He and Bluffett are two of the biggest BS artists in the world. Their wealth is in realized but as yet untaxable gains. The money they are “donating” is really all money that would go to taxes if they tried to convert these assets to cash. All they are doing is giving the money away so it can be spent the way they want, instead of into the government's hands so it can be spent the way the government wants.
I wouldn't really care except both of these dillholes have been in they arguing how the rest of us should be happy to give the government a bigger percentage of our money.
My response: You first - and a loud raspberry sound (which I don't know how to spell).
How many lives have you saved?
“and a loud raspberry sound (which I don’t know how to spell). “
“THBPBPTHPT”
From Calvin and Hobbes.
Philanthropy as propaganda was pioneered by John D. (the dimes for little boys bit) and perfected by Howard Hughes (the Hughes Medical Foundation, which was never anything to him but a giant tax dodge).
People at this level have usually been the beneficiaries of government created or supported monopolies. Normally free market competition would keep them from getting so big, but they use exclusive or penalizing contracts to beat down their suppliers, and lobby for laws and government contracts to further cement their position.
MS was never different; Gates forced PC makers to pay him whether a shipped computer had DOS or Windows on it or not. Any attempt to ship a Linux box, for instance, or DR-DOS back in the old days, simply cost you extra.
Gates and his merry band of Harvard gang-bangers learned everything they did from their parents who were old line connected monopolists and government operatives (like his mommy at IBM) and benefited from GSA purchasing directives in ways Boeing can never dream of.
He's only doing it for the money.