THE BILL GATES PROBLEM

How the Gates Foundation acts “a great deal more like Microsoft than Mother Theresa” and why that matters.

As investigative journalist Schwab demonstrates in his debut book, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates has been mythologized as the ultimate good guy, albeit often by the very media and political outlets he has funded through his philanthropic ventures. However, the author argues convincingly that “the Gates Foundation is a nonprofit, tax-privileged charity that is acting like a private equity investor, venture capital fund, or a pharmaceutical company.” For example, the foundation “has positioned itself to see the confidential business information of competing companies” and asks charitable partners to give it licensing claims to their technology. Furthermore, Schwab notes, Gates poured his greatest sums into the foundation during two periods when he most needed positive publicity: during the investigations into Microsoft as a possible monopoly, and a spell when Gates’ personal life was in the spotlight. The author is most troubled by the lack of transparency in the U.S. involving not just Gates, but also the increasing number of billionaires with private foundations. These organizations are not held to the same transparency standards as public companies, government agencies, or political actors. This is true even though tax breaks mean that some 50% of every dollar spent by foundations like Gates’ is “public money.” Schwab sends a clear message to legislators that they must begin regulating the foundations they have left comparatively unexamined since the 1960s. “Our democracy is only as strong as we allow it to be and only as accountable as we force it to be,” he writes. Though the author extends his reach beyond Gates, he always returns to him, as “it would be difficult to name a more powerful, less scrutinized political actor than the Gates Foundation.”

An eye-opening look at the use of tax-subsidized money by private philanthropy.