[scholia]

Gates doesn't govern any countries and he's not in charge of any global policies. Also, he is not superman and he doesn't have infinite resources. He's just trying to find niches where a rich geek can make a difference. Child vaccination was a good example.

Significantly, he's trying to do practical things to improve the lives of poor people in the third world, as opposed to founding libraries or building more William Gates computer buildings at elite universities.

It's fair to judge what he does against what he could do, but it's unreasonable to judge him for what he can't do.

[hsitz]

I don't think anybody would judge him badly for not doing what he's unable to do. Of course not, just go back to Hume's "ought implies can".

I do think, however, that it does make sense to question whether he might be wasting resources and effort.

[scholia]

Agreed, and that is exactly what he does: the foundation has an annual Fail Fest to try to learn from its mistakes.

The website says: "Some of the projects we fund will fail. We not only accept that, we expect it — because we think an essential role of philanthropy is to make bets on promising solutions that governments and businesses can’t afford to make. As we learn which bets pay off, we have to adjust our strategies and share the results so everyone can benefit."

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Who-We-Are/General-Informatio...