RE: Brave New World

["Kendall G. Clark" <kclark@computek.net>]

  On Fri, 14 Nov 1997, Dave Hamilton wrote:
  >about the amounts, but you can't say "What philanthropy".  Of local note
  >(to me), Microsoft, on behalf of Gates' wife has setup quite a computer
  >education program at some of the high schools in Dallas (where his wife
  >is from), both public and private.  So, there is evidence of
  >philanthropy.  I try not to assume what people do in their private lives
  >- those assumptions are usually wrong.
  
  Dave,
  
  I'm here in Dallas too, and I hadn't heard about Gates doing this for his wife
  and Dallas. Oh well, I don't focus on articles about Gates when I read the
  Dallas Morning News.
  
  My question, however, is simple: did he really setup and fund a program for
  computer education or for MS software education?
  
  They are two very different things indeed.
  
  While many people seem to be really impressed by Gates's philanthropy, so far
  the only thing I've heard of him giving away was MS software. Surely we should
  hold the richest man in the world, more or less, to a more rigorous standard
  of generosity than that...I mean whatever you think about Gates and MS, surely
  it would be more philanthropic (loving of humanity, by the way) to donate
  CASH. Then schools can choose on their own what to teach. Imagine the audacity
  of that idea!
  
  By the way, when Gates donates a bunch of MS Office and NT Server licenses,
  does he also buy all new computers for them to run on? It takes new computers
  since both of these products are such resource hogs. Does he also provide
  licenses in perpetuity for these products? The upgrades can be financially
  brutal, especially for schools.
  
  I stand by my original claim in this regard:
  
  	Gates's so-called philanthropy---donating MS software to
  schools---strikes me as more like a heroin dealer giving free samples to
  junkies than real philanthropy.
  
  If you want true philanthropy, check out George Soros. He only had about 6
  Billion or so, and he's given about 3 or so Billion away. In CASH, not
  products.
  
  Gates's philanthropy is suspect and of limited value at best and, at worst, it
  smacks of the meanest kind of cynicism imaginable.
  
  Best,
  
  	Kendall Clark