: : DO YOU REALLY THINK BILL GATES WORKS HARDER THAN A COLUMBIAN COAL MINER OR AN ENGLISH HEALTH WORKER? IS HE EVEN SMARTER THAN MANY WORKING CLASS PEOPLE WITH ONE THOUSANTH OF HIS WEALTH? TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES LIKE THE DEVELOPMENT OF MICROSOFT ARE COLLECTIVE EFFORTS INVOLVING THOUSANDS OF WORKERS YET ECONOMICALLY POWERFUL INDIVIDUALS LIKE BILL GATES ARE ABLE TO EXPLOIT THESE WORKERS TO DIVERT CONSIDERABLE WEALTH TO THEMSELVES. THIS IS PARASITISM. : This is an excellent post. No, Bill Gates doesn't work nearly as hard as a Colombian coal miner, or a Malian peasant, or an Indian latrine cleaner. He exemplifoies the fact that power (and wealth) in this society is based not on how hard ypou work, but rather on "possession, privilege and circumstances." 9this is a quote from Tom Hayden, one of my personal heroes, the onetime radical and anti-Vietnam War protester, today a State Senator from California.
Gosh, I remember something one of my teachers told me back in middle school: "Work smart, not hard." What you are saying is that Bill Gates does not do as much physical labor as a Colombian coal miner et al. You fail to realize that it is the mental labor that really makes or breaks a persons career (coupled with motivation and discipline). Do you think that that same Colombian coal miner would be able to write a piece of software and then sell it to a library? That is what Gates and his amigos did back in school, and it worked out pretty well for them.
: And work is not a individualistic enterprise neither, at leats not the work involved in building and designing computer chips. When i see a man like Bill own, what is it, 25 billion dollars? it horrifies and saddens me, for I think of how many babies' lives could be saved for a couple of dollars, how many families could be fed for that muuch money, and how many peopel could be raised up to a decent standard of living. If Bill has 30 billion dollars, that could give 3,000 dollars to 10 million people worldwide.
:Can you tell a woman whose baby is dying because she couldn't afford 4 dollars worth of rehydration slats that Bill Gates' luxuris were mroe important than her child's life?
Bill Gates has created thousands of jobs for people, providing them with a means to support themselves. What horrifies me is your ad-miseracordial appeal in which you try to tug on the heartstrings of us and take the moral righteous upperhand. I have a question for you. If you believe all that stuff above, why don't you give all your money to needy people? How much are your assests? $50,000? 100,000? $500,000+? I am sure that even a trifling amount will still be able to feed a family for awhile, or put some kids through college. Sure it won't be on the same level as what Gates could do, but hell, it is a start. You really need to look more closely at your sense of ethics, why should Gates give up all his money and you shouldn't? How can you apply a standard to him which you seem to ignore for yourself altogether? Perhaps you better reexamine your ethics a little more closely.
:That's equivalent to raising an entire country ;like Burkina Faso to a middle class, reasonable standard of living. that he should have it and they, who really need it, should not is a testament to the fundamental injustice in the system.
Burkina Faso, eh? I thought socialism was turning it into a workers paradise....Oh yeah, I forgot, Captain Thomas Sankara, the messiah that he is, had a Judas amongst his ranks who knocked him off a little early. Guess we'll never know.....
