Bill Gates a hypocrite for charity work/ having a foundation instead of just writing a cheque to charity?

Question

Bill Gates has 40 billion dollars (approx.)
Isn't it a little hypocritical of him to have the "Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation" and do charity work when he could give away even half of his money and solve some major work problems.
I mean, he could probably make a big impact on world hunger or clean water etc. by writing a cheque to the right cause (United Nations World Food Program...)

I know he earned it, I'm just wondering why he needs all of that money. There is no way he could ever spend it, I don't even think there is a way he could spend 5 billion.

What do you think?

Answer 1

You clearly don't know what the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has achieved (so far).



Find out, then ask the question again, if you truly think it is still worth asking at that time.

Answer 2

I think programs like that are rife with corruption and do more harm than good. Every greedy administrator of those programs is trying to line his pockets. The scandals are never ending and it seems no one is above temptation. Bill didn't get where he is by being greedy and he isn't going to stay there by being stupid. Stupid lazy people with a false sense of entitlement always wonder why the wealthy don't just blindly "write a check" so they can be taken advantage of.



Having said that, Bill Gates doesn't "have" 40 billion dollars... he OWNS a company which provides million of jobs, supports millions of families, generates work and income for tens of millions of people. He "needs all that money" so that his company can stay in business, stay competitive, and keep on top of and in control of an incredibly volatile market. Irresponsible acts like writing blank checks to scam charities would do FAR more harm than good. Giving away one percent of his wealth would RUIN his company and the lives of a hundred million americans.... its easy for someone like YOU to talk about giving away half your wealth... you have no idea what wealth is. I can guarantee you this... Bill has never had a billion dollars, never seen a billion dollars, and never engaged in a single transaction that worth a billion dollars... and YOU think he could "give away" 20 billion to solve some problems?



You must be a democrat.

Answer 3

First, you're every bit the hypocrite. You can afford an internet connection? You have more than 5 billion others do. Have a personal computer? Again, you are in the richest 1% of the entire planet. If you have enough change sitting around for a pack of gum then you seriously have more disposable income than 85% or so of the world's population who don't even have 89 cents to spare. More than 700 million people, about one tenth of the world's population, live on less than two dollars a day.

You are filthy, stinking rich.

What are you doing for the less fortunate besides whining about how little others are doing?

How much have YOU given to the World Food program and no matter how much it was, why haven't you given more? Why do you buy a computer and internet connection instead of feed starving African children with that money?



Second, what do you think his foundation IS if not a charity? The foundation is not his personal property (though he still maintains a personal fortune on paper, but most of that is tied up in his company and not a liquid, easily usable asset).



He did write a cheque (many of them in fact, and gotten others like Warren Buffett to do the same), just not to a charity you prefer or approve of it seems. Instead he wrote it to his own charity. And his charity is VERY good. It does more than most others, and far more efficiently, too. The United Nations World Food Program is corrupt, bloated, and inefficient. The same amount of money to the Bill Gates Foundation goes twice as far, with less waste and administration costs.



And because he sits on the board, he directs what he wants the charity money to go to, to causes he personally believes in.

Here's just some of the money his charity has doled out in the last few years alone:

* The GAVI Alliance, expanding childhood immunization - $1.5 billion

* United Negro College Fund, Gates Millennium Scholars Program - $1.37 billion

* Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), improving seeds and soil for African farmers - $456 million

* Rotary International, polio eradication - $355 million

* PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) - $287 million

* Save the Children, Saving Newborn Lives - $112 million

* United Way of King County - $85 million

* World Food Programme, increasing small farmer income - $66 million

* TechnoServe, helping small coffee farmers improve crops and fetch higher prices - $47 million

* Heifer International, helping small farmers grow local and regional dairy markets - $43 million

* Mexico, National Council on Culture and the Arts (CONACULTA), Global Libraries Program - $30 million

* Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), testing and promoting the use of information and communications technologies to deliver microfinance products - $24 million

* Achieve, Inc. and the American Diploma Project Network, assisting states in aligning high school standards with the expectations of college and career - $23 million

* Chicago Public Schools, curriculum support - $21 million

* Opportunity Online Program, multiple library systems - $16.4 million

* Opportunity International Inc., developing and expanding a network of commercial banks in Africa - $15.4 million

* Green Dot Public Schools, supporting the transformations of Jefferson and Locke high schools in Los Angeles, Calif., into high-performing charter high schools - $9.7 million





But I guess that isn't good enough for someone like you, is it? $355 million to polio eradication? $287 million to malaria vaccination? $1.5 billion to expand immunization...and you don't think he's made a big impact?



He's given away more in a single day than you or I will make in a lifetime and you complain about it. Your attitude is sickening, really.

Answer 4

Would you think someone who has little money to spend but still do charity work a hypocrite? I think first of all if you do charity work or volunteer, you have a good heart. You don't hear of money he spends on these causes because he chooses you not to hear. Which is a better man: 1) A man who spends $10,000 on a Charity and soaks up the attention from it, or 2) A man who donates $50,000, to a charity but wishes to remain anonymous? Either way, both did good.

Answer 5

Only Bill Gates knows the reason he gives it's not up to us to judge we should just be thankful that his generosity, for whatever reason, helps people who need it. There are many who don't follow God who sacrifice a great deal including their own lives to help others, take a look at the news papers and history books they are full of them. How can we see the splinter in someones eye when we have a log in our own?

Answer 6

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Answer 7

BECAUSE ALL CHARITIES ARE USUALLY CROOKS; you write a check and most of the money gets redirected to "charity workers"; even though they claim "non-profit"

I'm pretty sure Bill knows this, so he built his own* charity, where its probably not as crooked, and of course he donates to his own charity

Answer 8

I guess. People who donate and have foundations get a huge reduction in their tax's. But one way or another...he's still helping people. For the rich..they want to get richer... but also want something in their name that their legacy will live on forever and show the world what they did as advocates

Answer 9

foundations not only produce money, but they spread the ideal of generosity, which can do a lot. And he has probably donated a lot of money that you don't know about, because only jackasses go around announcing it.

Answer 10

Any person - ourselves included - is free to make the decision to use our money as we choose in a free society.

We are not at liberty to judge his choices. Choose not to let envy to take root.

Answer 11

His charity work is designed so he doesn't have to pay taxes on his INCOME.



Hypocracy requires the illusion of sincerity.