AMA: Bill Gates
reddit.com
reddit.com
Cool to see he still tries to stay up to date on new technologies.
> I actually do use tabs. It is easy to convert tabs to spaces and vice-versa so we shouldn't waste too much time on this issue.
Edit: I mean, look at this answer: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/aunv58/im_bill_gates_...
Seems solidly real to me.
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/12/18220756/bill-gates-tax-r...
Seems super valuable and interesting to me to have Reddit AMAs, and I'm just not seeing this "platitudes" thing or "just another media outlet" attitude. Sure, he's on a talking tour or whatever, but he's on reddit answering real questions with real answers not seen elsewhere.
Seems interesting enough to me, and not at all like what OP is decrying here for being "platitudes"/"non-answers".
Doesn't feel like a non-answer as well.
It would have appeared crass of him to say, 'yeah i love living in a $200 million 66,000 sq ft mansion and having the world's biggest foundation named after me. Having a such a legacy produces genuine happiness.' But he played the false modesty card.
- He thought nuclear weapons, bioterrorism, and climate change were the biggest threats to humanity.
- He thought paying $10B in capital gains taxes was not enough and he should have paid more.
Maybe those are platitudes but it's real enough for me.
There are a lot of very wealthy philanthropists, and I think that's because people seek meaning in their life once they no longer get benefit from earning more.
Conversely I could name on famous multimillionaire frequently in the news these days, that has a track record of treating charitable foundations as tax dodging piggy banks. So there are all sorts.
Big-G tells me that "platitude" means: a remark or statement, especially one with a moral content, that has been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful.
He was asked: What do you think the greatest threat to humanity is at this moment?
And responded:
There are some things that aren't likely but we should worry about - nuclear bombs and bioterrorism (from nation states or terrorism), or a big pandemic. This is the 100th anniversary of the Spanish flu and if it came back the amount of travel would make it spread faster than it did last time.
Once you get past those threats then the biggest question is global cooperation to avoid climate change and reduce the risk of war. It is disconcerting to see a rise of countries turning inwards and not investing in alliances which have helped us avoid big wars since World War 2.
Climate change is a real test of how we can work together globally since it is a complex problem where major changes need to be done well in advance of the big harms.
With a link to: https://www.gatesnotes.com/2019-Annual-Letter?WT.mc_id=02_25... (a 431-word expansion on his thoughts on climate change)
I don't think any of his responses have fit the definition of "platitude".
I think an example of a "platitude" would have been the response: "War, we need to give peace a chance!"
I'm always annoyed when rich people say things like this. I had one say almost this exact thing to me in an elevator once.
There's nothing stopping him from paying more. He just writes a check to "Department of the Treasury" and sends it off to D.C. Problem solved.
But then he doesn't get to passive-aggressively whine about all of his piles of money that the government won't take from him.
Why? Surely it's better than the alternative of them not supporting progressive taxation?
I interpret "I should have paid more" as I should be compelled to pay more, not "I wish I could pay more". The distinction being they'd rather not pay additional tax, but they probably should have to. I think the language is just somewhat ambiguous (specifically the word 'should').
Either he has a much higher opinion of his personal judgement in allocating his money (which is likely) than other people who he also thinks should be paying more tax or he should turn over the BMGF to the government.
well Bill Gates personally does which is why he is giving almost all of his wealth away. (The giving pledge exists for this reason, and I would assume that most billionaires who agree to higher taxation also are significant personal givers).
This criticism fails on two fronts. People who are in favour of increased tax redistribution generally also support voluntary giving. (Most of the effective altruist people I think would fall into this group), and even if they didn't it would be nothing more than a cheap personal attack, because one can hold positions in favour of tax redistribution and against charity at the same time.
It's not as if they personally manage every penny— and they tend to optimize for the highest return as a default.
Seems like he's saying the default should change. Makes sense to me.
My accountant says otherwise. She was the one who told me all that rich people have to do is break out their checkbooks to put their money where their mouths are.
The money is required to go toward paying down public debt, but I'd say that's worthwhile.
If you doubled the amount of taxes Bill has personally paid over his lifetime, it would amount to a few tenths of a percent of a SINGLE YEAR of US government tax revenue.
I suspect Bill is saying that he-- and other very top earners-- should have paid more.
Bill Gates is willing to pay more taxes if other billionaires pay more taxes. If they don't, he isn't.
Just like I think my taxes should be higher, but I'm not going to voluntarily pay higher taxes, unless others in my tax bracket also pay them.
Even chimpanzees would probably understand and disagree with you [1].
I think it's important to stress the practical side of the argument too, rather than just appealing to intuitions of fairness.
Bill Gates probably believes (and is probably correct) that for any sum of money he is willing to part with, he could do more good by directing it toward carefully selected philanthropic causes than by donating it to the government. So when acting alone, there's no reason for him to unilaterally pay extra tax, unless he believes it will have very good indirect effects and/or is just seeking a PR boost.
He also believes that if people in his class (including him) paid much more in taxes than they currently do, the world would be a better place than it is now.
These two beliefs are entirely consistent, for at least two reasons:
* For a lot of people in his class, the likely alternatives are not philanthropy vs. taxes, but non-altruistic spending vs. taxes.
* There are, at least arguably, some things that government is better suited to doing than private charities are. Perhaps these tend to be the kind of large-scale projects that could be funded by higher taxes on all super-rich people, rather than anything that would result from a donation to the government by a single billionaire.
Even if your opinion of government is very low and you disagree with the second point, the first should be enough to show that his position is perfectly consistent, and would be even for someone unrealistically altruistic and willing to be on the wrong end of an unfair situation.
And then some pr*ck in the Senate decides that 3 times as much as Bill Gates paid goes to a pork barrel project to create 25 jobs in his district? The best use of his money?
Bill Gates and all with the Bill Gates' mindset should pay the minimum required and invest the rest to better the world privately.
So he's saying, his class of wealth should pay more. If it's just him who does it, it doesn't solve the government's problems, and he's better off spending the money himself directly on the things he cares about. But if everyone at his scale paid more, that _would_ help.
Suppose you are right that he is being passive agressive. I strongly disagree with this assessment but let’s for the sake of argument agree that he is being passive aggressive. Why is his right to be passive-aggressive diminished? Is he not allowed to be passive-aggressive or hypocritical or any other negative view you have about him?
The correctness of his view that people like him ought to be taxed at a higher rate is not dependent upon his character flaws or lack thereof. The belief ought to be judged on its own merits and not analyzed based on whether or not his character passes muster.
As a philanthropist, I'm sure he personally feels that he's able to direct his money to more useful causes than the government does, just as many rich people who give nothing also make the empty claim that the government would just 'waste' their money. The difference is, in his case, he might well be right. But that still doesn't mean that a structure that taxes him and others like him at a higher rate wouldn't have a net social benefit.
If the problem were "if only we had $2B more we could solve so many system problems." Of course, it's not, so no, no problems were solved even hypothetically.
What an awful way to look at the world.
We've had to ask you repeatedly not to violate the site guidelines with uncivil and/or unsubstantive comments. Continuing to post them will eventually get you banned, and I don't want to ban you, so could you please fix this?
"Worlds richest person" should actually be read "Worlds richest [publicly wealthy] person" I suppose.
From the exact same answer.
There was some book (The Cuckoo's Egg?) where a computer scientist and a biologist talk about the biggest threats to humanity. The computer scientist thought that biological viruses were the biggest threat, and the biologist thought that computer viruses were the biggest threat.
I've asked a few people about this, over the years, and the results are remarkably consistent. Everybody is much more scared of the other field where they're not an expert.
He talked about the trampoline on the Ellen Show, so yes, it still counts as a PR-y answer.
> 'The other thing is that I sometimes use a private jet. It does help me do my foundation work but again it is a very privileged thing to have.'
He inserts the word 'sometimes' to lessen the impact of 'private jet'. He adds that it helps him do foundation work implying that that should make it ok in normal people's eyes. [2] He doesn't mention that it's actually importantly needed for security purposes he is obviously a target and not flying like the general public. He then acknowledges that it's a privileged thing to have.
[1] Remember the movie "An Officer and a Gentlement" when Lou Gosset character fights Richard Gear character? And Gosset character replies (something like) 'oh I see you've had some training!'. Well Bill Gates has had training.
[2] Which is should be anyway. Without saying that.
That is a technique that is often used to impose frugality and get savings [1] out of the rest of the execs by setting an example. If he flies coach well then so do a hundred others.
[1] I knew a guy who owned a small company and bought a low end car until he had locked up his union contract. He knew if he was seen with a nice car it was going to cost him a boat load.
Likewise in my old school company years ago I never even drove up to the business in my nice car and I went out of my way to hide it's existence. It goes along with staying late and arriving early to set an example.
I'll take Uber pools, walk, or take public transit even though I'm technically no restriction on my transportation spending. Likewise, unless I'm taking my team out to dinner, I'll usually grab a $10 gyro or something instead of going to a nice restaurant.
There's something about this guy that seems 'off' to me. I should assume it's because he's a tech guy originally and not a politician.
Is it just me or do other people see the convoluted logic that links 'lack of money' with disease and therefore unhealthy kids?
If so, then all that needs to be done is for Mr Gates to give all his money to those poor countries, ipso facto disease is gone and kids are healthy.
I'd love to see him try it this out!
A later quote:
> However if I had one wish to make a new technology it would be a solution to malnutrition. Almost half the kids in poor countries grow up without their body or brain developing fully so they miss most of their potential.
From "How much would it cost to end hunger?" [0], the answer is $160 pp in poverty.
Or from Quora [1]:
"With say 2.5 billion people short of food, $166 billions per year would "theoretically" eliminate hunger. Just as a comparison, "During FY 2013, the federal government spent $3.45 trillion on a budget or cash basis, down $84 billion or 2.4% vs. FY 2012 ", or about 20 times as much"
Now, the US military budget was $637 billion in 2015 [2], which is enough to feed the poor several times over.
To me, it sounds like he should turn his Foundation into a lobbying group to end all war (or greatly reduce the military industrial complex) and use that money to reach his goals. Just sayin'. (This is why his words keep seeming 'off' to me)
[0] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/07/how-much-would-it-cos...
[1] https://www.quora.com/How-much-would-it-cost-to-feed-the-wor...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_...
(Edited)
When the reckoning of history books happens, I could see him in the running for “most positive social influence of anyone 1800-2100”.
His humanitarian work is second to none and we can expect 20+ more years of his direct influence on global policy. The world is a better place thanks to Mr and Mrs Gates.
Afterwards, Gates went on to create the most effective and well-funded philanthropy since the Carnegie Foundation, eradicated Malaria, etc. While his former competitors spent their riches on superyachts and the like.
3x gates.
If you actually do the math based on an inflation calculator, you find $5 billion: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chloesorvino/2014/07/08/whats-b...
So, the question with Gates is whether he manages to fund something that materially changes the world in a way people in the future will remember.
Saving some lives? Probably not that meaningful 100 years from now. Funding a technology that solves climate change and/or provides cheap clean energy? People will probably remember.
So it's hard to tell. Gates has funding in both areas of potential, and he's taking a very hands on approach to his philanthropy so he's more liable to get some credit, in the same way library afficionados do remember Carnegie.
Artists even more than scientists. When the Italian comedian Totò died in the late '60s this happened [1]:
> Totò died at the age of 69 on 15 April 1967 in Rome after a series of heart attacks. Due to overwhelming demand, there were no fewer than three funeral services: the first in Rome, a second in his birth city of Naples—and a few days later, in a third one by the local Camorra boss, an empty casket was carried along the packed streets of the popular Rione Sanità quarter where he was born
A similar thing happened when the Russian folk singer Vysotsky died in 1980 [2]:
> After a mourning ceremony involving an unauthorized mass gathering of unprecedented scale, Vysotsky was buried at the Vagankovskoye Cemetery in Moscow.[78] The attendance at the Olympic events dropped noticeably on that day, as scores of spectators left to attend the funeral. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to catch a glimpse of his coffin.
I'm pretty sure no businessman on this planet would have his/her funeral attended by tens of thousands of people nor will they be interred thrice "by popular demand", so to speak.
History books will probably talk just a bit about his wealth, maybe about his humanitarian actions, but he'll definitely be remembered as the person who made personal computing a thing.
Edit: took out some things about Gates and the dual nature of his work at Microsoft and the Gates Foundation.
Yes, I have read none of the annual reports. I did pop over to the site and found this for 2017:
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Who-We-Are/Resources-and-Med...
Maybe the site's layout is just hiding the actual report, but this just looks like an executive summary, and enumerates no solved problems.
Either way, I'd like to get something that would span multiple years of effort and billions spent. It would talk about the specific problems the Gates Foundation has solved through its efforts.
Does something like that exist?
a) The impact his wife Melinda had on his worldview;
b) That people are nuanced and full of contradictions;
c) The person you are at 30 and the person you are at 60 is defined by the accumulation of experiences, not the accumulation of wealth.
I think trying to point to something "solved" is not the right approach. The goal of the foundation is to solve through research. While it's impossible to say that his funding of these goals will actually solve them, because the solution may come on a different grant from another source but where a scientist learned something from one of the scientists on a gates funded project. I feel that's a reasonable situation where complexity makes it impossible to directly attribute a solution to Mr. Gate.
Instead I'd look at the social impact of someone in the 0.1% looking to the poorest in the world with empathy (whether genuine or not) and how that's changed how we look at philanthropy.
Malaria is a bitch. It's one of the worst things about going to many countries out there and Dengue is even worse in many cases. While survivable as an adult, it is no joke, and the idea that solving this should be something we focus on even though people (for practical purposes) can't get malaria in the USA is awesome.
Anecdotal evidence inbound => As someone who has prepared for an extended stay in South America, this was 100% the worst thing to focus on. I got Salmonella in Haiti and shit man that was rough. I can't even imagine Malaria.
Anyway, back to the point. The fact that he's focusing on this is the important thing. Investigating results of his 50bn dollars would require it's own research with a ton of nuance and assumptions.
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=amaverify@gma...
Bill likes to do his AmA's as "surprises", though, so we don't usually schedule those!
Microsoft is doing what Facebook is doing. You either 'shut up' and accept the T&C, or go your merry way and use Fedora and SMS.
They don't do it for the fun of it, they do it for the $$$ of it. And since both they got greedy shareholders to keep happy, there is only one way forward (for these/such companies).
For this AMA he self-identified as "co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation", and I have to admit that as a syst-admin 'some time ago', I made my living with Microsoft products.
And now as a 'wiser' (snicker) human being, I appreciate his efforts to improve Humanity via his dedication and actions.
https://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/No-Bull-Bill-Gate...
I may disapprove of users not updating their systems, but I'll defend to the death their right to not do so.
We cannot rely on people to keep their systems updated, and this behavior costs society billions of dollars annually. Because of this people need to either accept automated patching, or stay off of the public internet.
This is an entrenched aspect of our society: you're free to do what you want, until your behavior causes negative ramifications to the rest of us, at which point, we as a society reserve the right to regulate poor behavior.
For the millions of others people who don't know how to find facebook without putting it into google search... yeah the automatic updates are good for them, and I'm tired of power users thinking their opinions are the only ones that matter.
I recently purchased a Pro license and couldn't find this "LTSB" (I believe it's called) version.
This feels a little like if you are going to attend a public school, you need to be vaccinated.
While Microsoft's QA leaves much to be desired, there are plenty of instances where non-updated machines have had adverse effects on other people's systems.
He gets so much exposure I imagine because he’s a “good billionaire trying to fix the world.” I guess it’s the most we can hope for these days from our growing class of ultra wealthy, but I really don’t think that means they should get the right to shout their opinions at us from every corner of the web.
https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/04/george-w-bushs...
I’m sure other people were involved but I have no clue who because the media loves focusing on one face for an effort because it’s easier than representing the diverse group required to tackle such an issue.
It turns out a lot of people are interested in the thoughts of a prolific philanthropist and founding father of the modern software industry. He’s not “deserving” of anything, there’s just an n >> 0 market demand for, well, his ideas and opinions.
this is not really much of a market, free or otherwise. Public philanthropy, which is highly managed and personalised has more to do with gilded age ventures than with markets.
And you are starting to see this lack of distribution and local management when you look at some of the larger missteps in philanthropy, for example Zuckerbergs 100 million Newark school project.
Right from the start experts and local leaders were arguing that it wasn't going to be effective, but billionaire philanthropy crowds out local decision-making in favour of often emotional decisions of single individuals.
If you want a market don't have celebrities distribute money in activist fashion, but redistribute it and move it to more institutions and individuals.Billionaires with committees and boards and agendas resemble the proverbial soviet planner with a clipoard more than they do ... actual markets.
Everybody has the "right to shout their opinions at us from every corner of the web." That's one of the incredible things about the web.
And of course being a successful, well-liked billionaire buys you privilege and a greater audience!
Why is any of this considered shouting? It's certainly not being shoved down your throat. You're not being harassed by a constant barrage of "Bill Gates" ads on every site you visit, or spam emails promoting his AMA. What made you take it as an affront?
Who would you rather fill the Internet with content than a billionaire who is trying to fix the world?
Should Gates just stop producing content now that he's a billionaire simply because it might annoy a few people?