The Bill Gates Problem
Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE
‘Nobody who comes away from reading The Bill Gates Problem will look at him in the same way’ The Times
You know him as the founder of Microsoft; the philanthropic, kind-hearted billionaire who has donated endless funds to good causes around the world. But there’s another side to Bill Gates.
In this fearless, groundbreaking investigation, Tim Schwab offers readers a counter-narrative, one where Gates has used his monopolistic approach in business to amass a stunning level of control over public policy, scientific research and the news media. Whether he is pushing new educational standards in America, health reforms in India or industrialized agriculture in Africa, Gates’s unbridled social experimentation has shown itself to be not only undemocratic, but also ineffective.
All of which begs the question: why should the super rich be able to transform their wealth into political power, and just how far can they go?
'An extraordinary and detailed work of investigative journalism' The Telegraph
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The Microsoft mogul's vaunted charity has done more harm than good, according to this heated polemic. Journalist Schwab debuts with an exploration of the allegedly counterproductive machinations of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation—"one of the most feared organizations on earth," Schwab writes, because its vast funding resources give it dominion over the global nonprofit sector. Much of his criticism targets Gates's work on vaccines: the Gates Foundation both dominated and botched the World Health Organization's COVAX program to procure Covid vaccines, Schwab argues, resulting in a tragic scarcity of vaccines in Africa and other poor regions. He also tags Gates with pushing America toward the Common Core program of educational standards, which failed to improve student performance, and prodding African farmers to use genetically modified crops that failed to improve yields. Along the way Schwab probes Gates's egomania and rages, his harvesting of tax breaks, his chumminess with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and vague intimations of racism at the Gates Foundation. Much of Schwab's case against Gates is simply that he is a billionaire and therefore a defender of inequality and "a canker on democracy." Still, Schwab's critique hits home when he details how Gates Foundation initiatives have misfired with little benefit from billions spent. Gates's detractors will find useful ammunition here. Photos.
