is just the vehicle for him to have people remember him. for him to have a legacy other than the windows/office domination game.

but i think all humans are just incredibly scared of death because you get blotted out, that's it, see how long you last in the minds of the living...

jaromski

 

[FelixDerKater]

It is good that he is putting money to good use.

 

[virividox]

i dont think bill is just doing it for image and pr or for religious reasons i think hes genuinely interested and helping those less fortunate, but whatever reason he is doing it for, at least somone gets a benefit

 

[1macker1]

Can you name me a big business that plays "fair"? I'd like to know the name of this company and send them a xmas card.

right, i guess i'd feel better if he, instead of giving a portion of his wealth to be charitable, would play "fair" in gathering those wealth and and perhaps those who got "ripped off" could have been more charitable themselves?

 

[wdlove]

but i think all humans are just incredibly scared of death because you get blotted out, that's it, see how long you last in the minds of the living...

jaromski

I don't fear death. Death is a part of life. Having faith in God makes it all so much easier.

 

[Colonel Panik]

Doesn't it come out of the tax he pays? You contribute to charity and then get a rebate on that donation?


I think that he's a smelly, cheap, unethical, bullying, unimaginative, flukey, lawbreaking SOB. (And this is not just name-calling. If you bother to find out, you will see that he is all this and worse.)

He has lowered the quality of many people's lives and used his ill-gotten gains to promote his own greed. Giving money doesn't make up for who he is, and doesn't make him a better man, especially when he hasn't earned that money honestly.

Sad sad sad.

 

[emw]

This is incorrect.

All funds came initially from Microsoft stock, donated by Trey Gates himself, which were then sold to form the asset base of short term bonds and other stock which are used to fund operations.

So on the Foundations financial reports, where they list "donations" as a source of income, those all come from Gates himself? If true, then that's great.

 

[Les Kern]

He has lowered the quality of many people's lives and used his ill-gotten gains to promote his own greed. Sad sad sad.

Hmm. Say that to the tens of thousands who live longer because of his charity. I don't think they care that you were an inconvenienced Windows user. Actually, I'm finding it difficult to understand why so much anger. I wouldn't take any PC user's anti-Mac comments so damned seriously. Bad for your health. And it isn't Gates who is "sad, sad, sad".
Peace.

 

[jaromski]

Having faith in God makes it all so much easier.

precisely. that was my whole argument.

jaromski

 

[zv470]

good for him, now make office open source...

I for one wouldn't want Office going open source... I liken it to looking through a gran-persons undie draw. Some things are not meant to be seen.

 

[Colonel Panik]

Hmm. Say that to the tens of thousands who live longer because of his charity. I don't think they care that you were an inconvenienced Windows user. Actually, I'm finding it difficult to understand why so much anger. I wouldn't take any PC user's anti-Mac comments so damned seriously. Bad for your health. And it isn't Gates who is "sad, sad, sad".
Peace.

Ah, never mind me. Just some pre-Xmas insomniac angst.

On a personal level I wish him well -- any money which finds its way from big business toward good deserves praise. Just think of my comments above as applying to his business persona. There are insider comments though, that the B&M Gates Foundation was set up in with a "calculated methodology" to "rehabilitate his image". But I'll say no more on that.
Peace.

 

[MikeTheC]

Of course, the big problem I have with BillG, et al, is that everything he does seems to just draw more people into the Windows world. He can't make a donation that somehow doesn't contribute to more people using Windows. Either there's a certain amount of goodwill and then people feel obligated to support Microsoft because of Bill's "efforts", or he gets computers donated or donates money for computers, all of which are going to be PCs running Windows.

This dude's self-serving nature knows no bounds.

Yeech...

 

[MikeTheC]

Hmm. Say that to the tens of thousands who live longer because of his charity. I don't think they care that you were an inconvenienced Windows user. Actually, I'm finding it difficult to understand why so much anger. I wouldn't take any PC user's anti-Mac comments so damned seriously. Bad for your health. And it isn't Gates who is "sad, sad, sad".
Peace.

I can only speak with certainty about myself, but I suspect most people's distaste or hatred of BillG's charitable actions are an outgrowth of our disgust for his use of charity as a furtherance of his own monopoly power.

Anyone here remember Hitler and the financial recovery he helped put Germany through during the late 30s and early 40s? Remember all the jobs he helped create for the German people and the absolute, abject poverty he got them out of? The schools he was responsible for getting built to educate the children? The focus and determination he generated that rebuilt the country, it's economy and it's infrastructure? While it can hardly be argued that those specific things, within their own exclusive frame of reference were "bad", consider how he made those things happen, and when they happened, consider what he did with the resources he created.

Now, is Bill an anti-semetic, bigoted, genocidal maniac? Of course not. And I'm not even vaguely trying to suggest that he is. But let's not paint angel's wings and a halo on him, either.

Besides, this is a Mac board. I cannot believe there are people here who would want to willingly side with thsi man.

 

[gwangung]

I can only speak with certainty about myself, but I suspect most people's distaste or hatred of BillG's charitable actions are an outgrowth of our disgust for his use of charity as a furtherance of his own monopoly power.

Then you, like them, are ignorant.

How is giving to 3rd World AIDS and vaccination power furthering his monopoly power? We're talking biological vaccines here, not computer vaccines....

All this show is the rank jealousy most people have for those more fortunate than they...

 

[billyboy]

If Bill gates wants to change the world he should use all his money sending lucky people from the US and Europe to work in hell on earth in India or Africa, Asia for a few months. That way a lot of lot of people get to see how 70% of the world survive and then share their first hand experiences when they get back home. But that is too obvious a way to change the world - and after spending 18 months in Africa where my perspective on life was ever so slightly altered, it took maybe 15 years for me to want to buy my first computer, which wouldnt be very useful in Bill Gates' overall plan.

 

[snkTab]

Wasn't there some scandal awhile back though about Bill using his charity contributions as a bargaining chip for favourable Microsoft rights, in India I think it was?

Let's not forgot that Microsoft way to end the anti-trust lawsuit.... donate M$ computers to schools. Except that this would increase M$'s market shares (lowering Apples) in education and thus anti-trust.

So tricky and subtle...

 

[wdlove]

Let's not forgot that Microsoft way to end the anti-trust lawsuit.... donate M$ computers to schools. Except that this would increase M$'s market shares (lowering Apples) in education and thus anti-trust.

So tricky and subtle...

IMHO, now that he is rich its his money and can do with it whatever he likes. Of course he's going to promote his own company. It's his ego that has brought him to his current money and power.

 

[clayton]

Hello all,

Hook me up with some server space and I have the vid for you. I'm not sure if there are any out there but I recorded it on dvd and ripped it onto my computer.

Peace,
Clayton

 

[Photorun]

Then you, like them, are ignorant.

How is giving to 3rd World AIDS and vaccination power furthering his monopoly power? We're talking biological vaccines here, not computer vaccines....

All this show is the rank jealousy most people have for those more fortunate than they...

Yes but how much money does he tithe vs. his income, you'll find it's obscenely low. This guy could fund the ISS, the entire tsunami clean up, and buy South America and still have enough money to buy up half the US companies. Back when there was the Carnegies, the Rockafellers, and other rich families made so by the Industrial Revolution those families would give 10% of their wealth to charities (mostly the arts). If you look at the dollar amounds Bill gives, it's a fraction of 1% of his total income, that's a joke, why does anybody need 100 billion dollars? In an interview once this soulless Satan mofo showed his true colors, when speaking about the majority of his wealth he was asked what he'd do with it, he answered "oh I'll probably leave it in my will for my kids." That's it, no trying to help causes while he's alive, he's only concerned about himself and his kids. Hell, his wife according to my friend's boyfriend, who worked IT at his huge ridiculous often buggy crashy mansion doesn't even sleep in the same bed, would you? She married him not for looks or brains, maybe she's cut off. Finally I only make about $50K a year, of which I give OVER 10%, which is nothing, NOTHING, a drop in the bucket. Meanwhile this soulless prick's even 5% would be more than the GNP of over 70% of the countries on the planet. He's a prick because he IS a cheap prick, not because we're jealous, we just know a scumbag for the colors he shows when we see one.

 

[Photorun]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/conditions/12/13/gates.malaria.grant.ap/index.html

from the thread title you may think this is a bill bashing thread. but as much as this guy is abused, i think we should acknowledge all the good he does. sure what he may have done in the past is seen as questionable, and maybe his company right now isnt exactly promoting the most pro-competition practices out there

but HE does give a lot to charity!!! so lets hear it for him

He doesn't give money, his foundation does, and he barely puts any of his money into his foundation, he's a worthless waste of carbon molecules, which is insultive to carbon everywhere.

 

[salmon]

Seriously, without sounding too "religious", Gates lives by the "true" christian ideal that oh so many so-called christians only pay lip-service to... help the least among us. He plans on giving ALL of his money away except for 30 million to each child. Fair enough... and very noble.

Wouldn't the true Christian ideal consist of giving it all away NOW?

 

[wdlove]

Wouldn't the true Christian ideal consist of giving it all away NOW?

No, we are expected to give at least 10%. It is to be with Prayerful consideration the amount given. God prefers a cheerful giver. We are to help with spreading his word and take care of the less fortunate.