You Would Think This Was A Saddam Adoration Feast

@FoxyQueen Gates' foundation has some lofty goals for Africa, including but not limited to, eradicating some types of 100% preventable deaths and leveling the technology playing field.

This cannot happen without the US government stepping in.

Gates visited the White House to plead his case, but Trump did not take notice and his attempts to follow up were rebuffed.

Then Musk happened. Musk's mission in life is to destroy Gates, and Musk cockblocked Gates.

Then Musk had his falling out with Trump and Gates saw an opportunity to step in.

Like it or not, anyone who wants to get anything done, must lick Trump ass, even the high and mighty. We're a 3rd world banana republic, with a very powerful army and you're seeing the results.

@Northwest I hope you didn't think I was a Gates apologist. I'm not. Any man whose "philanthropy" involves giving money to their own organizations to show "goodwill" are already worthless in my book. He may further cancer research, but not until he pays homself with the money he laundered from one company to his "organization".

If they really want to make contributions, they have a plethora of things that they could do, but because they can't actually make money from it, they won't. Free housing for the homeless. Food for the hungry in the US. Food programs for kids in schools. Public transportation that is not run by a county or state. Providing free green power to homes. The list is endless.

Since none of them do anything of actual meaning to the least of the citizens, they are all just crappy people.

And no doubt, he wants to raise the life expectancy in Africa for more cheap labor to exploit and not much more. It sounds kind and grand, but in the end, it's about a country owing him something he can exploit.

The bottom line is, we need to quit allowing the rich to continue profiting without meaninful, needed contributions to society that create no profit for them. But that will never happen. We can't even tax them appropriately, ffs.

@FoxyQueen
Cancer is not part of the primary goals. He's focused on eradicating conditions that cause death, but are preventable. So far, this work saved millions of Children in the 3rd world from death.

I try to keep an open mind. I'm not going to say no to a fund that already saved millions of children, regardless of the motivation of its founder.

For sure, he is NOT making money from the foundation's activities (two foundations, as his ex wife ended up with 50% of the stock in the company).

If you have information to the contrary, I would love to know. In the meanwhile, the foundations' activities are very well documented on their web site, and I totally agree with some of them.

Where he invests heavily, is in renewable energy and agriculture, and both are not generating income.


Serious question: do you have any proof that he's profiting from any of it, or that there's even any credibility to the claim that he's "saving" kids, so he can turn them in child labor? Perhaps point to an interview of his, or action?

@Northwest Just a guess based off what other "philanthropists" tend to do in regards to funding their organizations and a general reviled opinion of the Uber rich.

I admit, I don't pay attention to Gates. Haven't for decades. If he's doing great things, great, but honestly, he's rich. He coud be doing so much to help actual Americans as well as third world children and never be poor. Yet he doesn't. Why not? No money in it.

@FoxyQueen Having money, doesn't mean that someone is exploiting the poor.

Have you done any reading about the Gates; schools? These schools are fully funded by the Gates foundation, and provide underprivileged schools with the money rich schools have access to.

If you haven't looked into it, I recommend it. It's not only about the money, it's how the kids are taught.

Funding these schools also means kids have food and their families have help to make sure this counts.

You may be right about wanting to insure immortality through his foundation, but don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Several inner city US school districts, would not be able to keep their kids in the digital age, had it not for the Gates foundation's gifts of computers and "associated" technology.

It's not like he was donating a $50K chandelier to his kids' school. He did, however, donate $40M to this former Seattle school, with the stipulation that the money goes to creating scholarships to lower income families, and I emphasize families.

@Northwest I want to reply that being as rich as he is can only have been done on the exploitation of people. That is the base of capitalism.

I don't disparage him for doing good things. Good for him. He is still rich due to exploitation. It is the very nature of capitalism.

Doing a quick google search, a lot of articlea have been written about his blatant exploitation from wage theft to anti-union tactics. There are also articles about his ties to farm labor exploitation and even having been friends with Epstein. 🤷‍♀

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/29/bill-gates-charity-work-business-practices

@FoxyQueen
This is where the mid 1980s through the 1990s differs, from the 1880s through the 1890s and how it differs from what's ben happening since the 2020s.

In your mind, Gates is a robber baron, getting rich on the backs of kids, and the poor toiling in his mines, railroad tracks, steel mills, etc. When in fact, Gates, represents the opposite.

Gats and Co. ushered an era referred to as the Golden Handcuffs, where employees could not quit because the benefits, especially the stock options, were so good. This created tens of thousands of $ Millionaires, and drove the economy into the stratosphere.

We did NOT need the tax cuts Reagan introduced and billed as the "trickle down economy". Clinton used that to create a surplus.

You really lost me with:


What wage theft? and what anti-union tactics? Microsoft employees did not want a union, and for a very good reason which I can go into. And I really, really, really have no idea what you mean by wage theft.


This is another "huh???" His land purchases are tied to experimentation with future crops, without using chemicals.


Was he an Epstein friend? Not really, but this is classic Epstein (and Trump for that matter).

The latter use the illusion of knowing people, to scam others.

Epstein worked his ass off to figure out how to get into an event Gates was attending. Epstein was working an angle involving himself, a Russian wanna-be model and a third party. The third party was sold on Epstein and this woman, being close associates with Gates.

Epstein arranged for the woman to be photographed talking to Gates about some philanthropy project. Epstein worked that into a meeting with Gates to discuss another philanthropy project. Gates figured out pretty quick it was a scam.

Did have sex with that woman? probably. Did she consensually have sex with him? probably.

But that's as far as it went. The conspiracy theories involving Epstein blackmailing him, are laughable, because it would be like saying Warren Beatty was concerned that his girlfriend would find out he was sleeping with everyone in Hollywood.

Gates wife was fully aware of this affairs. He did not hide. He did not even hide it when they were dating and engaged, no matter what she has now.

So, no. He was not friends with Epstein, and the thousands of Millionaires he created (exploited) have mansions on Lake Washington, houses in Whistler and head to France and Italy for the latest in the food scene and the Caribbean for a long weekend of SCUBA.

@Northwest No offense. I appreciate your info, but no, I don't see Gates as a robber barron, but i refuse to see him as anything less than an imperial capitalist.

As for the things you are confused about, those were things that came up on a quick google search. I did not verify the validity of any of them because honestly, I have alrwady given Gates more of my time and attention than he ever deserves.

We will not agree. You are happy to stan for Gates. I am not. I'm okay with this disagreement. So I will bow out of the conversation.

@FoxyQueen
I stand for the truth, not any person, and I did not google any of this, I mostly lived it.

@Northwest That's fine. I believe all billionaires are unethical due to their exploitation of labor, resources and political reach. Your lived experience is yours and I respect that. I just disagree that Gates is worthy of praise.