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Comment by omarchowdhury | Hacker News Reader

Possibly due to the philanthropic efforts of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

You're missing my point. Other rich people donate anonymously or through a foundation that doesn't have their name on it.

> Other rich people donate anonymously

How do you know?

There are a lot of museums, historic sites, schools, etc with names of donors on plaques hanging on some wall, and many of them attribute very large donations to "anonymous donor."

Maybe that donor is Bill Gates.

Also: it's possible to make an "anonymous" donation and let your friends and family know you're doing it. That way, to the people you know and want to impress you seem both like a generous philanthropist and a humble private person.

My point is, it's possible to read any action in a bad light and assign a bad motive to it. In my view giving money to worthwhile causes is good, even if you're doing it to rehabilitate your image or make yourself look good

Seems unlikely since his name is often also on the wall and on nearby walls.

Charities report anonymous donations.

> You're missing my point.

You asked what could be the reason why "are most people in 2019 so convinced that Bill Gates is "the worlds greatest guy?"

I'm pointing out it might have something to do with a $50 billion philanthropic organization.

Unpopular opinion: I think a lot of people use charity/philanthropy as a cover to prevent scrutiny against other less than stellar things they have done. See Clinton Foundation, McCain Institute, etc.

Cover? That's your response to the Gates Foundation's philanthropy—that it's cover for shady stuff? Really? Whatever did they do that was so horrific compared to everything the foundation has achieved?

Aggressively normalize US companies conceding to Chinese Communist Party censorship and surveillance demands.

Alfred Nobel:

http://www.openculture.com/2019/01/how-alfred-nobel-read-an-...

The list is long. Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Pew, Kochs, ...

I read a really interesting article some years ago how the rich setup charity foundations to hide from taxes. I donate to your foundation some large amount and you do the same.

Then employ your family members to run the foundation and pay them a huge salary.

I can’t validate this, but I recall the article.

I liked this link from that dead post below

https://twitter.com/nickwiger/status/1183086808046829568

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