Sweet Justice

From a 1999 Reason article:

Joel Klein is a famous man. The head of the Antitrust Division at the U.S. Department of Justice usually toils in anonymity, known only to the in-groups of the bar. Not Klein. He has sued Microsoft, the most prominent company in America's jazziest industry, and demonized the world's richest human, Bill Gates…

Yesterday, the evil Gates finally exacted revenge: His foundation donated $51 million to help the New York City public school system, which Klein now runs.

Comments

[Jason Ligon]

Lefty,

I love giving to the less fortunate. I can't think of a less effective way of doing so than by giving money to the UN.

However fast you think you can turn a billion dollars in value into a thousand dollars in aid to the people, the UN can do it faster.

Turner would have been better off helping people create businesses in foreign lands, and Gates would have been better off funding the fight for a functioning market in education.

I criticize not the intent, but the outcome.

[matt]

Instead of throwing the 51 million away, maybe he could have opened a private school or something in an inner city so some kids might actually be able to learn something.

[Doug]

Here's what Steve Jobs told Wired many years back ...

"You're not going to solve the problems (of schools) by putting all knowledge onto CD-ROMs. We can put a Web Site in every school -- none of this is bad. It's bad only if it lulls us into thinking we're doing something to solve the problem with education.

"Lincoln did not have a Web site at the log cabin where his parents home-schooled him, and he turned out pretty interesting. Historical precedent shows that we can turn out amazing human beings without technology. Precedent also shows that we can turn out very uninteresting human beings with technology."

Computers will not solve a school problem

[Lefty]

Actually, Gates' (and any other large foundation) gifts come with a lot of attached strings. They are also watched like hawks by the giver, the receiver and the IRS for any signs of abuse.

When you give that kind of money you can control course content, employee qualifications, class size and a whole raft of other stuff. Saint Paul recently turned down a Gates school grant because they would have to rebuild a school to meet the design requirements.

[EgoLadenDilettanteGuy]

Actually, Doug (and Steve if you're reading this), I understand Lincoln's education was a self-directed affair. Apparently, dad was a drunk who beat young Abe, ridiculed his reading, threw out his books and once killed his pet pig.
Not sure how this affects Jobs' point. Might actually make it stronger.

[Anonymous]

"Black holes" = Poor children?

With attitudes like that, libertarians deserve to dwell on the fringe. I laughed at that blue-skinned guy you ran for president- I didn't realize he was actually the best you could do.

[EgoLadenDilettanteGuy]

Anonymous @03:31 PM, the libertarians that post here use a kind of short-hand--it's not that they don't care about children; it's just that they don't see any of the 51 mill poured into the New York public school system actually helping any poor children. I write to forestall any libertarian answering you. They would be nastier to your not getting it.

Gotta disagree with stich: when it comes to pouring money into things, there ARE bottomless pits. Some of 'em suck the money away from the intended beneficiary even quicker, the more you put in. New public school system? It's probably one.

[joe]

That's funny, I thought Bill Gates was a broken man, impoverished and embittered by the Gestapo-like oppression of the anti-trust division.

I wonder if the wounds from the torture sessions have healed yet.

[erf]

Clever.
Amd nice.

[Del]

What a sorry waste of $51 million. I guess even a really smart, rich guy doesn't recognize a monetary black hole when he sees one.

[R.C. Dean]

Too bad he didn't dangle the money, and then pull it back on the grounds that he really didn't want to be associated with a monopolist like the public school system.

[Anonymous]

Well, there could be some tax benefits.

[Glug]

Gosh. Me think real surprise. Me think maybe just like coincidental recent release of Microsoft Government 2000.

[Jason Ligon]

Joe,

He doesn't have to be a broken man to be treated in an absurd manner by the government. Either the case had merit or it didn't. Same with Martha Stewart.

Glug,

Me think lesson is pay mob. They leave you alone for little bit.

[Stich]

I'm sure Bill understands that his act of altruism was the equivalent of throwing it down a dark hole. Of course, all dark holes have bottoms, so it's actually not like that at all.

[Jon H]

"I'm sure Bill understands that his act of altruism was the equivalent of throwing it down a dark hole. "

If I'm not mistaken, plenty of his altruistic donations would be considered the equivalent of throwing it down a dark hole, at least in these parts.

[Jason Ligon]

Ted Turner gives to the UN or Gates gives to public school monopoly, which is the bigger mistake?

Opinions?

[Lefty]

You guys are unbelievable. Last week trial lawyers are hammered for giving to charity and now Gates and Turner get the raspberry for giving to inner city public schools and the victims of war in poor countries (yes, the money is designated).

I've seen the "elitist" term sneered at the left many times on this site. I can't think of a better description, though, for folks who denigrate philanthropy to the less fortunate.

[Billy Beck]

"It may be argued that Texas millionaires are a specially inhibited and unimaginative breed, predisposed from birth to the inanities of football, drum majorettes, and private flying machines, and that elsewhere in the land rich men rise above this level of tastelessness and conformity, but the argument, alas, is not valid. Fords, Rockefellers, Morgans, Mellons, and Vanderbilts to a man are given to public good works and private lives of the most revolting probity. Among the inheritors of great names and great fortunes in America it is difficult if not impossible to find a living man who has given a dinner party at which nude chorus girls leaped from the innards of a lamb potpie."

(Lucius Beebe -- "The Big Spenders", 1966)

How unbearably sad.

I'm tellin' ya: it's The Endarkenment.

[Pedraza Aurora]

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DATE: 05/20/2004 01:14:50
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