The Bill Gates and Big Philanthropy Problems—And Ours

credit: Flickr

Bill Gates may be the world's richest man, but that doesn't mean he's aphilosopher in the traditional sense.

In a new book, conservative journalist Tim Schwab calls out the Microsoft co-founder and the Gates Foundation for their "anti-democratic attitudes, tendencies, and behavior," the New York Times reports.

Schwab's book, The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire, argues that Gates and other billionaire philanthropists use their wealth "to advance their own interests and reputations, often in ways that harm society and democracy."

Schwab accuses Gates of "using his vast wealth to acquire political influence, to remake the world according to his own narrow worldview."

He also accuses the foundation of being more of a "Microsoft-like, monopolistic pharmaceutical company than anything else, including being the tax-exempt, charitable grantmaker that it's supposed to be."

In a statement to the Times, a spokesperson for the foundation says Schwab's book "contains numerous false and defamatory statements about Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation."

"Bill Gates has made health and medicine the central focus of his philanthropy," the spokesperson says, but Schwab's book "makes a case that Gates is neither who you think he

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