[ajross]

The Gates Foundation does great work. They are certainly one of if not the most effective anti-poverty charities out there. But positing a world "much worse off" is stretching things. Even huge charities are dwarfed by the sizes of governments. Almost all aid is delivered by governments. How much money has the Gates Foundation spent in total over its decade or so of work? What is the USA humanitarian aid budget for a single year?

Again, my point isn't to diss Bill's charity work. But arguing that we should tolerate abusive monopolies in our tech industry because the owners might one day get rich and give the money to poor people is ... borderline insane, honestly.

[dagw]

How much money has the Gates Foundation spent in total over its decade or so of work? What is the USA humanitarian aid budget for a single year?

US federal Humanitarian aid budget for 2009: $4.3bn

Gates Foundation total charitable distribution 2009: $3.65bn

Gates Foundation total grant commitments since inception: $24.81bn

So it seems you're either seriously over estimating The US Government spending or seriously underestimating the Gates foundation.

[Yrlec]

That sounds like a straw man. He wasn't arguing for monopolies. He was just saying that The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation should be added to the postitive effects which Microsoft has contributed to the world.

[lucasjung]

>Almost all aid is delivered by governments.

I'm pretty sure that the opposite is actually true. I don't have any stats on hand, but I've read before that private donors in the U.S. give more foreign aid than any government on Earth, including the U.S. government.