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Comment by gambiting | Hacker News Reader

"Look into his past if you want to understand what he values."

Jesus, I held some views 2 years ago that I wouldn't identify with now, and you want to look at what he did 20 years ago and say he still has the same values?

And I am all up for dismantling broken systems,but there is nothing broken about him spending his fortune on helping the poor. If you can build things like this in a quarter of a day......have you considered helping out yourself? I mean if you went to India yourself you could be building over a thousand purifiers per year, that should help, no?

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"The tiger cannot change its stripes." (One can't change one's essential nature.) More importantly, a guise of philanthropy is an understandably effective front for profoundly immoral conduct.

Without going into detail, if you look underneath thin, shiny, white veneers of people with exploitative, corrupt histories, you'll find worse in their present day actions. Today, a fortune can be useful for "shaping public opinion". A thoughtful person with a good memory can see past a fake smile and a Blah Blah Foundation name by reading about what is happening in this world through reports by self-directed journalists who work for reasons beyond currency units.

Yes, I am a helper. And, I do appreciate your push to do more and to ground this discussion in practicalities. People around our planet need water purification today; and we may need simple, effective tools as well if winds shift.

You're making your argument out of innuendo and rhetorical flourish, which can be used to argue for almost any position.

You will have more luck here speaking directly and to the facts, for example: "This year Bill Gates did X which is bad for reason Y."

> Without going into detail, if you look underneath thin, shiny, white veneers of people with exploitative, corrupt histories, you'll find worse in their present day actions.

I would be more likely to believe you if you did go into detail. What exactly has Gates done in the past year or so that you object to? Or two years, or any reasonable definition of "present day"?

Not the OP but I really dislike what he's doing in the public school sector.

* http://www.geekwire.com/2014/teachers-protest-gates-foundati...

* http://techrights.org/2014/08/11/rich-at-public-expence/

* http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/12/gates-foundat...

* http://www.thenation.com/article/181342/how-gates-foundation...

This is only a small part of a bigger story.

These show that the Gates Foundation is 99% invested in Coca Cola and Walmart, and the remaining 1% in minor investments in fast food, energy, and private prisons.

If we held things like that against people, we'd have to hate every person alive, every company ever formed, and most charitable/non-profit organizations, because way more than 1% of our everyone's voluntary income and/or spending comes from or goes toward companies like that.

Bill Gates has essentially "won the game" of capitalism.

He has spent time as "the richest man in the world".

There's nothing else he can do in that sphere.

Like many uber-rich men before him, he's spending his later years giving money away to help mankind.

Personally, I suspect that as people get older and start thinking of their own mortality, some people want to make sure that when they step into the great unknowable beyond, they do so with some good deeds under their belts.

Call it Heaven, Valhalla, Stovokor, Shangri La or whatever else you like. He can't take it with him and if it makes him feel like it's giving him a chance to get in by helping the needy, I say good for him.

His financial resources give him the ability to help more people than 99.99999% of us. I won't automatically ascribe nefarious motives to him doing so.

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