Tim Schwab: The Fall of the House of Gates?

By Dilip -

Will the world be significantly better or different if Bill Gates steps down from the foundation, and Melinda takes the reins of this deeply undemocratic, totally unaccountable, aggressively nontransparent political organization - one that zealously solicits accolades for the miserly sums of money it donates at a glacially slow pace? Or if another “good billionaire” - Elon, MacKenzie, Mark, or Jeff - decides to fill the void left by Bill? Would that really be social progress? Or just rinse and repeat?

Do we really believe that these individuals deserve the political privilege that billionaire philanthropy affords - to remake the world according to their own worldview, with no checks or balances - because they’ve managed to become so obscenely wealthy? No matter how well-meaning or virtuous we fantasize such individuals to be, what can these outrageously rich people know about the lives of the poor people they claim to help? Is the story in front of us about a bad-apple billionaire named Bill Gates, or fundamental flaws with individuals having too much money and too much power?

The current news cycle presents an extremely rare opportunity to finally raise these kinds of questions, and we should not squander the moment. We need to continue to investigate how Bill Gates treats his female employees, but we also have to consider how Gates mistreats all of us, and erodes our democracy, by grabbing more power than he deserves.

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/gates-me-too-divorce/

Marina Hyde: The question every politician should be asking is, what does Mark Zuckerberg want with us?


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