Congratulating Bill Gates and Warren Buffett because they are putting upwards of $60 bn in the Gates Foundation, as the press has been doing in recent motnhs with abandon, is incredibly shortsighted. Such massive amounts on any given topic will inevitably lead to reductions in public funding of the same, and transfer decision making on major public policy issues to people whom we may admire but who represent no one but themselves.
Such massive amounts on any given topic will inevitably lead to reductions in public funding of the same, and transfer decision making on major public policy issues to people whom we may admire but who represent no one but themselves.
I don't think I've heard an argument on this basis in the US before. It's always the basic free market "private industry can allocate funds better."
I don't have a problem with the Gates foundation or similar foundations. If the human desire for immortality gets expressed in the form of donating money to cause X, I'm fine with that - to me it looks like swords to plowshares. Philanthropy is also the biggest reason the US university system is the best in the world. That is worth a good debate on its own, I think.
you are the media you consume.
I would like to live in a world that does not encourage or celebrate the immense amassment of wealth in the hands of a few individuals
You'll get no argument from me, but this desire is a pipedream in our world today. I'm looking at the world as it stands. Out of all the ways for Gates to spend his money, the route he has chosen is one of the best possible.
