Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates: Misplaced Hate?

[BrentWil]

I got a kick out of another thread concerning Bill Gates Warren Buffet. They have both given huge amounts and the Gates foundation is a wonderful organization. However, with so much hatred going towards Mr. Gates, isn't it time some was turned towards Mr. Jobs. I found this article interesting because it picks up on a problem I have with Mr. Jobs. Mainly, not giving back.


With so much hatred for Mr. Gates, does anyone question why the current head of the largest technology firm (Apple just overtook Microsoft in market capitalization), doesn't get as much hatred as someone that is currently spending his life making the world better?

But these perceptions are wrong. In fact, the reality is reversed. It's Gates who's making a dent in the universe, and Jobs who's taking on the role of single-minded capitalist, seemingly oblivious to the broader needs of society.
Gates is giving away his fortune with the same gusto he spent acquiring it, throwing billions of dollars at solving global health problems. He has also spoken out on major policy issues, for example, by opposing proposals to cut back the inheritance tax.
In contrast, Jobs does not appear on any charitable contribution lists of note. And Jobs has said nary a word on behalf of important social issues, reserving his talents of persuasion for selling Apple products.
According to Forbes, Jobs was recently worth $3.3 billion which puts him among the 194th richest in the world, and makes him the 67th richest American. But the standings were shuffled on Tuesday with Disney's $7.4 billion acquisition of Pixar Animation -- a deal that makes Jobs' Pixar holdings alone worth some $3.7 billion.
But great wealth does not make a great man.
Giving USA Foundation, a philanthropy research group which publishes an annual charity survey, said Jobs does not appear on lists of gifts of $5 million or more over the last four years. Nor is his name on a list of gifts of $1 million or more compiled by Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy.
Jobs' wife is also absent from these philanthropic lists, although she has made dozens of political donations totaling tens of thousands of dollars to the Democrats, according to the Open Secrets database.


Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mac/commentary/cultofmac/2006/01/70072#ixzz0r8eLsYNL

[blogslut]

1. ...

:popcorn:

[tridim]

2. Jobs has been an asshole his entire career.

Apple employees have stated so many times.

[gateley]

5. I know scads of people who worked or still work for Microsoft, and Gates can

bee an asshole, too.

[tridim]

18. Gates doesn't work at Microsoft.

[gateley]

20. I meant when he DID work at Microsoft. He went in to work daily (and several

times a week I'd be driving next to him on 520 crossing Lake Washington). Didn't mean to imply I thought he was currently actively involved.

[gateley]

3. When Gates was still hands-on at Microsoft, he didn't give anything back, either.

It wasn't until after he was married, had kids, turned over the reins that he began his philanthropy. It's become his new job which he wouldn't have been able to devote as much time to while he was still at Microsoft.

I don't think the comparison is valid at this time.

[BrentWil]

9. Gates stop running day to day operations in 2006

Gates starting giving back WELL before he stopped working day to day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates#Philanthropy

In 1994 sold some of his Microsoft stock to create the William H. Gates Foundation. In 2000, Gates and his wife combined three family foundations into one to create the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the largest transparently operated charitable foundation in the world

[MyNameGoesHere]

10. Bill was married in 1994

and founded the William H. Gates Foundation. In 2000 it was renamed to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the largest transparently operated charitable foundation in the world.

And he continued at MS until 2008. So tell me do you just spew shit or do you research first?

[gateley]

12. I just spew shit. nt

[MyNameGoesHere]

14. Ha bravo and have a great day n/t

[BrentWil]

15. Too funny... you don't have actual facts, so you attack the person. NT

[BrentWil]

13. He announced in 2006 that he was stepping down..

Married or unmarried... the man has done a lot for many good causes.

[FLPanhandle]

4. They are both greedy.

Gates was outsourcing while laying off Americans to fatten his wallet. Giving some away now doesn't absolve him of that.

[n2doc]

6. Ask Teachers what they think of Gates

You might be surprised.

[redqueen]

7. Just a guess here... does his private charity spend a lot on school privatization?

Pushing it, I mean.

[BrentWil]

11. Have you looked at his actual results in education districts he has worked with and given money to?

NT

[n2doc]

16. He is heavily pushing Charter schools

AMY GOODMAN: Diane Ravitch, we said at the top of this segment that the Department of Education announced sixteen finalists for its first round of the “Race to the Top” competition. They’re going to deliver something like $4.35 billion in school reform grants. And the Washington Post is reporting almost all of these finalists got money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In your book, chapter ten is called "The Billionaire Boys Club." Explain.

DIANE RAVITCH: “The Billionaires Boys Club” is a discussion of how we’re in a new era of the foundations and their relation to education. We have never in the history of the United States had foundations with the wealth of the Gates Foundation and some of the other billionaire foundations—the Walton Family Foundation, The Broad Foundation. And these three foundations—Gates, Broad and Walton—are committed now to charter schools and to evaluating teachers by test scores. And that’s now the policy of the US Department of Education. We have never seen anything like this, where foundations had the ambition to direct national educational policy, and in fact are succeeding.
The Obama administration appointed somebody from the NewSchools Venture Fund to run this so-called "Race to the Top." The NewSchools Venture Fund exists to promote charter schools. So, what we’re seeing with the proliferation—with this demand from the federal government, if you want to be part of this $4 billion fund, you better be prepared to create lots more charter schools. Well, it’s all predetermined by who the personnel is. And, you know, so we see this immense influence of the foundations.
And I think that with the proliferation of charter schools, the bottom-line issue is the survival of public education, because we’re going to see many, many more privatized schools and no transparency as to who’s running them, where the money is going, and everything being determined by test scores.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/5/protests

You may think non-union, unregulated Charters and "teach to the test for your salary" are the way to go. I don't.

[Taverner]

8. When I worked at Apple, we feared him deeply

IN fact if you got into an elevator with him - - you hid your name badge

Not that it did any good, as he was fond of asking "So, what is it you do for me?"

[OhioChick]

17. ......

[redqueen]

19. Palast's article should be required reading.

http://www.morphizm.com/politix/palast/palast_gatesaids.html

[OhioChick]

21. Good read....

Thanks for posting.

Here's another gem:

Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan/07/nation/na-gatesx07

[redqueen]

23. Thanks... I knew that the Foundation's investments were the subject

of some controversy.

But what else can you do with all those unspent billions? Have to have your money making money, right? And why wouldn't you want to maximize that profit, regardless of the cost?

[Spike89]

22. Yeah, Bill backed away from Education

The foundation is mostly involved in health issues now. I'm inclined to give him some benefit of the doubt on the mistakes the foundation made in education, but I can't argue that the money he threw at the problem was directed well and some of his ideas were simply counterproductive--but he did and continues to try and use his money to help.

As to him being greedy, give me a break. What percentage of the MS workforce is U.S.-based and what percentage of MS business is in the U.S.? Software, even operating systems, are very much attached to the language and culture they are marketed in--you can't say the same for hardware, yet how much of Apple's hardware is made in the U.S.?

I think it goes without saying that any CEO (or former CEO) can easily be shown to have a greed index above the average person. However, in Gates you have a guy that that has literally given away billions over the last 15 years and in Jobs a guy that hasn't given enough to even make the philanthropy lists and you just talk about Gates' greed?

I'm not about to nominate either guy to sainthood--I really don't know them, just the stuff that has been published. The OP does bring up a very valid point. I'm certainly not anti-Apple, but I'm constantly amazed at how they get a total pass when they really aren't a "good" company--they just have the image.

[BrentWil]

25. +1

[Touchdown]

24. Do you just pull shit out of your ass and claim it's fact?

Where are these threads or Gates bashing parties you're talking about? I see none, and have seen none.

Jobs bashing parties on the other hand... Weekly on DU, and I see your's is this week's.

And, if the Gates Foundation is still pushing for universal circumcision to prevent AIDS, then he's worse. He's a butcher!