An article in Business Week had an interview from Bill Gates with Donny Deutsch of CNBC. The interview revolved around his wealth and Bill Gates said that he wished he wasn’t the richest person in the world. I’ve done a few posts on Bill Gates philanthropy actions and think he’s truly a great man. Disregard what you think of the company he started and their current business practices, compared to what other leaders of large organizations and wealthy people are doing with money, he far exceeds any of their efforts.
If you read through the comments on the original Digg article, you’ll obviously find people poking from both camps at their opinions. I think the two main comment types I’d address are the ones where people say it’s easier for him to be extremely wealthy and if he wanted to be generous and not wealthy to start giving away Windows, etc.
If someone gives 60% of their income, it’s still 60% of their income. The only caveat to that is there’s the general threshhold of the minimum cost of living to meet before there are the funds available to be as generous as some people would like. However, after that threshold, I don’t think it makes that big of a difference. For example if someone makes $100K and they gave away $60K, they’d still be living on $40K which is about the American average income. If someone makes $1B, and gives away $600M, they’ve still given away a significant amount of money that I’m sure wasn’t “easy”. Secondly, even if Bill Gates decided to “give away” Windows, the company and shareholders wouldn’t let him. There are still other people that are making money of that software and rely on it for their income.
Gates also said he wouldn’t follow in the footsteps of other wealthy Americans by entering politics.
“I certainly will never be a politician,” he said. Asked why not, he said: “For every reason. I wouldn’t like it, I wouldn’t be elected. I’m better at what I’m doing.”
That’s good to hear too. Not because I don’t want him to be a politician, but it’s nice to hear someone realize they just need to stick to what they’re good at and not get involved in areas they’re not qualified. Before I get too political, I’ll just say “Hollywood actor school drop-outs”.
Source: Digg from Gates doesn’t want to be richest man
