Hi, I'm from Australia, sorry if this is the wrong place for this. I was reading this profile of Melinda French Gates, ex-wife of Bill Gates, here:
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/gigantic-joy-melinda-french-gates-on-her-new-life-after-divorce-20250326-p5lmnp.html
I have a serious question for our American friends.
Melinda Gates is worth approximately US$30 billion apparently. And Mackenzie Scott, ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, is worth US$42 billion. They are both philanthropists, focused on women and girls' welfare.
If they really care so much about women's welfare, why didn't they put their money where their mouth is? This question goes for other progressive billionaires in the US too. If they, along with some of their friends had pooled their money together, they could have bought Twitter (and maybe even mainstream news organizations like The Washington Post).
Twitter was a hugely influential resource for the global center-left, and now it has become a source of far-right indoctrination. Elon Musk took a huge risk when he bought Twitter, but it has paid off for him and the global far-right - not in a monetary sense, but in the sense that they were able to take that space away from the left, which I think was their objective in the first place. The right wing seems to be so much more committed, and willing to spend their money to achieve their political objectives, whereas the left (or center-left, or just democracy-loving people) seem so lame in comparison. What gives?
Originally Posted By u/GrouchyInstance At 2025-04-11 11:47:43 PM | Source
You don’t become a billionaire by being ethical or nice. They probably have their own self interests in things that we don’t know about and will probably never know about. To me at least, there is no difference between a Elon Musk and Bill Gates, sure one is less of an ass but these billionaires live on another planet that very few “normal” people get to see what kind of people they truly are.
Then you are not paying attention.
I’m not denying Bill was a merciless asshole as a business man to make his money, but he got married and had kids and learned compassion. Still not a perfect human, but he has given away over 100 billion dollars- with care and thought and in ways that literally save lives. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2p4p4l78zo
Google says his foundation has saved 122 million lives. SAVED LIVES. Not propped up his own interests or gotten accolades or done PR to impress ignorant people - but literally spent years of his own life working to SAVETHE LIVES of his fellow human beings.
They are not the same.
They're not the same. But keeping billions of dollars is still unethical no matter how much philanthropy you get into.
Agree. Being a billionaire is inherently immoral.
However if all billionaires supported the politicians and policies that the Gates support we would not be in this situation. Like they actually do understand the value of a strong/healthy middle class.
Note that Bill Gates plans to give away more than 99% of his wealth. It’s hard to call him unethical for keeping his money with a straight face when he’s giving away 99% of it. And working hard to do that in ways that will matter to fellow humans who are truly suffering. Like he’s not building libraries to put his name on, he’s giving away vaccines and mosquito nets.
So I’m thinking he actually isn’t keeping his excessive wealth. Like he is actually giving it away - so yeah, I don’t lump him with the others at all.