RE: Consider this

[Mitch Stone <mstone@vc.net>]

  In reply to David E. Y. Sarna's message sent 11/10/97 3:46 PM:
  
  >I think the comment on Microsoft donating technology to libraries is
  >mean-spirited. Surely you don't think that Gates should donate someone
  >else's technology! Remember, Gates believes that computing is the great
  >equalizer, and it is a way to get disadvantaged kids an opportunity.
  >Perhaps you don't, but he really believe it.
  
  Yes, but the question of the moment is: do you, and why?
  
  Consider, that when he decided to give away his money, Andrew Carnegie 
  did not mandate that the libraries built in his name be constructed of 
  Carnegie steel. For all of his well-deserved reputation as one of the 
  most notorious hard-ball capitalists of the age, and one of the world's 
  great skinflints, in the end Carngie's philanthropy was an authentic sort 
  of generosity. As a consequence, Carnegie will be remembered less for 
  ruthlessly burying his competitors, and more for the brick (yes, mainly 
  brick) edifices dotting the nation.
  
  Gates, on the other hand, can't seem to manage a donation that doesn't 
  directly promote the Microsoft corporate agenda -- in effect, moving his 
  money from one pocket to another, and calling it generosity. If Gates and 
  Microsoft actually want to be loved, perhaps they should attempt to 
  achieve it without such tranparent cynicism.
  
  So in answer to your question: Yes, he should donate the money with no 
  strings attached. It's what real philanthropists do.
  
     Mitch Stone
  +---
     Make money and the whole world will conspire to call you a gentleman.
                                         -- George Bernard Shaw
  
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