This is the perennial theological question about charity: do you measure goodness based on charitable intent or on charitable results? Say getting money to poor folks in India is a charitable result with nearly-universal support here. It is doubtful Microsoft scores very high on the intent scale there, but they have probably done more for poor Indians this year than all active charities and all foreign government aid in history. I love Mother Teresa, but aside from the poor's spiritual needs, if moving them into the middle class is a goal worth pursuing than economic growth has been really freaking effective and charity not so much.

This is one of the reasons Twilio excites me so much, incidentally. (Disclaimer: commercial relationship.) Cheap mobile phones have been a huge, huge, huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge win for the global poor. Twilio (and companies like it) upgrade every phone in the world to being a smart phone. I think that's going to create wealth on the scale of the Green Revolution or the Internet eventually.