Didn't Bill Gates Say He Wanted To Give Away Half Of His Money?

I seem to recall that Bill Gates, malanthropist extraordinaire, wanted to give away half his wealth for "good causes"before he died.

That's what Gates' Giving Pledge is all about.

So how is Bill Gates doing in his initiative?

Not so well - he's getting richer by the year:

Despite giving away a staggering $28million dollars in 2012, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates increased his wealth by $7billion this year.

And with a new net worth around $62.7billion, the 57-year-old Seattle native was named the richest tech billionaire by Bloomberg’s annual Billionaire’s Index.

...

According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire’s Index, which was published yesterday, Mr Gates earned some of his $7billion this year from a spike in Microsoft stocks, which went up 2 percent this year.

In addition, Business Insider reports that the philanthropist, who has given a sizable endowment to the Bill and Melina Gates Foundation, has capitalized a company called Cascade Investments.

In a report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it was revealed that Mr Gates owns shares in companies like Coca-Cola and tractor company John Deere & Co.

So much for the Giving Pledge.

Gates may play philanthropist at TEDx and his wife may play that role when Nick Kristof is helping her disseminate propaganda via the NY Times.

But Gates is above all a ruthless oligarch looking to wield power and maintain his privilege even as he makes believe he's got other motivations for his actions.

It's not a mistake that he is the second wealthiest man in the world and he's increasing his fortune astronomically even as many of the rest of us are having to work longer and harder for less and less.

The Gates Foundation, like the Broad Foundation and the Walton group and Bloomberg Philanthropy, promote "giving" that seems to benefit their bottom lines as well as their tax bills.

When it comes to these wealthy corporate criminals, you have to watch what they're doing, not listen to what they're saying (or what their publicists are saying.)

When you watch Gates closely, what you see is a man increasing his wealth by promoting harmful initiatives all over the globe that help increase that wealth (like GMO in Africa that uses Monsanto products or technology in classrooms and teacher training that promotes Microsoft products over Linux and Apple), yet playing a "good guy" in corporate media reports.

Wouldn't it be nice if the media exposed this?

I think it would, but Gates bought off some of the media too (see here and here.)