

Bill Gates has donated over $36,854,000,000 in his lifetime - cyang08
http://www.youhavetocit.com/2012/04/bill-gates-had-donated-over-36854000000.html?m=1

======
beering
Damn it, we just went over this article on HN a few days ago. The numbers are
wrong, and if you correct the male circumcision number to 18.5 million rather
than billion, the total drops by half.

See previous submission: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5191094>

~~~
jobu
First I've seen this, but that donation jumped out at me immediately. How
could a male circumcision program possibly use all of $18 billion?! 18 million
makes much more sense.

------
eli
I think the Gates Foundation is doing some amazing work.

But, uh, this blog post doesn't seem very well researched. It lists $18.5
_billion_ for male circumcision in Africa, when the correct number is $18.5
_million_. Kinda makes me question the other numbers.

~~~
maxerickson
I imagine the $18.5 billion on male circumcision is wrong, but you are also
wrong:

[http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Grants-2008/Pages/Population-...](http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Grants-2008/Pages/Population-
Services-International-OPP50748.aspx)

That's a single $50 million grant. Back out, create a search for Africa+HIV
and you immediately see hundreds of millions of grants, so I imagine the bulk
of the misstatement is from conflating HIV programs with those only targeting
male circumcision.

<http://www.gatesfoundation.org/grants/Pages/search.aspx>

------
rednukleus
Can someone please change the title to say "has donated", since "had donated"
implies he is dead. Or that the took the money back.

~~~
dfxm12
That's not what the pluperfect tense implies in English. It simply means
_something that took place prior to a moment in the past_ [1]. There is still
some ambiguity that could lead a reader to infer that Gates is finished
donating money.

[1]<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_aspect#English>

~~~
jere
>It simply means something that took place prior to a moment in the past

True, but that implies that there exists such a moment with particular
significance. Otherwise, you wouldn't use that tense. In other words, it
leaves you thinking Bill Gates donated 36 billion dollars before X, where X is
his death, an alien invasion, the collapse of the dollar, etc.

I don't know if there is a rule of thumb as to what tense to use, but "had
donated" in this context feels plain wrong. That kind of dissonance is
captured perfectly by this Mitch Hedberg quote:

>I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too.

~~~
dfxm12
Like I said, "had donated" is ambiguous, however, inferring that this must
mean Bill Gates either died or gave the donated money back is more than a bit
of a stretch.

~~~
raverbashing
Well, yes, it's a bitch of a stretch because of our context, still the phrase
is ambiguous, so it's better with 'has'

The phrase certainly can be fixed if it refers to some event like 'Bill Gates
had donated 36 billion before he left Microsoft'

------
nsns
Gates' donations are invested in problems that should have been dealt with by
governments, whose tax money is spent instead on the semi-corrupt self
interests of their leaders and their business cronies,[0] an economic-social
structure which contributed much to the way in which Gates and other Global
business billionaires have made their fortune. It's a twisted system, and
conscience-cleansing philantropy by its current and past players only brings
back a small portion of what should have been invested in the first place.

[0] [http://www.wikileaks-
forum.com/index.php/topic,5320.msg22368...](http://www.wikileaks-
forum.com/index.php/topic,5320.msg22368.html?PHPSESSID=cmt3mngc4m6lkgh9vreoum17b4#msg22368)

~~~
jeswin
Conscience cleaning philanthropy, because he is responsible for so many
deaths! Come on, this makes us sound silly.

~~~
willis77
Microsoft clippy? Windows XP update auto-restarts? The Microsoft Genuine
Premium Plus Advantage Home Starter Business Pro Certified Product Activator?
The Zune?

 _Are these not some of the greatest atrocities afflicted on mankind?_

------
stackcollision
Even if you don't like Windows, you've got to admit that Gates is a good guy.

~~~
arbuge
Indeed - or at least he's become one. Something good did come out of Windows
after all...

~~~
rednukleus
Windows has been a good product for the average user since 1995, and has been
great since Windows 7; it's just their business practices that were a problem.
And to be honest, they were hardly the worst offender there either.

~~~
kamjam
_it's just their business practices that were a problem_

Yes, agree. But everything is relative, right. All of a sudden the stuff they
were doing doesn't seem that evil, and the hip kids from the block are suing
the pants off everyone else that comes to play in their playground.

------
danielweber
This is a bad way to measure philanthropy, and I think Bill Gates would agree.

Anyone can dump money on a problem. But Bill Gates's money is still finite,
and he has tried to make his money be the most efficient at solving given
problems. He measures the stuff he does and sometimes finds out he goofed.

I'm not exaggerating when I say he's likely one of the top 5 people in the
world at knowing how to spend billions of dollars to help people, because he
has the most motivation of anyone in the world to know how to best spend
billions of dollars.

~~~
alexrson
Not anyone can dump money on a problem. You have to have the money first.

To be clear, though, I really respect the Gates foundation's philanthropy
philosophy. They are about achieving quantified results rather than just doing
something trendy.

------
brudgers
The Gates Foundation has a trust endowment of $36 billion. Through June 30,
2012 it has made grants of $25 billion. Warren Buffet and others have
contributed.

[http://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/Pages/foundation-
fact-s...](http://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/Pages/foundation-fact-
sheet.aspx)

------
jnp
Unlike most super billionaires, Gates is actually actively spending the bulk
of his wealth while he's still alive. Genuine philanthropy.

~~~
mjn
He and Buffett seem to share a skepticism of setting in motion a large
charitable foundation that will outlive them. Hence, Gates wants to directly
oversee the spending, and spend it at a high enough rate that it uses up most
of the money in his lifetime, rather than setting something up in a will.
Buffett even conditioned his recurring donation to the Gates Foundation on
Bill or Melinda Gates still being alive and in control of the Foundation.

------
bcl
This is a dupe. And the numbers are wrong.

EDIT: Found it <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5191094>

------
tseabrooks
How much of the Money donated by B&M Gates Foundation is Bill's personal money
vs Money raised from donors? Not trying to diminish his donations, just
genuinely curious how much money foundations like that raise form outside
donors.

~~~
mjn
Depends on how you count. The endowment is mainly (all?) Gates's money, but a
substantial proportion of the annual spending is funded by Buffett. That's
because, rather than donate money to the Foundation outright, Buffett set up a
recurring-donation program structured in a way so it feeds directly into the
Foundation's annual program spending.

For 2011, it looks like the Foundation spent $3.4 billion total, of which the
annual installment of Buffett's donation accounted for $1.5 billion, so a
little under half.

------
mdpye
I don't want to suggest that this has not been a good thing overall, but
donations of this sort are a highly political act, and can't escape being in
spite of any intention.

An interesting (I found) examination of the the effects of such a volume of
donation coming from a single organisation can be found here:

[http://newint.org/features/2012/04/01/bill-gates-
charitable-...](http://newint.org/features/2012/04/01/bill-gates-charitable-
giving-ethics/)

Again, not saying it's not a net good, just that it's perhaps not a perfect
model to pursue either.

------
hbharadwaj
Haha - see the comments on the page. I have no idea where their weird twisted
logic is derived from. I would much rather see the redistributive efforts
occur through the Foundation than let it run through a public choice theory
test.

------
krosaen
"had"?

------
meaty
At least he has and hasn't just pledged to like most politician scum.

------
seunosewa
He donated most of the money to his charity, which he controls.

~~~
andyakb
...which then donates money to philanthropic causes

