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Who else do you know who has given half their disposable income? Let's compare Gates giving with some other billionaires who aren't so unpopular on slashdot. Larry Ellison: According to this thru Ellison Medical Foundation, Larry is giving $100 million over 5 years for research on aging. That's pocket change for a guy worth $17 billion. Warren Buffet, weighing in at $40 billion, gives away $12 million per year, according to BusinessWeek. Again, pocket change, though Buffet says he plans to eventually give 99% of his money to his foundation.

Here's an old story from 2001 about silicon valley philanthropy. According to it, only David Packard (foundation gives $500m/year) is in the same class as Gates.

At the bottom of this you'll find a Nov 2005 table listing 18 Americans worth over $10 billion. Have any of them given as large a percentage as Gates? I can't find any evidence if they have. My conclusion: compared to billionaires or to ordinary folks, Gates have given away an extrordinary proportion of his net worth.

By the way, for those of you unfamiliar with entities like the Gates, Ellison, and Packard foundations, it works like this. You can give away whatever amount of your wealth you want in any given year, and that amount will be deducted from the income on which you are taxed. One way to give it away is to establish a 501C(3) charity, such as these foundations, and endow it with a big chunk of cash. The foundation is required by law to give away at least 5% of its net worth per year. It also needs to be independent of its endower, so it can't be used as a vehicle to manipulate or control e.g. Microsoft. The Gates foundation got a $20 billion block of Microsoft stock from Gates in the late '90s and immediately sold the MS stock for more conservative investments. I assume it continues to invest its endowment and to give away the requisite 5%, which this year tops $1.1 billion. I believe Gates' father directs the foundation. From what I have seen, the foundation has a special interest in eradicating diseases in the developing world; hence their interest in tuberculosis and malaria. But heck, why listen to me when you cand surf the foundation and read about its priorities.

> the Seattle-based foundation has an endowment of approximately $28.8 billion. (Thats from: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/AboutUs/ ) 28.8 billion. Buh-ill-eee-on. LARGE number. And even quite a healthy percentage of Gate's own personal fortune. He's worth about sixty billion right now.

The link doesn't actually say how much of that came from Bill himself. Nor how much of a tax break he got for whatever he did contribute.

I have a problem with the notion that a prick can get filthy rich by screwing everyone over, and then get sainted for giving part of his ill-gotten gains to charity. And arranging press releases to make sure everyone knows about it.

Unless you can honestly claim to give a larger percentage of your salary to charity than bill gates has, then I encourage you to please enjoy a hearty slice of shut the hell up.

God how I *do* hate to defend Bill Gates, but giving to charity is without a shred of a doubt where this man really shines:

the Seattle-based foundation has an endowment of approximately $28.8 billion.

(Thats from: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/AboutUs/ )

28.8 billion. Buh-ill-eee-on. LARGE number. And even quite a healthy percentage of Gate's own personal fortune. He's worth about sixty billion right now.

So, if you do not give near half of the worth of your total assets, I second the idea of you "enjoying a slice of shut the hell up".

But when you look at his wealth to scale, with *orders of magnitude* more fortune than even necessary to still be fabulously rich, what he does amounts to tossing pennies into the crowd.

2,880,000,000,000 pennies

Yes I would say that you are somewhat wrong (not that it means you're actually wrong, just that my opinion differs). AT least we see the world in very different ways.

Disclaimer: I use "environMentalistas" in a half-joking, half-loving & half-scorning manner - please do not be insulted if you actually are an environMentalista :) (yes I know three halves are 150% but then again most environMentalistas try to be larger than life).

Here's how I would look at it. The laptops introduce modern technology in an environmently friendly/friendlier way. They open up possibilites for increased cooperation and communication, an increased technological aptitude and extended education (both difficulty and width). It is very important that the laptops are F/OSS both because it acclimatizes the users to F/OSS and because it makes it much easier to actually dwelve into the inner workings of it for those so inclined.

Knowledge is power. Most of the poorer nations are well aware (and have been for at least the last ten years or so) of the importance of free trade and the abolishment or minimizing of import and export tariffs. These nations have actually influenced international policy on this although the EU and especially France is the big stumbeling block (the US has said it will remove it's agricultural subsidies and protections if the EU agrees to do it too - so no uninformed US bashing please). Many poorer african and american nations have made bilateral agreements with the US to great effect (somewhat derailed by the paranoia of Chavez and his ilk) since the EU/France seems to stubbornly cling to their farming practices. Hopefully France and other protectionist EU countries (and the US and the rest of the industrialised world for that matter) will start growing more useful things than food (biodiesel and other fuels) which should allow for drastic cuts in the direct and indirect subsidies (tariffs, price guarantees etc.) no matter what.

Greenhouse gases? I have hope that more and more of those who read science news etc. should be slowly coming around to the insight that we know far too little to claim with any kind of certainty that man plays a major part in climate changes. Anyway, those with the extreme western "environMentalista" view on the environment are often the developing nations worst enemies. I can say that for a very simple reason: energy = prosperity, there's no way around it. And the most cost-efficient portable energy so far is petrolium products (some can be grown of course; look at Brazil), the most cost-efficient non-portable is nuclear energy and hydro-electric dams. "EnvironMentalistas" have a tendency to say a big "No!" to anything at all if they get the chance and are in no way conducive to the kind of society-building that is needed and taking place in most poorer countries. This might all change of course and hopefully so, but imposing stricter rules on developing nations or misleading them into uncertainties are both simply unfair, unreasonable, and probaly not really thought through by those that propose it.

Malaria? I'll leave that to Melinda & Bill Gates, the meager resources I have to support medical science are used otherwise. If you want to fight malaria why don't you go to http://www.gatesfoundation.org/GlobalHealth/Pri_Di seases/Malaria/Related+Info/MalariaControl.htm and inquire how you might be of service? My point is that in this day and age citizens complaining their governments aren't doing enough are disingenious: the citizens can actually do it themselves for the most part if they organize and cooperate on the specific problem they want adressed or think are insufficiently adressed - and not by making noise and complaining, but by actually doing stuff: contributing money, resources, time and/or knowledge.

So yes I would say you are wrong :)

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/AboutUs/ Well, this definitely exhibits the kindness of the gentleman. 28.8 Billion dollars is a huge amount, and the causes that it is fighting are really going to be beneficial for mankind in future. In charity, there's no competition...if Bill Gates gave some amount, i m sure he'll be more happy if a competitor gives more thn him...after all, its for the same good cause

You've just got a hole in your head if you think Gates is doing this to make money from "Big Pharma". Lets assume (contrary to fact, which you can verify by a quick trip to the SEC, which will tell you major shareholders of publicly traded companies) that Bill Gates owns 10% of the entirety of the pharmaceutical industry. Lot, stock, and barrel, a dime out of every dollar of profit goes to him. Lets further assume, contrary to fact, that Big Pharma just makes money. And lets assume, contrary to fact, that these grants are actually going 100% to purchase drugs , e.g., do R&D on environmentally friendly pesticides (See here). All of this means that Bill Gates gets back a dime on every dollar he spends. Wow, thats how you become worth $80 billion or whatever it is -- you farm out a couple hundred million a year and get back a couple ten million -- but don't worry, you can make up the difference on volume.

Incidentally, you can see the Foundation's holdings at the SEC. Its a fairly standard portfolio heavy on the blue chips, including a lot of medical stock -- but not enough to either make a drop in the bucket next to either these folks' market capitalizations or Bill Gates' personal wealth (the vast majority of which, by the way, is MSFT stock).

Sorry to make you look dumb (a simple oversight, I'm sure), but it says "(In thousands)" at the top of that report - which, of course, makes all your "millions" into "billions".

By the way - the PDF (http://www.gatesfoundation.org/NR/Downloads/finan cialreports/2004FinancialStmts.pdf) in the parent post is interesting and it loads pretty quickly.

Jesus fucking christ, are you a sucker. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a fraud, and you fell for it, they absolutely do NOT give away a billion every year. They give away incredible amounts of money, incredibly SMALL amounts of money. Yes, it is a pittance, an even smaller pittance than you realize.

Go read the B&MGF annual reports, you will be astonished. Here's an example:

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/NR/Downloads/financ ialreports/2004FinancialStmts.pdf

In 2004, the total assets of the foundation were about $29 million. That is million with an M.
In 2004, the total grants expenditures were $1.88 million. That is million with an M.
More than half the grant money was used to educate people about the activities of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the wonderful philantropic genius of Mr. Bill Gates.

Go check charity tracker websites like guidestar.org or charitynavigator.org, and you will see that even most phony scam charities manage to give away more than $2m per year, just to keep it looking like they aren't phony.

More info here and here.

More info here and here.

You make it sound like Bill Gates is Hitler or something. Queue Gates = Hitler jokes. The Gates Foundation has donated an enormous amount of money to many different types of organizations that helps millions.

You make it sound like Bill Gates is Hitler or something. Queue Gates = Hitler jokes. The Gates Foundation has donated an enormous amount of money to many different types of organizations that helps millions.

You make it sound like Bill Gates is Hitler or something. Queue Gates = Hitler jokes. The Gates Foundation has donated an enormous amount of money to many different types of organizations that helps millions.

You make it sound like Bill Gates is Hitler or something. Queue Gates = Hitler jokes. The Gates Foundation has donated an enormous amount of money to many different types of organizations that helps millions.

You make it sound like Bill Gates is Hitler or something. Queue Gates = Hitler jokes. The Gates Foundation has donated an enormous amount of money to many different types of organizations that helps millions.

You make it sound like Bill Gates is Hitler or something. Queue Gates = Hitler jokes. The Gates Foundation has donated an enormous amount of money to many different types of organizations that helps millions.

You make it sound like Bill Gates is Hitler or something. Queue Gates = Hitler jokes. The Gates Foundation has donated an enormous amount of money to many different types of organizations that helps millions.

It's not a gross exaggeration at all. He's given Billions, capital B here, to fight third world diseases. His foundation gives more to agencies and efforts to fight malaria, polio and many other diseases than any country including the US. I am not going to question your sources, but here's one you might want to check out also: http://www.gatesfoundation.org/GlobalHealth/

Funny and all, but I think he already did that donation.

I don't like MS but this guy (as has been mentioned before) is a pompous ass. I can't imagine someone so self-absorbed can find a open-source team to put up with his ass.

At least Gates puts up a pleasent public figure. In fact he is doing better than the US govt on that a couple of ways (funding for the irradication of polio and other diseases for which vaccines exists would be my primary example).

Gates may be greedy and cunning, but at least he isn't a whining, attention-seeking, self-important jerk, who provides little or no good to the world.

Bill Gates, who is considered, the wealthiest man in the world, has started his very own foundation called the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced on 6/6/01, that in the first half of the year, Bill and Melinda Gates have given their charitable foundation an additional $2 billion, bringing the total endowment of the foundation to $23.5 billion. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/

Not only do you get the tax advantages of being able to write off a portion of the charity, but if you happen to be so rich to afford your own "charitable foundation", there are other benefits as well!

For example, you can afford to pay your friends and family handsomely for their management of the foundation. (In politics this would be called a patronage appointment) In Bill's case, his Dad and a former Microsoft executive. Although I'm sure they just happen to be exactly the right kind of people to lead such an esteemed organization.

Also, you get the glamour and praise of fellow socialites and the plebs at large. This is especially helpful if you are battling an unfortunate image as a cold-hearted corporate capitalist. Now, folks like the grand-parent poster will kindly note your philanthropy at every turn. This is true even if your foundation does very little charitable work.

For example, if you check out the financials of the foundation you can see that they pay out three times less in contributions than what they make from investments!

From the source:
Total grant commitments since inception: $7,486,247,357 http://www.gatesfoundation.org/MediaCenter/FactShe et/

This is interesting too... http://www.gmsp.org/(srgqkk3je5wh0m55cf5oth24)/faq _detail.aspx?FaqID=87

"And one William Gates put $53 million back into the economy the old fashioned way by building a house."

Along with over $25 billion to charitable causes.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/default.htm

He deserves the house, I say.

I don't think it would really matter if Microsoft spent $300M on a name change, since they annually donate ~$250M (granted, mostly software, but still) and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donates ~$1.3B to non-profits and charitables.

Corporations don't deal in dollars; they deal in millions and billions. I'm currently consulting for one of the major credit card companies, and it boggles my mind how wasteful and inefficient they are about everything, from too much paper-shuffling to how they're handling their current million-dollar systems refresh.

If some executive thinks it's a good idea to dump $$$ into an arbitrary name change, it will happen.

Only 1000 students per T1 line??? Your school must have A TON OF MONEY! My school district has ONE T1 LINE connecting 3 schools to the internet! And these aren't small schools. Total their are about 4000 students on a T1 line. It typicly takes 10-15 seconds to load one page from Slashdot... But some how they managed to find the money to upgrade all their computers to Windows XP (Lets just say Bill is "Giving" them some encouragement...).

The comments in the article about Microsoft and philanthropy completely ignore the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. That organization does more good in this world than 1/2 of the world's philanthropic organizations combined. 10% of $2 billion? The Gates Foundation has give more than $2 billion to developing things like AIDS and anti-Malaria drugs in Africa. So they don't give their operating system away for free to every poor person in the world? Well, when your parents are dying of AIDS or you're suffering from malaria I'm sure that free operating systems are what you're concerned about.

Isn't giving away free stuff what got MS sued in both Europe and the United States? Why don't people stop wasting their time railing about MS and start working on those $100 pc's we keep hearing about. Oh, and while you're at why don't you help out with meeting poor people's basic needs so that they'll have the time, energy, and electricity to use those computers.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/

Speaking of malaria ...

Of course, since it's associated with Bill Gates, it must be a bad thing, right?

• The grandparent post was meant to be *funny* although to be funny there has to be a little truth in the form of their embrace/extend/extinguish tactics.
  
  
• Aside from certain predatory business practices (which are understandable in the dog-eat-dog world of business), I admire Bill Gates. Anyone who puts billions of $$ and his own time into world-altering worthy causes like The Gates Foundation should be admired. Let's face it, when the future looks back on Gates, he'll be remembered as more magnanimous than the tycoons that started the Nobel prize and funded the libraries. Even though I'll probably switch to Apple in time, I take consolation that probably 95% of the Gates fortune will eventually go to charity. I've got no delusions that this man who routinely gets ridiculed on /. will do more good for this world than me and my hundred closest friends.

The B&M Gates Foundation gave out a little more than a billion dollars in each of 2002 and 2003 (based on the reported financials on the website).

Google's market cap is about fifty billion, about as good a sense of "worth" as we can come up with.

I know you were just pulling that out of your ass, but do please try harder next time.

Gates Foundation /waits for the "OMG IT'S FOR TEH TAXES" response.

Though much maligned in our community, Bill and Melinda Gates and Steve Case have also set up charitable foundations.

Of course, it's up to the reader to determine whether their goals are truly philanthropic or whether they serve to extend the agendas of Bill and Steve. More to the point, is any philanthropic organisation ever agenda-free?

So Bill Gates gave 28.8 billion dollars -- see link at http://www.gatesfoundation.org/AboutUs/ -- for a bit of cheap publicity and PR?

That's a charitable donation to be applauded, regardless of your opinion of Microsoft's policies. But then again, mindless vehemence and flaming is so much easier, isn't it?

Im guessing the 600,000 people who have received Vaccines from his foundation wouldn't find that joke too funny. Gates foundation

What business practices would those be? What I'm saying is that any nation that is significantly affected by the actions of a computer company is probably advance enough to take care of their own people. In fact, one could just as easily argue that he is helping those people by his recent philanthropy. Some people may have been left unemployed or whatever because of him, but I seriously doubt anyone's life was "destroyed" (and in which case it would have been too fragile to begin with). Now he has enough money that he can do some real good if he wants to (which it would appear that he does). What would you have preferred that he done, played completely nice and never succeed in the business world, give every penny he made to some poor nation (in which case why aren't you doing the same), or what? Rich and powerful people might want to retain their place in the world (Gates seems to be wanting to donate most of his fortune to various causes), but they aren't the root of all evil.

How about getting your facts straight here, and do think twice before starting talking as if you were holding the moral highground?

he has done wonderful things through his Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

Except it's not his Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. It's his father's.

Oops - those broken links were:
The Gates Foundation
and
The Open Society Institute/Soros Foundation

The world's richest college dropout complains that High Schools are poor. He went to private schools thirty years ago that his lawyer father paid for. He will be sending his kids to private schools.

What could be done if coporations like Microsoft payed their fair share of taxes? What could be done if they took their power as taxpayers to the school boards saying they are failing? What if Microsoft made it known that they will not invest in a community because of poor schools?

Instead they get tax breaks that shift taxes onto others. They send their kids to private schools. They only look at what will Bill his next billion and let the communities they are in go to hell. They will buy their way out, screw the rest of you.

Hmmm... you seem to have a very very odd view of what Microsoft and Bill Gates do and don't do regarding schools.

Gates Foundation Schools Programs

Sounds like you're a little bitter.

Paul03244's Recent Submissions
Title Datestamp
Gates Urges Governors to Improve High Schools Sunday February 27, @01:49AM Rejected


Only I also submitted more analysis & links to a more substantive NY Times article, the National Governors Association website, and the text of Gates NGA speech

What does capitalist economy have to do with murder? Capitalism just means that government doesn't regulate market of goods and jobs. A 100% capitalist may well write free software or donate most of his income to charity. He just will not make other people do that if elected to government. Neither he would support restrictions on free market such as patents and copyrights.

I don't support 100% pure capitalism and I even think it's bad for profits of 100% capitalists, because people are short sighted and must be sometimes forced to cooperate with each other for long term mutual benefit. But it sure says nothing about non-money making aspects of law or about individual choices.

Ok, much of the childish ranting here does not bother me, but I can't let this one pass. 'dvduval': Did you bother to do any research before posting this? Have you ever heard of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation? Did you know that Bill Gates gives more money to immunize children in the third world than most countries do? http://www.gatesfoundation.org/default.htm/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_and_Melinda_Gate s_Foundation/

The foundation is an independent organization run by Bill's parents so it's them we need to thank not Bill.

Well, you do need to thank Bill also, since he donated a substantial chunk of change to one of the foundations-which-merged-to-become-the-Gates-found ation.

And Gates is involved with where the money goes.

He's still a filthy billionaire, but is more generous then most other billionaires.

Truth is, just about every Nonprofit organization started with a grant from a filthy-rich person, or at least started with a grant from a Foundation which was founded by a filthy-rich person.

The foundation is an independent organization run by Bill's parents so it's them we need to thank not Bill.

Well, you do need to thank Bill also, since he donated a substantial chunk of change to one of the foundations-which-merged-to-become-the-Gates-found ation.

And Gates is involved with where the money goes.

He's still a filthy billionaire, but is more generous then most other billionaires.

Truth is, just about every Nonprofit organization started with a grant from a filthy-rich person, or at least started with a grant from a Foundation which was founded by a filthy-rich person.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/nr/public/media/ann ualreports/annualreport03/flash/Gates_AR-2003.html

Navigate to Financial ... Financial Statements. The Foundation made (repeat: made ) two and a half billion dollars in 2003 alone. Look under projects and you'll see plenty of initaitives to get Microsoft product into libraries and schools. This doesn't begin to touch on the tax benefits, and its questionable the Foundation would exist without them. Much of what the Foundation does is in its own 'enlightened self-interest', not a bad thing in itself but please don't position it as a personal or selfless sacrifice on the part of the Gates. It simply isn't true.

In that case, he's donating somewhere around .2% per year. That's not much.

How much of your net worth do you donate every year?

Note that the the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donates to many causes. In 2004, the foundation donated nearly $8 billion.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Grants/default.ht m

Once in a Lifetime?

Well, then he must do it up well....

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/default.htm/

Some peoples children, really.

This isn't trying to denigrate your contribution to charity or Gates'. It is, though, trying to demonstrate that, even on a relative scale, you're not necessary donating as much as you think you are. "So what?" the reader may ask -- and that's the deeper point. How much you give relative to Gates doesn't matter. If people wouldn't turn charity into a wang-measuring competition, I think the world might be at least a marginally better place.

http://gatesfoundation.org/MediaCenter/FactSheet/d efault.htm

Gripe about his business tactics all you want, but how can any rational person with a brain bigger than a pea criticize the Gates for their generousity? They'll have a bigger impact on global health than the UN this century. Probably more than any national government.