Bill Gates Will Save 7.5 Million Kids This Decade

[Zetsubou]

Bill Gates Will Save 7.5 Million Kids This Decade

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Bill and his wife Melinda said that their vaccine program will focus on diseases such as AIDS....

Wait wait wait, hold up. We have a vaccine for AIDS? Or are they just pouring money into development on that one?

 

[Zenode]

I wondered what Gates was doing with his $80 billion dollars all this time.

 

[UsefulPlayer 1]

That's really nice to know. Gates really has a great track record of being awesome.

 

[Dommyboy]

I'm sure I would do the same if I had a few billion lying around.

 

[Tears of Blood]

This is really qutie heartwarming. =]

 

[Woodsey]

That's incredible - good on him!

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Sorry...

Bill is worth $50 billion. His house is worth $125 million.

Giving away 1/5 of his income has produced wonderful results, but would any of us be held in the same manner for similar donations?

Again, I'm sorry but...it's a lot easier to be a philanthropist once you have the money you've made off of other people.

It's also a lot easier to be a philanthropist when it's a tax write off, it still doesn't change the fact that he is one. It doesn't really matter how noble the intentions are, as long as the end result is that 10 billion dollars got put towards vaccines, who cares? Plus, even for someone like bill gates, 10 billion is a lot of fucking money. Granted it's a lot of fucking money he probably doesn't need, but still.

 

[Kollega]

Again, I'm sorry but...it's a lot easier to be a philanthropist once you have the money you've made off of other people.

Still, it's not easy to give back what you took. Most moneybags don't bother at all. He's no Messiah, but better than Bobby Kotick.

 

[Abedeus]

More vaccines = more dangerous diseases... They are not a miracle. Granted, they save more lives than hurt, but still, it's not like they have no drawbacks.

 

[Duol]

Great...
Not like they need food or anything? Or clothes? Or shelter? Or getting rid of horrible dictators?
Sorry but why vaccinate people so they can continue to live longer in poverty? Just exacerbates the problem.
Provide the basics for the people that are already there. Then worry about vaccines...
That's just my pessimistic opinion though. At least he's doing something of magnitude, unlike most people with simillar quantities of wealth.

Wouldn't it be better to try to cure as many diseases as possible to stop them from spreading and then try to help living conditions. If you do it the other way around you then have more people with more diseases to cure but this way you get rid of a greater percentage of diseases and after that you can work on everything else.

This.

Sorry Duol, but your argument makes very little sense. Vaccinations are usually done as early as possible to prevent disease. Newborns don't tend to be dying of starvation quite yet, and they stand a better chance of survival if hungry but without disease than they do if hungry with a disease or even if well fed with a disease. Most of these diseases don't come from the fact they are starving.

Besides, this will still save lives and is much more efficient than the alternative. A single dose of a vaccination is considerably cheaper than providing clean water + a house + waste disposal + food for that one same person and will still help massively. Sure, we could provide all those things if every billionaire on the planet got together and donated the same money as Gates all at once, but funnily enough, he's pretty much encouraging them to do just that. He may be a billionaire but he's still just one person doing as much as he can.

As for horrible dictators, do you think Bill Gates has his own private army? If you want to complain about that then complain to the government. Heck, the US and UK go to war to get rid of one dictator in Iraq but won't do the same in Africa or North Korea? Yeah, way to ***** in the complete wrong direction.

Sorry dude, but it just looks like you're looking for a reason to criticise.

First of all: I'm not bitching. If you read my previous post you would see that I agree he is doing a lot better things with his money that many others. I just see no reason to bow down just because he is doing so. My feelings stem from the fact that I am not a great believer in charity.
Why you might ask?
I was always suspicous of what actually happens with all the money and aid that gets sent to some of these places. Afterall, it sounds like an awfull lot of money and aid, yet there are almost no results to show for it.
So, 2 years ago I took part in a trip to Tanzania to help build classrooms for some of the children in a community. Our school goes every year and raises money for 3-5 classrooms and then about 20 students go help build one of the classroms for a 4-5 days in combination with some sighstseeing.
When we got to the sight the first thing we saw was last years classroom in disuse. They had not finished the classrooms for which we had provided materials last year, meaning weeds had destroyed most of the valuble concrete (concrete is one of the most expensive building materials to them). Then we asked them where they wanted more classroms? They said they didnt want us to build more classrooms, but an administrative building...
WTF???
There are about 8 teachers at that school, and they already use what used to be the biggest classrom as a teacher/admin room.
This story goes on and on but I feel I've rambled too much already.

To put shortly this is when I lost faith in charity completely. I don't feel it is ultimately a solution to the bigger problem. Yet is helpss stabalize but ultimately a more pragmatic solution is the only real way...
If only I knew what that was.

 

[Fat Hippo]

Say what you will about Microsoft being evil, but at least he's doing something GOOD with his money.

Besides, it it will prevent severe diarrhea, I'm all for it!

 

[Outlaw Torn]

He could have used those $10 billion to give himself an adamantium skeleton or build an Iron Man suit. Silly man.

 

[Sevre]

maybe Jobs can save 750.000 kids with his new iPad money.

I find it hilarious you think anyone is going to buy that.

 

[Svenparty]

It has been reported he found the money down the back of his Sofa.

Is this a "Pre Microsoft" phoo of Gates or is the Pimp hat and Cane only worn for company meetings?

 

[Alphavillain]

Yeah, I don't understand people that hate Bill Gates. They tend to be the same people that love Apple, and they tend to write "Micro$oft", but never, for example, "$ony", or "$amsung" (because those are non-American companies, or because they resent MS?).

The guy's been very successful and he's giving a lot back: what's wrong with that?

 

[tmujir955]

The man deserves a statue made of pure gold.

He'll probably just donate it to charity.

 

[Just Joe]

Wait, so you only get 1 karma point per life saved? Aw, shit.