this post was submitted on 10 May 2025
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118
Bill Gates to give away 99% of his wealth in the next 20 years (www.gatesnotes.com)
submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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One of the best things I read was an 1889 essay by Andrew Carnegie called The Gospel of Wealth. It makes the case that the wealthy have a responsibility to return their resources to society, a radical idea at the time that laid the groundwork for philanthropy as we know it today.

In the essay’s most famous line, Carnegie argues that “the man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.” I have spent a lot of time thinking about that quote lately. People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that "he died rich" will not be one of them.

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[–] [email protected] 89 points 1 day ago (2 children)

And he'll still be a billionaire. And he got that money by suppressing the world with proprietary software. He's single handedly helped hold humanity back. I don't care the good he's done as it's built on the back of all the harm he's done.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Beat me to it. Anand Giridharadas has spoken on the general scam of billionaires white-washing their legacies like this... their philanthropy seldom approaches, much less exceeds, the harm they did in getting so rich in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 22 hours ago

And somehow, even when proclaiming to give "Most" of their fortunes away, it ends up in a "Charity" or "Philanthropy" they control.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

He was also a major opponent of the efforts during Covid to waive medical patents for producers in the global south to allow faster distribution of those vaccines.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Shouldn't be much of a surprise. His family has always been eugenecists with a "benevolent" mask. Not knocking what his foundation has done against malaria, but I believe he's said some very direct things about wanting lower birthrates in the global south.