Bill Gates is not a shy nerd interested only in the world of computers and saving the world with his all-powerful foundation. The portrait of journalist Tim Schwab in The Problem with Bill Gates (Harp) is at times devastating, that of a despotic alpha male obsessed with always showing his superiority and crushing the other. A management based, he points out, on monopolistic practices that led him to a reputational crisis at the end of the millennium that he cleaned up with colossal donations to his opaque foundation, whose results he questions in vaccines, agriculture in Africa and education in the US. But with which he tries to impose his vision of the world…
He describes Bill Gates as a greedy monopolist but today we see him as a great philanthropist. Because?
The transformation that his reputation has undergone is extraordinary. At Microsoft he was recognized as a corporate bully. At the turn of the millennium he was one of the most embattled corporate figures on the planet, having pies thrown in his face. The Simpsons made fun. And when he was accused of monopolistic power he suddenly became the largest philanthropist in the world. And in a matter of a few years we either forgot who he was or we forgive him. But he hasn’t changed. He is still the same alpha male and bully as he was at Microsoft. And his philanthropic career makes a lot more sense if you look at it in those terms.
Because?
It is not limited to donating money indiscriminately to help the poor. You have your own narrow ideas about how the world should work and what solutions are best. He has the idea that he is the smartest guy in the room and that he has the money, the right and the privilege. And that his voice should be louder than everyone else’s.
What is Gates’ vision for the world?
A classic neoliberal. Solutions based on the market and promoting technology as a solution to most problems. And the defense of intellectual property, of vital importance for Microsoft and for large pharmaceutical companies, which its foundation has treated as humanitarian partners and has done everything possible to defend their patent rights. During the pandemic, Gates went on camera again and again to defend vaccine patent rights.
Isn’t the foundation saving lives?
If you analyze all his work, you see decades of failures. Bill Gates promised a green revolution in African agriculture and it did not come. Bigger farms, more technology, more agrochemicals, more high-tech seeds. That everything is industrialized. He said he would double the returns. He said he would reduce hunger in half. He has accomplished none of this. And in many of the places we were moving backwards. Farmer organizations across the African continent are calling for the foundation to stop its interventions because they are causing a lot of harm.
Something similar is seen in public education in the United States. The foundation has at times acknowledged its own failures to do what it said to do to improve educational outcomes. And there are many professors, academics and experts who say that the Gates Foundation should stop its interventions because it is doing more harm than good.
In public health it delivers vaccines that can save lives. The problem is considering how many more could be saved if you chose a different path. Because that work is heavily co-financed by governments and rich nations with tens of billions.
By a different path do you refer, for example, to your priority of eliminating polio?
Bill and Melinda travel around the world to meet with elected leaders and lobby them. They shape governments’ priorities and spending. Gates wants to eradicate polio. It is not one of the leading causes of child death, nor one of the major diseases that poor nations are thinking about, but instead he makes it a very high priority public health intervention for them. I think there’s something fundamentally undemocratic about that. And hundreds of other billionaires have already said they plan to follow in Gates’ footsteps.
Philanthrocapitalism.
That presents a political future in which Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos play an increasingly influential role through public policy philanthropy, shaping how we manage the climate change crisis, regulate artificial intelligence, health and public education. If we don’t address the Bill Gates problem, we will have a Mark Zuckerberg problem and a Jeff Bezos problem. I think this is a model of illegitimate power, it is an undemocratic model of power and it presents the specter of oligarchy. The idea of ??the richest man has the loudest voice
In the book he draws a complicated relationship with women. What was her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein?
With his pastel sweaters and the fact that he is a grandfather-like character, we have forgotten that he really is an alpha male. Many of us have forgotten that Melinda Gates, his ex-wife, was his subordinate at Microsoft and was not the only subordinate with whom he is accused of having had a relationship. He faces a series of accusations of inappropriate behavior toward his female subordinates. That covers both Microsoft and the Gates Foundation. Bill Gates denies any inappropriate activity. The strangest part of this story is his relationship with Jeffrey after he was a convicted felon and registered sex offender.
Gates’ official explanation was that he met to try to raise more money for philanthropy. I find it hard to believe. Bill Gates is one of the richest guys in the world. Why does he need Epstein’s help to raise money for philanthropy? Journalists generally have not done a good job investigating the Gates Foundation. But they have done a great job investigating Gates and Epstein. Every three months a new explosive story comes to light that raises new questions about what the nature of that relationship was. The answers that Gates has given have been very brief and superficial. And the findings of research journals have contradicted him.
What was the nature of the relationship then?
I don’t know if we will ever know the whole truth, but I think it’s a story we should continue investigating. But not at the expense of journalists also taking a close look at the Gates Foundation. Gates and his foundation should be the most vetted and scrutinized people and institutions in the world, but they are not, treating it as an innocent, blameless charity to which he is donating all his money.
The Gates Foundation is not an innocent charity, but rather a political organization. When it comes to giving money away, trying to influence public policy, trying to build a brand, change the perception of Bill Gates, build his legacy… My opinion is that the biggest beneficiary of the Gates Foundation is Bill Gates himself. . from the tax benefits he receives, to public applause, awards, praise and political power. He himself benefits in many ways from the Gates Foundation.