So I just read Bill Gates’ 1976 Open Letter To Hobbyists, in which he whines about not making more money from his software. You know, instead of being proud of making software that people wanted to use. And then the bastard went on and made proprietary licences for software the industry standard, holding back innovation and freedom for decades. What a douche canoe.
I appreciate your desire for more nuance, and I support it throughout discussions.
But the case of Bill Gates is fairly clear-cut. His philanthropy efforts are covering for shitty business practices and tax evasion.
This is one of the reasons why people are concerned about billionaire philanthropy in the first place. It creates a good image of a savior, while serving to reduce taxes and cover for malicious investments. We would be much, much better off taking this in form of taxes and actually allocating it for good.