Bill Fucking Gates. How can ONE man be so Yin AND Yang?

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

He's the outsourcing KING. He wants Visa restrictions lifted so he can bring in as many overseas programmers as he wants...NO LIMIT. He's a blatant opportunist and anything with the Microsoft name on it is bug-ridden and begging for a hacker attack. Then he does something like this (below)...

Bill Gates pledges $900 million US for global fight against tuberculosis

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20060127/ca_pr_on_he/world_forum_tuberculosis_2

DAVOS, Switzerland (CP) - Bill Gates said Friday his charitable foundation will boost its funding for tuberculosis eradication from its current level of $300 million to $900 million US during the next decade.

The effort is part of a larger campaign against tuberculosis announced at the World Economic Forum. The disease killed 1.6 million people last year.

The announcement came as Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, British treasury chief Gordon Brown and Gates called for help to treat 50 million people and prevent 14 million tuberculosis deaths worldwide over the next decade.

"This is a very tough disease," the Microsoft Corp. chairman and co-founder said. "It is going to take all of us - private sector, the pharmaceutical companies, philanthropy and governments in countries that have the disease - to participate as well."

[ghostsofgiants]

1. That's cool.

He really ought to join the global fight against shitty software as well.

[ChoralScholar]

2. 900 million to him,

is like me pulling a 20 out of my pocket. Big deal.

[Deja Q]

11. Closer to a nickel or dime, unless you make a 7-digit income...

I wish I got as much attention as Gates does when I donate x% of my wealth to a charity. Gates is worth well over $50 billion (let's pretend his wealth is in the Dollar...) This means he donated 0.018% of his wealth.

Now, if I donated 0.018% of my wealth... That's almost a whoppin' $300. And I can't even afford THAT.

[leftofthedial]

3. he's more of a ying yang

[DS1]

4. He's like a mental Robin Hood. He robs from the stupid

corporations who pay for his overpriced and shitty server software, and gives to not the poor but the sick.

[skygazer]

5. Who is it who's robbing the consumer here though?

I admire Gates for his philanthropy but I agree with the OP - it's a curious mix when you can sell shoddy merchandise and make a fortune off it without a qualm but then turn around and do so much to help the downtrodden of the world. And it's not just corporations who are buying his stuff - it's all us poor peons who have home computers that are NOT Macs.

[DS1]

7. Yeah, I hear you about Macs

They are overpriced, and I'm using XP. But there are free alternatives.

Still, its organizations who pay for 1,000+ seat licences for Office and server software who bring the real dollars in for M$

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

6. I want to applaud when he does something like this, but...

...I have a real problem acknowledging him as anything other than a prick, no matter WHAT he does with his money.

[DS1]

8. Fair enough

I'm not expecting anyone to like him.

And people who say that 900 million to him is like 20 dollars to them don't understand what stock valuation means.

[Deja Q]

9. A real noble man. As noble as any corporate leech. Period:

He's only in it for (a) tax write-offs as it all goes to HIS foundation, and (b) so he and all the other wealthy elite can prosper from the guinea pigs (oops, those stricken with it) who opt to try the cure that may in turn kill...

He ditched the dollar last year, then made a frivolous remark on it. He's as patriotic as the squirrel my car ran over yesterday. (the squirrel didn't give a damn about patriotism, it just wanted a nut and tried to let nothing stand in its way to get the nut. Which sums up capitalism too; one squirrel usually gets pulverised into bloody pulp by an even larger entity who'll then use what he just pulverised for his own benefit.)

[Deja Q]

10. some people claim he's an Aspie too.

Asperger's Syndrome revolves social development and not being to interpret peoples' language (body or vocal).

In our society, it's not what you know (most Aspies are gifted in terms of knowing things) but WHO you know (NO ASPIE I KNOW OF HAS 'THE GIFT OF GAB'.) Gates is well versed with the gift of gab (and being a glib, smooth talker - to the point of getting away with enough vaporware or misleading products, but I digress...) and would damn well have to be versed with human mannerisms to make it to even remotely get to where he is today.

I've also read far more on Asperger's Syndrome and its effects than those microcephalic nincompoops who try to pin the label on him just because he's got some interesting hobbies. :eyes: Gates being an Aspie is the biggest irony, non-sequitur, oxymoron, and every other synonym ever devised.