Very Generous

[gpalmer711]

The world’s richest man announced last week that his foundation will donate $750 million over the next decade to vaccinate children against easily preventable diseases such as diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and hepatitis.

Gates’ latest pledge comes on the heels of another $750 million donation made five years ago by his organization, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It brings his total commitment for vaccinating children worldwide to an astonishing $1.5 billion, and even outshines his $1 billion grant to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Gates’ wife, Melinda, told The New York Times the vaccines were “the best investment we’ve made.”

More than 42 million children have already been vaccinated against Hepatitis B, the world’s most common serious liver infection. And more than 4 million have received jabs for whooping cough, tetanus and diphtheria.

Gates is becoming to this century what Andrew Carnegie was to the last one. His initial $750 million donation was matched by other business titans, corporations and governments, proving the power of good deeds. The United States joined in the effort, giving $219 million over five years. Until Gates’ attention and money became focused on immunizing the world’s children, vaccination programs were largely an afterthought for many governments and donor nations. The foundation made a decision to invest not in experimen- tal cures that might take years to produce results, but instead to provide immediate help by underwriting proven but underfunded remedies.


Greg Palmer
Freeware Utilities for Windows Administrators.

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[gpalmer711]

While I disagree with any company making the sort of profit that Microsoft make. I'm glad that at least this is one man who is making a difference with it.

It was also announced today that Bill is donating the $3.2 Billion dividend payment he received in December to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

Greg Palmer
Freeware Utilities for Windows Administrators.

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[ChrisHunt]

Gatesy gets a lot of flak on this forum and others, so it's right that he should get some credit for this.

Mind you $750 million is probably the kind of amount he finds in his jeans pocket when he puts them out for the laundry...

-- Chris Hunt
Webmaster & Tragedian
Extra Connections Ltd

 

[mrdenny]

gpalmer,
I'd be interested to here by you don't think that Microsoft should be making the sort of profit that they are currently turning.

While I disagree with any company making the sort of profit that Microsoft make.

The reason that companies exist is to make a profit. And in fact the goal is to make the largest profit possible.

When companies go into business with a plan that doens't involve making a profit, they don't get the funding to procede. If they do get the funding to procede, they don't last long. (For reference, look at a large number of companies that failed during the bubble burt a few years ago.)

Is it because it's Microsoft that you don't want them to make a profit at the levels they currently are? What if you owned stock in Ford Motor Company (F), and they were turning a profit at the levels of Microsoft. Would you then be willing to look the other way? How about Apple, or Red-Hat, or Suse?

(Please keep in mind that I'm not looking to start a flame war, just a discussion. Also please excuse my bad spelling.)

Denny

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

(My very old site)

 

[MasterRacker]

I agree Chris. While Bill's giving might not be that great on a percentage basis, who cares? It's only the communists and socialists that think no one anywhere should be wealthy, and those who are should give it all away because someone else isn't.

Bill is giving a tremendous amount to charity and shuold be commended for it. I would love to see arrogant pricks like Larry Ellison, or Scott McNealy do something similar.



[purple]Jeff
It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day

 

[gpalmer711]

Hi Denny,

This is by no means a anti Microsoft slant that I am taking.

While I agree that companies exist to make a profit, I am just about to start my own company next week and certainly hope to turn a profit other wise I will not continue with it.

I also do not believe that there is a need to make this amount, Shell oil this week announced profits of something like 9 billion pounds (could be slightly different this is from memory). Why do they need 9 Billion in the bank?

This profit is after all the research, charitable donations, all wages etc...

I have always believed that companies should charge only what they need to pay all the bills and just a little extra so that they can expand if they so wish. If they make the sort of money that say Microsoft have then it should be pumped back into the business - either into more research or into lowering the costs of future products.

If Microsoft had spent just 1 of those billions on hiring people to probe the code of their main operating systems to find faults and then code the patches to fix them would their systems be more secure? I believe they would and they would still have made a giant profit.

I know that the way of the world is to make as much money as possible and I in no way begrudge any company of a profit they have made fairly. Good luck to Microsoft, I hope they continue to develop good usable software which will turn a profit for them, but perhaps in the future they will make strong positive reinvestment in the industry that has made them this profit.

It's only the communists and socialists that think no one anywhere should be wealthy, and those who are should give it all away because someone else isn't.

Well I certainly don't consider myself to be either of the two. However once someone reaches the level to wealthiness so that they and the next 2 generations of their family will easily be provided for why do they NEED any more money. This is not a knock as Bill (Someone who I admire greatly), but anyone who does have such a large amount of money and keeps it for themselves. There are so many people in this world who could survive for most of their lives with a weeks pay of some people yet they always want more.

Sports stars are a prime example, here in the UK Football players can earn up to around £100,000 per week. This is ridiculous, no-one NEEDs that level of income.

Greg Palmer
Freeware Utilities for Windows Administrators.

http://www.palmersoft.co.uk

 

[mrdenny]

The reason that these companies (Microsoft and Shell) need to earn these large profit is that if they don't people won't by the companies stock. If people stop buying and start selling a companies stock the stock price starts to fall, and the companies public value starts to fall with it.

It is gets to the point that there is to much public stock available the company will start buying back that stock, in order to keep it's valuation up. This requires cash to do.

Large profits for a company get passed back to the stock holders as dividends. If the company wasn't going to turn a large profit there would be no point in owning the stock, because there would be no cash reward at the end of the day.

Public companies are run much different that privetly help companies as they have stock holders to answer to.

I wish you the best with your company. And I hope that you can turn a handsome profit.

Denny

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

(My very old site)