I wrote Dead Aid to contribute to a useful debate on why, over many decades, multi billions of dollars of aid has consistently failed to deliver sustainable economic growth and meaningfully reduce poverty. I also sought to explicitly explain how decades of government to government aid actually undermined economic growth and contributed to worsening living conditions across Africa.
Ah, but those billions i aid have reduced poverty, at least among corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, arms dealers and offshore banks. As for the ordinary Africans, who cares about them?
But couldn’t he be upset because her theory tacitly holds that Steve Jobs selfish assholiness was a better approach to African charity than Bill Gates’ fountain of giving?
Steve Jobs actually gave a considerable amount to charity. He just never had any desire to publicize it. Even to defend himself — when he was attacked, he chose to remain silent.
Bill Gates, on the other hand, spent half a billion dollars on a lavish headquarters building for his “non-profit” bureaucracy. Even the Wall Street Journal thought that was extravagant.
Edward is right. There is circumstantial evidence that he gave some large sums of money to various charities. IIRC, there were a couple of charities, including a hospital, that got large anonymous donations and Jobs’ wife suddenly was appointed to the board.
Gates does deserve credit for a couple aspects of his charity. A focus on a malaria vaccine/treatment is a major good. In addition, he plans on having the charity spend all it’s money in a short time. Many of these foundations are set up to provide good paying jobs to the kids and grandkids as “administrators” of the foundation. It’s a way to do good and provide a sinecure for the family, tax-free.
Gate’s greatest achievement was introducing a generation of kids to programming through Microsoft Basic. We went on to create the personal computer industry we know today.
Sigh.. Gates’
Larry J – Precisely. I think that is one of the reasons why various charities that operate in Africa get less donations than they otherwise might. Many, like me, feel that Switzerland doesn’t need charity – and that’s where a good percentage of the money goes.
A related subject is that of charities operating in such places as Pakistan. International aid payments to such places also. A cynic (or a realist) might think that sending aid money to a country currently spending billions of dollars on nuclear weapons and missile systems to deliver them is ridiculous, dangerous and stupid. Especially when it’s hostile, or stands a good chance of being so in the not too distant future.
Charity is when people willingly give to people who can’t help themselves, usually in the expectation that those people will soon be able to help themselves. Foreign aid is when the government unwillingly takes money from their citizens and uses it to buy political influence in other countries.
Bill Gates’ sanctimonious posturing offers a perfect illustration of the fallacy of misplaced competence. But success in one field does not give one expertise in any other. But as Tevye put it in Fiddler on the Roof: when you’re rich they think you really know.
I wrote Dead Aid to contribute to a useful debate on why, over many decades, multi billions of dollars of aid has consistently failed to deliver sustainable economic growth and meaningfully reduce poverty. I also sought to explicitly explain how decades of government to government aid actually undermined economic growth and contributed to worsening living conditions across Africa.
Ah, but those billions i aid have reduced poverty, at least among corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, arms dealers and offshore banks. As for the ordinary Africans, who cares about them?
But couldn’t he be upset because her theory tacitly holds that Steve Jobs selfish assholiness was a better approach to African charity than Bill Gates’ fountain of giving?
Steve Jobs actually gave a considerable amount to charity. He just never had any desire to publicize it. Even to defend himself — when he was attacked, he chose to remain silent.
Bill Gates, on the other hand, spent half a billion dollars on a lavish headquarters building for his “non-profit” bureaucracy. Even the Wall Street Journal thought that was extravagant.
Edward is right. There is circumstantial evidence that he gave some large sums of money to various charities. IIRC, there were a couple of charities, including a hospital, that got large anonymous donations and Jobs’ wife suddenly was appointed to the board.
Gates does deserve credit for a couple aspects of his charity. A focus on a malaria vaccine/treatment is a major good. In addition, he plans on having the charity spend all it’s money in a short time. Many of these foundations are set up to provide good paying jobs to the kids and grandkids as “administrators” of the foundation. It’s a way to do good and provide a sinecure for the family, tax-free.
Gate’s greatest achievement was introducing a generation of kids to programming through Microsoft Basic. We went on to create the personal computer industry we know today.
Sigh.. Gates’
Larry J – Precisely. I think that is one of the reasons why various charities that operate in Africa get less donations than they otherwise might. Many, like me, feel that Switzerland doesn’t need charity – and that’s where a good percentage of the money goes.
A related subject is that of charities operating in such places as Pakistan. International aid payments to such places also. A cynic (or a realist) might think that sending aid money to a country currently spending billions of dollars on nuclear weapons and missile systems to deliver them is ridiculous, dangerous and stupid. Especially when it’s hostile, or stands a good chance of being so in the not too distant future.
Charity is when people willingly give to people who can’t help themselves, usually in the expectation that those people will soon be able to help themselves. Foreign aid is when the government unwillingly takes money from their citizens and uses it to buy political influence in other countries.
Bill Gates’ sanctimonious posturing offers a perfect illustration of the fallacy of misplaced competence. But success in one field does not give one expertise in any other. But as Tevye put it in Fiddler on the Roof: when you’re rich they think you really know.