Lifting the lid on Bill Gates and his foundation
Investigative journalist Tim Schwab’s troubling new book on the Microsoft founder exposes myths about billionaire philanthropy
Is it immoral to be a billionaire?
The question was formally debated in 2019 at the renowned Oxford University forum. Writer and political analyst Anand Giridharadas lost the argument to philosophy professor Peter Singer. It wasn’t enough that Giridharadas pointed out how billionaires avoid taxes, lobby for public policies to suit their narrow interests and strangle competition so that they can continue accumulating yet more wealth — and then launder their reputations through philanthropy. No, said Singer, holding up the template of Bill Gates and the now $70bn-endowed Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, these are moral people because they and the organisation have “already saved several million lives ... perhaps more than any other living person today”...
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