“Until recently, Bill Gates has been viewed as the villain of the tech world, while his archrival, Steve Jobs, enjoys an almost saintly reputation,” Leander Kahney writes in a commentary for Wired News. “Gates is the cutthroat capitalist. A genius maybe, but one more interested in maximizing profits than perfecting technology. He’s the ultimate vengeful nerd. Ostracized at school, he gets the last laugh by bleeding us all dry.”
“On the other hand, Jobs has never seemed much concerned with business, though he’s been very successful at it of late. Instead, Jobs has been portrayed as a man of art and culture. He’s an aesthete, an artist; driven to make a dent in the universe,” Kahney writes. “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,” Kahney writes. “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.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Note that even Kahney, soaring in mid shark-jump, can’t bring himself to write that Gates “earned” his fortune; just “acquired.” How did Bill Gates get that all of that money? Did he somehow “acquire” it legally while illegally abusing a monopoly? What exactly did he do to get it? Dupe typewriter company IBM into using an “operating system” he picked up for a song, constantly fake the Mac operating systems over the years, buy some companies, pretend to be innovative, etc? Bill Gates is a business genius, sure. He’s not a software genius. He’s not a visionary. He’s been following Steve Jobs for decades now and pretending to be a tech leader. In case you missed it: Windows is an upside down and backwards Mac, folks. Gates put the icons on the left side of his fake Desktop, renamed Trash to Recycle Bin, ran the whole thing through Microsoft’s patented “Intuition Destroyer,” boxed it up and hired The Stones. For this he deserves our adulation?! Sorry, but we’ll have to pass, Leander, as we’re still in our right minds.
Leander, we read about Robin Hood. We know about Robin Hood. Robin Hood could’ve been a friend of ours. Leander, Gates is no Robin Hood. Don’t believe everything you read in TIme.
As Kahney writes, Steve Jobs is an intensely private man. Kahney suggests that Jobs could be giving vast sums in private, without publicizing it. It is appallingly crass for Kahney to criticize Jobs and then praise Gates for publicizing his every contribution. Kaheny actually has the gall to write, “On the evidence, [Jobs is] nothing more than a greedy capitalist who’s amassed an obscene fortune. It’s shameful. In almost every way, Gates is much more deserving of Jobs’ rock star exaltation.” Kahney must have lost his mind; from jealousy perhaps? Hey, as long as it’s high season for impugning people’s motives willy nilly and without any facts, let’s go! How’s it feel, Leander?
The way in which people approach charity, how much money people give or don’t give to charity, and which charities they may or may not support is none of Leander Kahney’s or anybody else’s damn business.
Our advice to Kahney is to put down the TIme Magazine, go read Jobs’ 2005 Commencement Address to Stanford University, and take Jobs’ advice to heart, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
Gates is like Robin Hood, takes from the intellectually rich and then gives some to the poor (enough for a good tax break no doubt)
But please don’t let him dress in tights when in public!
The real question is, what has Kahney done with his money since he is in the wallet of Jobs? People can be so critical but never look in the mirror. I bet I will never see his name on any list for donating anything.
The problem with the article is that the author doesn’t KNOW how much Jobs contributes to charity, so based on what he KNOWS, Jobs is a greedy tightwad. What kind of logic is that?
Every opinion is entitled to an @$$hol3 Kahney is it.
So people are getting in a bother because *they don’t know* what Jobs does with his money? Wait, isn’t that just saying that they’re freaking out *because* they’re ignorant? How do you prove a negative? How do you *prove* that Jobs doesn’t contribute based on one’s own ignorance? It’s patently ridiculous.
How much Gates gives is not my concern. He does seem to be following the path trod by many other philanthropists, and if so, he will be remembered for his generosity long after Microsoft, Inc. is dead and gone. He seems to have changed his focus and that may not be such a bad way to look at it, guys.
Rob Said
“Let’s keep this in perspective…
For Bill Gates to donate $1 Billion to charity equals the equivalent of him donating about 2% of his total fortune. The other 98% he keeps for himself.
Now with that in mind, is that really saint worthy? And obviously he could afford to do much, much more to be quite frank about it. Does he deserve credit? Yes. But he certainly won’t be a candidate for sainthood anytime soon for giving up 2% of his net worth to something worthwhile.”
(this is a question, not a statement of my opinion as fact)
Just had a thought, most charitable foundations make investments that give returns on gains in stock price and etc. If Bill put 1B into the foundation (pulling $$amount out of the air for illustration) The foundation invested the $$, and used the return on investment to fund those charitable contributions. Bill puts down a one time amount, (the small 2%) and gets an entire lifetime of accoloades and recognition without EVER having to give anothern cent? Is that the way the Gates foundation works? If so his ‘personal’ contribution certainly isn’t continuous and ongoing
Does anyone know if this is the case?
IIRC, Gate’s gift giving coincided with the Federal monopoly trials. He needed some good PR. He and his wife seem to have kept it up, which is good, and is still good PR. He’s still pursuing monopolistic actions here and in Europe.
Steve won’t tell you (or “journalists”) what he’s introducing at the next “One More Thing” press conference. Why should he tell you what he spends his money on?
Leander says “It’s shameful.” Tell me Leander, what percentage of your wealth goes to charities? Who made you the charity police? Why are YOU jealous of Steve’s success?
This is a pure Swift-Boating exercise. Start with no facts, make shit up and tear down a successful person.
Further, we should also judge Gates on his ulterior motives, which of course would be difficult to pinpoint. We may be surprised to find his attention-seeking motives ultimately are to puff him up even more than he is. As well, I believe Steve Jobs’ wife is active in ways Steve is not and she seems to have reasonable, not self-seeking directives.
Think Andrew Carnegie.
He is remembered today for Carnegie Hall and all the libraries he built.However once you learn what he did to get those millions, his shine dulls to a sickly brown. Same applies to the Rockefellers, the Kennedys, Astors and so on with varying results.
Gates, while worthy of praise for his charities is not innocent. While hardly a scumbag on the scale of Carnegie and Rockefeller he is no saint.
You people are idiots. Bill Gates has given more than $29 billion to charitable causes. He’s almost single-handedly attacking polio in India. He’s very clearly doing a lot of good for the world. And for MDN to pretend that’s not significant, or any different than was Rockefelller and others did more than a century ago is to show just how out of touch with reality they truly are.
Sure Bill Gates did a lot of bad things, but he was only reflecting the generation he grew up in. It’s not more evil than most other business people over the past 30 years. He’s actually pretty typical. Just luckier than they are.
Steve Jobs has always been a person who prefers privacy. And that’s cool. And the author is completely out of line to attack him without evidence. And to mention Jobs might be better if he is being private about his donations is a good thing – except he then ignores his own statement and goes on to pronounce as fact that Jobs is a scumbag.
The author is wrong about Jobs, he’s right about Gates, and MDN’s bigotry related to all things Microsoft makes them just as hypocritical as the author.
How come nobody ever asks the obvious question of the ultra wealthy?
Would all those people you’re giving charity to needed it if you hadn’t sucked $45,000,000,000 out of the economy for your own selfish interests? Just how much money do you need?
P.S. I have it on good authority he considers charity to be communism. If there were no tax breaks for charity, there would be no Gates Foundation.
Oh, and what’s with M$ Small Business Server Ad?
My sympathies to “Mother Theresa”… the one in the little pointy chapeau, sitting in the corner… that’s you. Bill Gates never gave a dime to anything prior to marrying Melinda. If any credit is to be given, she is the deserving party.
After reading these comments, we truly are a worthless society.
Someone please press the button.
Check out the dates of his giving. History and all that.
His giving stems from two issues: the chiding of bridge pal, Warren Buffet, to become philanthropic and to offset negative perception at the beginning of Microsoft’s Justice Department woes.
Remember the old commercials of Bill and Steve in cardigans in a schoolroom, talking about how bright the future was with Microsoft was? Came out at the same time.
Also, not to totally denigrate the use of the Foundation’s wealth in towards world health issues (with much PR and coverage), there is also a lot of personal and Foundation wealth that is spent in areas of the world and programs that only further Microsoft’s stranglehold on key markets. (See India, educational grants, etc.)
KATE,
Please tell me how an iPod or a Mac running OSX helps someone starving in the streets of India, or that is dieing or crippled from Polio?
While we don’t know what Steve is or isn’t contributing, and it isn’t any of our business, I can assure you that when a mother watches her child starve to death she isn’t thankfully to at least have iTunes. You dumbass.
Oh no! Somebody said something bad about Steve Jobs! Flame away, lemmings!
This is NOT a zero-sum game. Kahney paints Bill as all-good, and Steve as all-bad in the charity game.
Let’s be fair. Steve hasn’t been bloody Bill Gates-rich for very long. He makes $1 a year from Apple. His stock, $800M worth won’t vest until later this year. He can’t give away what he doesn’t have. As for his $3.7B of Pixar/Disney stock, is it “restricted” so he can’t sell in the public market? Many founders have restrictions on their shares. Plus, Pixar is barely 10 years old, and hasn’t been public for a decade yet. Steve’s fortune is much more recent than Bill’s. Steve is still building his fortune, while Bill is already in the phase of disbursement, as MS is not getting bigger. I mean, Bill is essentially retired, isn’t he, as Chief Software Architect, doesn’t he just give speeches, and write checks?
In 10 years, if Steve hasn’t given any donations to charity, I’d be a little surprised, but to compare Steve to Bill at this stage of their productive lives is unfair.
Ken,
So you think Steve only makes a dollar a year huh? Ever try to pay your mortgage and electrics on just a dollar. Oh I know, maybe Steve make his wife work, just until the stock vests.
Again I don’t know or care what Steve contributes, but why is everyone else here, who also don’t know, jumping to his defense?
MW/KNEW- Even if we “knew” what Steve is worth, it’s still none of our business.
It’s a good idea for Gates to give much to education…then Apple can follow through with Apple hardware when the PCs fail.
Cornell just got $25 million from Gates
So let’s hope for the best
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The philanthopy of American capitalists is not emulated in all parts of the world. It would be wise to appreciate and encourage this activity. Bill Gates does contribute to very worthwhile causes with donations that rival those provided by nations, but without the political baggage. Such acts are commendable and should be encouraged. The social prestige that results encourages others to do the same.
J U D G E N O T OR Y O U W I L L B E J U D G E D ! ! ! !
First, I was reluctant to post just because so many others have already commented on the issue. But when I started to read the poison spewing from the mouths of people on BOTH sides I had to come in….
Commments on comments:
[1] “SJ is the embodiment of how an individual can use the power of the market for positive ends.”
*** I can’t believe I am even giving any credibility to this statement by responding to it, BUT, I am sorry to say Kate that computers are not going to save the world. That statement came straight out of Jones Town.
[2] “P.S. I have it on good authority he (ED: Bill Gates) considers charity to be communism…..”
*** Your “good authority” better get logical. If you are CHOOSING to give money away that is not communism.
[3] “After reading these comments, we truly are a worthless society.
Someone please press the button.”
*** Sadly, I must agree, and the responses by the Mac community to this article are absolutely child-like. It’s no wonder Windows users call us snobs!
NEXT PLANET PLEASE………
Jerry T insulted KATE with
“KATE,
Please tell me how an iPod or a Mac running OSX helps someone starving in the streets of India, or that is dieing or crippled from Polio?
While we don’t know what Steve is or isn’t contributing, and it isn’t any of our business, I can assure you that when a mother watches her child starve to death she isn’t thankfully to at least have iTunes. You dumbass.”
Well Jerry, If you want to get really technical, the human genome mapping project is done on mac server clusters, and the results are hauled around on iPods….. Go ahead, tell us all that the mapping project research doesn’t make a difference..
Jerry T — don’t be a f-cking idiot. Generating PROFITS for the company you run in a capitalist system benefits almost EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!
Creating wealth, employing people, growing a company so that it’s products and services benefit mankind — ohhh, yaah, such “terrible, terrible” things these are. Asswipe.
Let’s compare that to “charity”. Most of which is sucked up by overhead and salaries and travel junkets and graft . . . how much REALLY does any good? Except, of course, to make the “giver” feel better about himself. That’s all Gates is f-cking doing, the scumbag. That, and assuaging the Feds about the monopoly abuse while bettering his tax debt bottom line.
Oh, and “Mother Theresa” up there- shut the hell up from the grave. You were one of the biggest scumbags when you were alive, filling the church’s coffers while hardly any of the millions upon millions of dollars given to you actually reached the poor at all! Calcutta still poor as dirt, should have some of the best clinics in existence with all the mullah you pocketed. Read Christopher Hitchens reports for the real scoop.
Dirtbag.
Darknite,
I dig what you are saying, but Kate wasn’t talking about the “genome” project. She was talking about “aesthetically-pleasing products”. Read the post I’m referring to before you flame me bad boy.
So, as I stated, the starving in Calcutta don’t give a shit about iPods. They don’t help them one bit! They wouldn’t know what a Powerbook was, even if you served a Curry on it.
Is that your mom calling, I thought so.