I love how Steve Jobs is regarded as a god, but Bill Gates who just donated $750 million is a tax dodging asshole.

"Essentially, he donates in place of taxes, and holds press conferences so people like you will praise him. If he would donate anonymously, it would be a completely different story."

This is a silly argument, Donating anonymously vs donating and telling the whole world in the end have the same result, a charity gets money.


Also the argument that everyone should give more money and should pay full taxes to the govt to create a more and fair society is idealistic and wishful thinking to the extreme.

Frankly personally I believe I do much greater good giving money to a charity and also reducing my taxes then giving more money to my govt to waste.

I do not like to pay taxes and I always look to reduce my taxes, as the govt wastes it.

It is sad anyone would try to downplay this. He's already pledged to give away the vast majority of his wealth and it's not so he "never has to pay taxes again."

While I never particularly cared for his business practices in the years when MS was building a monopoly on PC operating systems, the end result is that Bill Gates will likely go down in history as the greatest philanthropist ever in human civilization.

Wow a lot of misinforation and FUD in this thread.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates#Philanthropy

"

Gates began to appreciate the expectations others had of him when public opinion mounted suggesting that he could give more of his wealth to charity. Gates studied the work of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, and in 1994 sold some of his Microsoft stock to create the William H. Gates Foundation. In 2000, Gates and his wife combined three family foundations into one to create the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the largest transparently operated charitable foundation in the world.^[69] The foundation allows benefactors access to information regarding how its money is being spent, unlike other major charitable organizations such as the Wellcome Trust.^[70][71] The generosity and extensive philanthropy of David Rockefeller has been credited as a major influence. Gates and his father met with Rockefeller several times, and modeled their giving in part on the Rockefeller family's philanthropic focus, namely those global problems that are ignored by governments and other organizations.^[72] As of 2007, Bill and Melinda Gates were the second-most generous philanthropists in America, having given over $28 billion to charity.^[73] They plan to eventually give 95% of their wealth to charity.^[74]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_%26_Melinda_Gates_Foundation

"The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF or the Gates Foundation) is the largest transparently operated^[4] private foundation in the world, founded by Bill and Melinda Gates. It is "driven by the interests and passions of the Gates family".^[5] The primary aims of the foundation are, globally, to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and in America, to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology. The foundation, based in Seattle, Washington, is controlled by its three trustees: Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett. Other principal officers include Co-Chair William H. Gates, Sr. and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Raikes. It had an endowment of US$33.5 billion as of December 31, 2009.^[3] The scale of the foundation and the way it seeks to apply business techniques to giving makes it one of the leaders in the philanthrocapitalism revolution in global philanthropy,^[6] though the foundation itself notes that the philanthropic role has limitations.^[5] In 2007, its founders were ranked as the second most generous philanthropists in America.^[7] In 2010, its founders had started The Commission on Education of Health Professionals for the 21st Century titled as "Transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world".^[8]"

The foundation was at the same time criticized because it invests assets that it has not yet distributed with the exclusive goal of maximizing return on investment. As a result, its investments include companies that have been charged with worsening poverty in the same developing countries where the Foundation is attempting to relieve poverty. These include companies that pollute heavily, and pharmaceutical companies that do not sell into the developing world.^[75] In response to press criticism, the foundation announced in 2007 a review of its investments, to assess social responsibility.^[76] It subsequently canceled the review and stood by its policy of investing for maximum return, while using voting rights to influence company practices.^[77] The Gates Millennium Scholars program has been criticized for its exclusion of Caucasian students.^[78][79]

Gates's wife urged people to learn a lesson from the philanthropic efforts of the Salwen family, which had sold its home and given away half of its value, as detailed in The Power of Half.^[80] Gates and his wife invited Joan Salwen to Seattle to speak about what the family had done, and on December 9, 2010, Gates, investor Warren Buffett, and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook's CEO) signed a promise they called the "Gates-Buffet Giving Pledge", in which they promised to donate to charity at least half of their wealth over the course of time.^[81]"

To be fair. It's Bill Gates' fault for not being Steve Jobs.

Both people shaped the world.

Bill Gates dominated the computer market and still does. The problem is people are moving away from computer to other things.

When it comes to his work with microsoft i have nothing good to say about this man, but this man deserves the respect of the world for the money he has donated to charity.

I don't care if it's only the interest on what capital he already has, this is a very noble act i'd like to say we'd all do the same in his situation but i don't think that would be true!

Bill Gates life:

- be a nerd

- found your own company in your garage

- make it a multi billion USD company

- become the richest man on the planet

- retire and donate everything to fight diseases in 3rd world countries

--> There is NO WAY you can have more style than him. NO WAY!

VGC:

OMG HE ONLY WANTS TO AVOID PAYING TAXES!!!!!111

The ignorant responses just demonstrate how some people in this community don't do any research or reading before spewing "facts" out.

Gates worked to ensure that other billionaires pledged to donate their wealth to charity and has collected around $130 Billion in pledges as of 2010. This has nothing to do with taxes or his own image. He wants to make the world a better place and give back.

Whether he is donating directly or donating indirectly to a Trust is completely irrelevant; and unless you can somehow prove he isn't the one making the press conferences (as shown in the picture); then there is nothing wrong with my post and nothing in your response is relevant.

The irony of your freak out response is that if you are implying that Bill Gates didn't actually donate any money, then that only serves to strengthen my point that he is doing this out of vanity.

I repeat "Essentially, he donates in place of taxes, and holds press conferences so people like you will praise him. If he would donate anonymously, it would be a completely different story."

For the record, I have absolutely nothing against donation of money, I think it is wonderful. I think making it public for vanity is what is dirty. Many people donate money and pay taxes anonymously.