Re: Brave New World

[Christopher Pall <x97pall@wmich.edu>]

  Dave Hamilton wrote:
  
  > If this is how you define philanthropy (and it is ok with me if you do),
  > then how is Gates any different than most other CEO's?  Why even
  
  He has 39 billion dollars, and he's not any different than any other CEO's.
  But the point is I wouldn't like you to defend him as a philanthropist.
  
  > criticize him on this point?  It has nothing to do with the discussion
  > on monopolies and seems to me to be just Microsoft bashing, which
  > doesn't accomplish anything.
  
  "Mr. Gates giving away software to universities - promoting a product which
  already holds a monopoly" doesn't have anything to do with the discussion of
  Microsoft on monopolies? Hmmm.
  
  Discussing what qualifies Mr. Gates to be a philanthropist (i.e. a
  benevolent person) is far from bashing someone. If I were bashing Mr. Gates,
  I would categorize him as a "monopolistic, greedy,
  
  >
  >
  > What's wrong with prison labor?  Everything I've heard about prison
  > labor (in this country, not counting communist countries where political
  > prisoners are held) is that the inmates would much rather do work than
  > sit around with nothing to do.  And isn't acquiring a work ethic, job
  > skills, and self esteem a step in the right direction for getting
  > prisoners "off the system", as you put it?
  
  Yes, prisoners would like to do something other than sit in prison. What
  choice do prisoners have? See more on this later.
  
  Oh yeah, and I bet prisoners love working for $2 an hour. (trouble believing
  this, follow those links!) What a work ethic! You should be happy to work at
  your jobs for extremely low pay!
  
  There is a long debate that could ensue about how much prisoners benefit
  from working while in prison. Let's assume you're right, prisoners gain much
  from working.
  
  So MS must be proud of it's prison workers then right? Sounds like you think
  MS is engaging in some sort of positive social program! MS should trumpet
  the success of it's program... And I will note that MS isn't directly
  employing these persons. It's doing the same thing as other companies by
  paying a "supplying" company millions of dollars to generate the product so
  that it can't be directly responsible for the infraction.
  
  >
  >
  > Now if you are talking about forced labor, then that's a different
  > story.
  
  Forced labor? Anytime you confine a person to a prison cell for 23 hours a
  day, perhaps you would do ANYTHING to get out of your cell too.
  
  > As far as helping the homeless, mental institutions, and such, how do
  > you know he doesn't?  I don't know one way or the other, but I am
  > certainly not going to assume anything about what someone does in their
  > private life.
  >
  
  I stated I didn't. I stated he got the most press attention for helping
  schools. Why the press attention for helping schools? The Answer: Positive
  press for him and MS. Even if he did help the other causes, he doesn't
  really care to devote any real attention or money to them or else that would
  get the press coverage.
  
  > I'm not trying to protect Gates (I don't even know him).  I'm trying to
  > see if there is any validity to this philanthropy argument.  And
  > visiting a web page with the name "ms_sucks.html" isn't my idea of
  > putting forth an argument.
  >
  
  I understand the bias inherent in going to such a page. Here's a better link
  for ya. These are the facts. Don't brush off an argument just because the
  name of a webpage.
  
  http://www.ili.net/~pallc/i_love_ms.html.
  
  --------------------------------------------------
                Christopher Pall
  Delphi Programmer & Western Michigan Student (CS)
                   ThinkBiz
                Kalamazoo MI USA
               X97PALL@WMICH.EDU
  --------------------------------------------------