Bill Gates — Most Dangerous Philanthropist in Modern History? by Dr. Joseph Mercola for Mercola
While philanthropy is considered noble, some philanthropists appear to be doing far more harm than good with their donated millions. Bill Gates, who cofounded Microsoft in 1975, is perhaps one of the most dangerous philanthropists in modern history, having poured billions of dollars into global health initiatives that stand on shaky scientific and moral ground.
Gates’ answers to the problems of the world are consistently focused on building corporate profits through highly toxic methods, be it chemical agriculture and GMOs, or pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines.1 Rarely, if ever, do we find Gates promoting clean living or inexpensive holistic health strategies.
Gates Donates Billions to Private Companies
A March 17, 2020, article2 in The Nation titled, “Bill Gates’ Charity Paradox,” details “the moral hazards surrounding the Gates Foundation’s $50 billion charitable enterprise, whose sprawling activities over the last two decades have been subject to remarkably little government oversight or public scrutiny.”
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As noted in this article, Gates discovered an easy way to gain political power — “one that allows unelected billionaires to shape public policy” — namely charity. Gates has described his charity strategy as “catalytic philanthropy,” one in which the “tools of capitalism” are leveraged to benefit the poor.
The only problem is that the true beneficiaries of Gates’ philanthropic endeavors tend to be those who are already rich beyond comprehension, including Gates’ own charitable foundation. The poor, on the other hand, end up with costly solutions like patented GMO seeds and vaccines that in some instances have done far more harm than good. (For a few examples, see the following references.3,4,5) The Nation reports:6
“Through an investigation of more than 19,000 charitable grants the Gates Foundation has made over the last two decades, The Nation has uncovered close to $2 billion in tax-deductible charitable donations to private companies … which are tasked with developing new drugs, improving sanitation in the developing world, developing financial products for Muslim consumers, and spreading the good news about this work.
The Gates Foundation even gave $2 million to Participant Media to promote Davis Guggenheim’s previous documentary film ‘Waiting for Superman,‘ which pushes one of the foundation’s signature charity efforts, charter schools — privately managed public schools. This charitable donation is a small part of the $250 million the foundation has given to media companies and other groups to influence the news.
‘It’s been a quite unprecedented development, the amount that the Gates Foundation is gifting to corporations … I find that flabbergasting, frankly,’ says Linsey McGoey, a professor of sociology at the University of Essex and author of the book ‘No Such Thing as a Free Gift.’
‘They’ve created one of the most problematic precedents in the history of foundation giving by essentially opening the door for corporations to see themselves as deserving charity claimants at a time when corporate profits are at an all-time high.'”
Companies that have received large donations from the Gates Foundation include GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever, IBM, Vodafone, Scholastic Inc. and NBC Universal Media.7,8
