“The simple fact is Bill Gates doesn't have expertise, training, or education in most of the topics where he inserts it. Gates is someone who often stands to gain financially- or his private foundation does- from the advice he gives...That fact alone makes him a terrible messenger on just about any subject.” – The Bill Gates Problem
In 2020, Bill Gates took the brave position that the wealthiest among us should pay higher taxes, by increasing capital gains and estate taxes. An empty gesture, considering his foray into the world of private foundations, a so-called philanthropic vehicle that allows tax-deductible contributions, investment gains from foundation assets, and best of all, the avoidance of estate taxes.
Similarly, as co-founder of the Giving Pledge, a virtue signaling oath where the wealthiest pinkie-swear to give away their billions, a ten-year retrospective reveals the unsurprising fact that many of the pledgee’s assets grew by 95 percent, rather than diminished. Gates’s private foundation has also grown exponentially, at the expense of grants and endowments. To the man who is one of the largest owners of private farmland, we might call his philanthropic sincerity “all hat and no cattle”.
Born into wealth, and educated at the best schools, Gates hit his first million by the age of 31 primarily off the success of Microsoft. Earning an honorary degree from Harvard despite having never attained a real one, Gates began to insert himself into areas where he had little knowledge or expertise, both domestically and internationally. A climate change and depopulation alarmist, Gates used his money to commandeer whole industries such as food production, health care, and education, flooding them with money and then calling all the shots.
In Tim Schwab’s 2023 book, “The Bill Gates Problem”, Schwab, an investigative journalist, follows the private foundation’s money trail, to expose the depth of influence that Gates's money has bought while at the same time exposing the astonishing lack of transparency in areas that Gates monopolizes. While playing the role of philanthropist, Gates’s overreach into novel ventures has led to serious failures, including his education initiatives and agriculture policies.
Undoubtedly, the greatest source of Gates’s influence is his private initiative, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Formed primarily for the wealthiest, private foundations were a vehicle for wealth distribution to help relieve the government of services they would normally provide, albeit often inefficiently. To encourage such giving, private foundations were allowed to use tax-deductible donations, while the trustees themselves managed the assets, all with little oversight. With only 5 percent of assets required for distribution, the remainder is typically invested, all to the benefit of the foundation and its owners. But the beauty of these arrangements is for private foundations to keep more money in the family, by avoiding a myriad of taxes. By 2023, nearly 150,000 private foundations in the United States now control 1.25 trillion in assets and were expected to donate just 90 billion, or 7.2 percent of all holdings. Ironically, while serving as a tool for good public relations, private foundations were little more than legal tax dodges to shield family wealth, all while creating a veneer of goodwill.
The Gates Foundation, itself, was initiated in the 1990s, on the heels of Microsoft’s anti-monopoly court case, giving Gates much-needed cover for bad PR. With nearly 70 billion in assets and 1600 employees, this new venture is a monopoly unto itself, giving Gates decision-making control over a multitude of industries and even governments. Since money talks, Gates can manipulate agendas by deciding not only how much money is spent but where it goes, because siding with the Gates Foundation often comes with strings attached. With the foundation holdings including corporate stocks and bonds, conflicts of interest exist when Gates and his foundation are poised to gain from the outcome of their funding and advice. Then by giving large donations to international media, Gates can manage perceptions with little pushback, or serious investigation into the Foundation's activities and influence.
Like all Industrial complexes, the philanthropic variety is rife with contradictions. Solve the problem at hand, and the money disappears. Similarly, like a nonprofit, no one wants to work themselves out of a job, so keeping the issue unresolved is highly incentivized, especially with the large grants and scholarships that only the Gates Foundation can provide. Untaxed and unregulated like a private company, private foundations serve as a disguise for charity to push the namesake’s agenda, all without any need to win elections.
If anyone is to blame, it is Congress who contributed greatly to the formation of these foundations, by instituting endless loopholes, in the hopes of appeasing their billionaire donors. Yet, despite the narrative that billionaires control politicians, it is the politicians themselves who have set up the quid pro quo, exchanging favorable legislation for campaign donations. A statesman committed to their role as an advocate for the public would never make such a Faustian bargain.
Billionaires may get a bad rap, but having earned ridiculous amounts of money is not the problem. As the saying goes, whoever pays the piper calls the tune, makes Bill Gates more powerful than almost all elected officials. Unaccountable to no one, he continues to impart undue influence on world events to our growing detriment.
Comments