Re: Opinion

[Christopher Pall <x97pall@wmich.edu>]

  > This seems to me to be entirely arbitrary.  If you define donations
  > entirely from the perspective of the party doing the giving, then
  > everyone has an agenda.  Do we rule out anyone who makes a donation
  and
  > then takes a tax deduction?  What about someone who is religiously
  > motivated?  Does a reward in the hereafter disqualify a good act
  because
  > the person is motivated by a later reward?  Where do you draw the
  line?
  >
  > Maybe true philanthropy is defined as losing your wallet.
  > Unintentionally, of course.
  >
  > Why can't philanthropy be evaluated from the perspective of the
  > beneficiary?  Or at least by an equally weighted evaluation.  I
  wouldn't
  > have a problem evaluating a "level" or "quality" of philanthropy based
  
  > on certain criteria, but I certainly wouldn't discount the presence of
  
  > philanthropy on any set of criteria - how can any such evaluation be
  > objective?
  
  It's not even fine to get a tax deduction, it's not fine to pay your own
  
  company to give software away in the hopes that "children" will grow up
  to
  know and love your software. Philanthropy is defined as giving something
  
  that you don't expect to get back. So if Mr. Gates gets all of his money
  
  back in a "tax deduction"  for his philanthropy, he's not really giving
  anything. Same for giving MS software. You don't think Bill gains by
  giving
  away his software to educational institutions? I already stated what
  happened with Apple, the same will happen for MS. There are plenty
  of ways to be a true philanthropist (i.e. not directly benefit from the
  act of "giving")
  
  Why doesn't Mr. Gates help the homeless? (I forbid he provide training
  for
  MS software to help them get jobs) What's wrong with helping mental
  institutions? What about paying his workers more?
  
  Here's one you probably don't know. MS packages some of their software
  using
  prison labor. I realize most persons on this list don't know that
  prisons
  have labor systems but MS pays prison workers a meager wage to work
  while in
  prison packaging software. Why doesn't he work to help prisoners get off
  the
  system? Bill Gates is far from ethical, far from being a philanthropist,
  and
  far from needing to be protected by you.
  
  Don't beleive MS does this? Go here:
  
  http://www.natcavoice.org/un/f97/prison.htm
  
  or here:
  
  http://www.netural.com/lip/ms_sucks.html
  --------------------------------------------------
                Christopher Pall
  Delphi Programmer & Western Michigan Student (CS)
                   ThinkBiz
                Kalamazoo MI USA
               X97PALL@WMICH.EDU
  --------------------------------------------------