Bill Gates takes rich to task

[Jim Westrich]

Gates made his large donations to his dad's health charity in 1999.  I have 
not examined all the actual grants given out by the organization (I 
remember a big one that went to fight AIDS in four "well-behaved" African 
countries, a big one for AIDS research, and another big one for malaria 
prevention).  The fund is really mostly cash reserves, they haven't given 
out that much in grants yet.

I am not sure of the criteria for the grants but it is definitely not 
saving the most lives in the most cost-effective way. They undoubtedly help 
nevertheless.  Biology is only a small part of the fight.

At 04:36 PM 2/4/02, kelly wrote:
>At 04:27 PM 2/4/02 -0500, Nathan Newman wrote:
>>The way Gates got rich was illegitimate but the way he is spending the
>>proceeds is, as far as I can tell, quite admirable.  He is following in the
>>footsteps of the elder Rockefeller, but more consciously and earlier in his
>>connection of private philanthropy to the broader social conditions.
>
>wasn't that a turnabout? i remember that he was roundly criticized a while 
>back because he wasn't much of a philanthropist. the argument was that 
>cyberlibertarians tends not to be especially generous because their wealth 
>was all on paper. there was an entire spread on the topic here, when i 
>first moved to FL.

"We know most things about it, but tuberculosis still kills more people 
than any other pathogen; far more than alcoholism, AIDS, malaria, tropical 
diseases and Ebola combined. . . [A]nd nobody seems to care. . . . Where is 
the outrage?"

                 -Lee Reichman

"Not only is the cost of inequality the cost we incur for no economic 
benefit, but all indications are that it imposes a substantial economic 
burden which reduces the competitiveness of the whole society."

                 -Richard Wilkinson, *Unhealthy Societies: The Afflictions 
of Inequality*