ANN CROTTY: Good intentions open Gates to hell
The Microsoft co-founder’s foundation might not be such a knight in shining armour
In his 2024 annual letter urging the super-wealthy to commit to philanthropy, Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation, makes much of how success depends on collaboration. “For our foundation, that means looking for market failures, areas where public and private sectors are unlikely to step in and so progress is unlikely if philanthropies don’t act.”
Suzman and Bill Gates often refer to market failure, always without irony. And without any sensitivity to the possibility that were it not for market failure, the former Microsoft CEO would not have accumulated the tens of billions he has pumped tax free into his foundation. During the 1990s Gates was locked in a marathon antitrust battle with the US department of justice, which charged that Microsoft had “illegally maintained a monopoly” in personal computer operating systems. Sounds like market failure right there...
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