Bill Gates — help me like this guy

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I have been searching for something to like about this man, but it ain’t easy.

It can’t be the 10th rate, bug-ridden, unsecure software he has unleashed on the world…

Nor can it be the billions he has collected from people including poor third world citizens who have to use Windoze (some of which money he is now handing back as charity, with no sense of irony)…

His looks perhaps? Clearly not…

Oh, wait a minute. I heard that he had said he would not leave any money for his kids. But on closer inspection, he is going to leave $10 million for each, and give away the rest. Sigh… sorry Bill, there is nothing I like about you. 🙁

For the record, I don’t believe in leaving anything of material value for our kids — barring sentimental stuff. I don’t believe in lowering inheritance tax, but raising it. And I do not believe in Margaret Thatcher’s vision of “wealth cascading through the generations“. We should give our children a good education, teach them civil behaviour, morality and everything else we know. Then they will not need our money to move on. Inheritance is a way of keeping the rich rich and the poor poor. And if we knew we could not pass on our wealth, we wouldn’t try to line our pockets beyond our own needs.

So Bill is thinking along the right lines, but has a way to go to win my affection. He’ll be disappointed, I’m sure. 😉

Category: Money | Tags: ,

11 comments on “Bill Gates — help me like this guy

  1. Good point Kaveh. Holistically speaking one might say “everything’s a metaphor for everything else” Ha..!

    BILL- Charge of a financial Cost based on “Ownership of property” .. (defining the “White Man”s approach?)

    GATES – Means of obstruction to free passage as part of a system of walls to exclude or imprison. (Separation – expressing “Selfish”)

    MONEY – Root problem? – all goods are perishable (but not the token of barter) Solution to the problem = make the “interest” applied to Money a negative # ..!

    Our present monetary system generates a necessity for endless growth, embodies linear thinking, defies the cyclical patterns of nature, and drives the relentless conversion of all forms of wealth into currency. Furthermore, the concept of “interest” is the wellspring of our economy’s ever-intensifying competition, systemic scarcity, and concentration of wealth. Interest is tied into how we see ourselves as separate, competing subjects seeking to gather more and more of the world within the boundaries of “mine.”
    Today, however, the human identity is undergoing a profound metamorphosis. Part of this shift in our conception of self and world will be a new system of money consonant with the new human being.

    Prosperity is relating, not acquiring.

    http://www.realitysandwich.com/money_a_new_beginning_part_2

  2. Kaveh,

    I hope you haven’t missed this one :
    http://www.osnews.com/story/19921/Full-Text-an-Epic-Bill-Gates-e-Mail-Rant

    and, this one in India
    http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/11/17/0120203.shtml

    cheers 🙂

    Milovann

  3. Haha. I missed that, Milovann. Thanks. I am in Kerala now… I think the free software guys are winning though. By the way we set up FSF India in 2000. Richard Stallman stayed at our place…

  4. I just realised these guys wrote to us a while ago, asking us to advertise in their “souvenir”. My partner, Radhakrishnan launched a scathing attack on them for pretending to support free software but asking for money, and attaching the info as a Word file!! Here is some of the letter:

    =========================

    Kind Attn. Mr. C.V. Radhakrishnan

    Dear Sir

    Cochin University of Science and Technology is organizing “National
    Conference on Free Software 2008, Kochi” on 15-16th November 2008 in
    collaboration with IT@School Govt. of Kerala, Open Software Solutions
    Industrial Co-Operative Society Ltd. Kochi (OSSICS) and Appropriate
    Technology Promotion Society (ATPS) Ernakulam. The conference will be
    inaugurated by Honorable Chief Minister of Kerala Sri. V. S.
    Achuthanandan.

    Kindly visit the web site of the conference
    ( http://nfm2008.atps.in)

    We request your whole-hearted cooperation in making our endeavor a success
    by releasing an advertisement of your esteemed firm in the Souvenir.

    Kindly see the attachment for conference details, tariff rates and order
    form.

    Sincerely

  5. “””By the way we set up FSF India in 2000″””

    Your the man !

    “””Richard Stallman stayed at our place…”””

    🙂

    I’ve saw him in Paris last year for a conference – he did all the talk in french ! I was amazed…

    I have so much respect for ‘rms’…You will tell me about him next time we meet.

    You know, I feel people around me starting to be very interested in free software, I’m no more the crazy guy 🙂 here in Paris.

  6. Well, Milovann, either we are crazy or the rest of the world. Even if the former, I am honoured to be in the midst of the crazy ones. 🙂

  7. I will be happy with just a few buck’s. Any way i don’t think it is
    fair to borrow money from people!!!!
  8. you are a good man please i request to send me some money
  9. No problem Amir. I hope $10,000 is enough…
  10. please sir send me this money to my area okay goodbye thank you.
  11. where are you mr Kaveh.