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Gates buys thousands of ibooks! (or at least helps support them)

flyfish29

flyfish29

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Feb 4, 2003
2,175
4
New HAMpshire
:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

If you don't believe me check out the pic below and the link.

http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/maine/

Crazy world huh! And to think I was ripping Bill the Bully just the other day for his unethical business practices...this makes me rethink at least a litte of what I said. :D
 

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flyfish29 said:
This makes me rethink at least a litte of what I said. :D
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He is just one of those great guys.

He could fund a small country with the amount of donations he puts out.
 
powerbook4me said:
He is just one of those great guys.
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Let's not get carried away now. Soon, we'll have someone nominating him for Time's Man of the Year, and then I just have to hang myself.

He could fund a small country with the amount of donations he puts out.
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He could throw even more out without batting an eye. I have a hard time taking it seriously when people are lauded for chump change proportional donations. A quarter from a homeless man is the same gesture as a million from Gates.
 
thatwendigo said:
He could throw even more out without batting an eye. I have a hard time taking it seriously when people are lauded for chump change proportional donations. A quarter from a homeless man is the same gesture as a million from Gates.
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And that quarter from that homeless man is not a great deed?

Come on now... :rolleyes:
 
thatwendigo said:
A quarter from a homeless man is the same gesture as a million from Gates.
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Actually I think if you cruch the numbers which I tried to do a couple of times the percentages work out to a penny donation from a middle class income family! which of course in my mind is not a great deed...especially considering so many people have lost their jobs due to M$'s unethical business practices. :mad:
 
powerbook4me said:
And that quarter from that homeless man is not a great deed?

Come on now... :rolleyes:
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You're right, my comparison sucked. That quarter, with a little searching for change, will get the homeless man a cheap meal at McDonalds. A million dollars is so tiny that Gates would never notice it if it were gone.

That is what I was trying to say. Microsoft or Gates giving a paltry million is a shallow PR gesture, not a genuine one.
 
thatwendigo said:
That is what I was trying to say. Microsoft or Gates giving a paltry million is a shallow PR gesture, not a genuine one.
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100's of millions.......

And no, its not a PR gesture.
 
flyfish29 said:
:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

If you don't believe me check out the pic below and the link.

http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/maine/

Crazy world huh! And to think I was ripping Bill the Bully just the other day for his unethical business practices...this makes me rethink at least a litte of what I said. :D
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I've always know there to be a lot of stupid people in the world, but even I didn't think Billy Boy was that stupid.
 
MS may suck, but Gates is not a bad guy. He gives away hundreds and hundreds of millions. Yes, he's worth ~$50 billion, but remember, he doesn't exactly have that lying around in cash. His worth is almost all due to MS stock. In terms of cash, he's giving away a significant portion.

Also, say what you want about how much it is to him - it's a lot of money for the people it's helping. There was an article in the Times a few weeks ago about the Gates Foundation and the work it does. Gates helps a *lot* of very needy people.
 
powerbook4me said:
And no, its not a PR gesture.
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You don't know that any more than I know that it is. Just call it your opinion and be done with it.

Also, to the later poster... So what? I'm a poor college student, and yet I manage to help raise proportionally far more of my personal worth than Gates does for those who are in even greater need than I am. When I was in highschool, I participated in events that would bring in over $1000 a night for local charities, food banks, shelters, and other tangible, real needs.

At the time, I was worth less than $10,000 a year, yet I gave out of my own pocket on every occasion.
 
You don't know that any more than I know that it is. Just call it your opinion and be done with it.
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Go check out where Mr. Gate's money is going when he passes away. Then you tell me why he would do that "for good PR"

thatwendigo said:
When I was in highschool, I participated in events that would bring in over $1000 a night for local charities, food banks, shelters, and other tangible, real needs.

At the time, I was worth less than $10,000 a year, yet I gave out of my own pocket on every occasion.
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So those people who helped you out(the people who actually gave their money those nights you made $1,000) that only gave a little bit: Are they not as good because they only paid a little bit to help your events?
 
It is funny, but it doesn't sound like Bill's $$$ are going towards Apples, it sounds like it is more of a general fund.



Microsoft is bad, they are an evil monopoly, that doesn't make Bill Gates a bad person. He could be a bad person, but I don't think he is. The same applies to M$ employees, they work for m$, that doesn't make them bad people.



[edit: Read carefully, not all of it is from Gates.....]
 
We had word that the Gates Foundation was going to pay for new computers at our university. Everything was all set and the money was about to be sent. Then they learned that we had ordered Macs. They cancelled their donation and we had to scramble to find the money to pay for our order from other sources. I am now convinced that the primary motivation for computer donations to schools is to make sure Macs do not become a threat to Microsoft again.
 
Well don't forget that Macs also run VPC and Office, two of the more expensive products from Microsoft. What's prolly not said is that each laptop will carry MS Office and VPC. More money than if it was a regular PC with Windows and Office.
 
this is a shot in the dark but an earlier poster mentioned gates giving significantly from his pocket rather than from the stocks.
i don't know a ton about the stock market, but for charity or otherwise if gates suddenly liquidated a chunk of his stock options it would be noticed and the stock would drop...so it might be a business decision to keep that worth separate in terms of donations.
*not defending him, just offering up the possibility that he's covering his interests*
 
powerbook4me said:
And hitler

and einstein....and a lot of other people :p
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Time almost made Bin Laden man of the year, but a large portion of their subscribers threatened to cancel their subscriptions.
 
Gates did not go to the Apple Store and buy a bunch of iBooks. Through his incredibly generous Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave a lot of money to increase technology in Maine's schools. Maine decided to give 7th/8th graders iBooks.

Don't bash the man, his company may suck, but he gives away millions each year to help others.
 
powerbook4me said:
Go check out where Mr. Gate's money is going when he passes away. Then you tell me why he would do that "for good PR"
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Simple... He's the kind of egomaniac who wants to be remembered fondly, so he takes the ill-gotten goods of his life and tries to be seen in another light once he's passed on and it doesn't do him any good anymore.

So those people who helped you out(the people who actually gave their money those nights you made $1,000) that only gave a little bit: Are they not as good because they only paid a little bit to help your events?
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Yes. I'll bite the bullet.

They didn't give as much as I did, proportionally, so I was being more charitable than they were.

cait-sith said:
why not pick on the ikea ceo? he's got more cash than gates.
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Does he make a pretense of being charitable? If so, then I have the same problem with him that I do with Gates.
 
cait-sith said:
why not pick on the ikea ceo? he's got more cash than gates.
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It was the IKEA founder, not the CEO, and he was never richer than gates. THat was an error by a swedish mag that overestimated how the company's worth related to Ingvar's own worth. Here is Forbes follow-up article about it Article.
 
Gates Foundation

Bill's company may suck, but he is putting a lot of his personal proceeds to good work:

http://gatesfoundation.org/AboutUs/

You'll notice his father and wife are both heavily involved.

As for Jobs... he may have a $1 salary... but he has a HUGE stock option package:

http://www.macnn.com/news/23806

To best illustrate the point do a google search for bill gates charity vs steve jobs charity:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=bill+gates+charity&btnG=Google+Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=steve+jobs+charity&btnG=Google+Search

Not much more to say really.

:rolleyes:
 
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