Bill Gates accuses Elon Musk of killing poor children by cutting foreign aid, and says he's giving away his wealth
Bill Gates accuses Elon Musk of killing poor children by cutting foreign aid and says he's giving away his wealth
People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that 'he died rich' will not be one of them
I'll just save time for my future self: He died complicit, supporting and enabling the system that creates inequality and blocks progress, and he directly stagnated technology by engaging in monopolistic practices.
Bill Gates quite obviously pays a lot for PR, and giving away wealth to those in need is obviously positive, but if he used his influence to call out Microsoft for using their technology/AI and infrastructure in war, called out the imperialism and destabilizing influence of the US empire, and so on; maybe I would have a more charitable forecast for his legacy.
I would be more than happy to be wrong and I hope I am.
Yeah instead of billionaires giving away their wealth to charity, I’d much rather tax them and let the government distribute that money.
Capitalism exists in the form it does because government doesn't exist. It's a big lie. We are in the age of modern feudalism, ruled by corporations, oligarchs, and others that concentrate wealth, power, and influence.
I wouldn't trust the government to reliably redistribute the money or to reliably tax the very rich.
We have a system that rewards greed, parasitism, and exploitation with wild success. Until that is solved, redistributing wealth will be unsuccessful — a temporary fix, at best.
You mean the government that uses that money for concentration camps and eradicating minorities?
Also, I think he has no concept of what rich is anymore. There's no way in hell he isn't, at minimum, rich in assets when he dies. His house, assuming he dies and only owns one, will probably be worth more than most people make in a lifetime. Unless he takes out insane mortgages against it and donates them, he'll still be rich. Even then, it's still call living a life where you have access to a house like that rich, even if he effectively doesn't own it anymore.
He's definitely not living poorly. His legacy will still be "filthy rich".
He's not giving so much that he can't live a life with more privilege and access to abundance than the overwhelming majority of people. He also wields more power and influence than most could ever hope for.
I'm reminded of one of my favorite quotes, alleged to be from A. Carnegie:
“The man who dies rich, dies disgraced.”
I detested the Microsoft Bill (I'm in tech) but the post-M$ Bill seems to have reformed quite a bit. I have to admire someone who gives away all their $ (whatever the route - directly or through a foundation) to try to solve some of humanity's problems. Of course MAGA/Qanon portraying him as a villain doesn't hurt his image either, it pretty much guarantees that there must be something good about him.
Don't be fooled. His foundation does a lot of real charity but it is still an entity that is under his control and he uses it to launder his reputation while supporting the systems that have allowed him to leverage his wealth for political power. Because of him, the covid vaccine was used as yet another vehicle for funneling wealth into the hands of the plutocrats even though it was mostly public funds that created it.
vaccine
he made sure the poorer nations cant develop thier own vaccines , and it must be bought from USa.
Why not spend a couple of those billions and put a bounty on Musks head? America is a lawless hellhole already, so some good and put your money where your mouth is.
The only good billionaire is a dead one.
If Bill sheds all his excess wealth he can be a human being with the rest of us.
He sheds more than anyone else. He'd be much higher on the richest-people list otherwise.
So far, he's given over 60 billion to the Gates Foundation, which has given away over 100 billion (the rest of the money comes from Warren Buffet and endowment growth).
It's designed to spend to zero (over 200 billion dollars) by 2045 so it doesn't become a self-sustaining wealth generator for staff like other endowments have.
old billy has been visited by a ghost
Paying off student loans would be a nice start. ALL student loans, not the crap that always seems to miss me by a dollar.
Man, it's sad my generation got suckered into taking out loans for college.
So many of them now have debt and are doing the same jobs as people that don't have degrees.
Gates also announced that his Gates Foundation will cease operations in 2045, sooner than previously planned.
Didn't he just get divorced? Wonder if this has something to do with that.
It doesn't seem so.
The actual interview referenced in the article is somewhat longer: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/magazine/bill-gates-foundation-closing-2045.html
From what I can gather there are at least 3 reasons to end it earlier:
It was always planned to have an end date. This was set before they even knew what they're were going to do. They now have a clear plan, where they can say "a human life can be saved for this amount of dollars", so they don't need to wait for anything.
Bill Gates criticizes post-life foundations, stating that they're in risk of getting eaten by administration costs. I don't know about that, but it appears that he doesn't trust others to as good a job as he wants to do himself.
Warren Buffett is doubling the contributions for the foundation, but only for as long as Bill and Melinda are alive. Gates is 69 years old, so blowing it all in 20 years seems to be a realistic timeframe if they want to take full advantage of Warren Buffett's pledge.
Good move by Bill Gates.
Cruelty is a feature not a bug.
"Elon Musk is a patriot working to fulfill President Trump’s mission to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse," Harrison Fields, a spokesperson for DOGE, said in a statement. "Backbenchers should celebrate the selfless efforts of America’s most innovative entrepreneur, who is dedicating time to support American taxpayers and hold Washington accountable to the people of this great nation.”
Wtf. only the government should be allowed to criticize the government, because everybody else is a backbencher. What are these people, 12 year olds playing Fortnite? Just wow.
is this arguing over who killed the poorest children?
Bill is definitely not a good person, but he does do a lot of good things. And I’m willing to temporarily forget about all the bad things while he’s dissing Elon and forking over his cash.
Gates at least seems determined to buy his salvation.
Got a real Rockefeller vibe to him now, don’t he?
He's been giving away his wealth for decades, and only got richer during this time.
Of course, but that's more than most of the ruling class can say.
Credit where credit is due, and only where it's due.
Hasn't he mainly been "giving it away" to a Charity he himself controls?
He at least learned the 'right' lesson from the famous robber barons like Rockefeller, Carnegie, etc: when you make a fortune by exploiting everyone you can then you should spend that fortune to whitewash your name for future generations.
That is the right lesson. Use that money to make people love and respect you, even though you’re a bastard, by building libraries, hospital wings, and other community projects.
“He abused his workers, but he cured cancer” kind of a toss up when it hits the history book.
Billionaires can never do a good thing while remaining a billionaire.
They can do good things, but it doesn’t make them overall a good person.
I don’t think it’s possible to amass $1 billion in worth and not be a bad human.