Summary
Bill Gates met with Trump and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles to advocate for continuing USAID’s foreign aid programs.
The Trump administration has frozen them amid scrutiny from Elon Musk.
Gates praised USAID as the world’s best development agency and warned its dismantling would be difficult to reverse.
While Trump and Wiles’ response was unclear, Gates noted he had not spoken with Musk, who has called USAID a “criminal organization” and pushed for deep federal workforce cuts.
And some of that money without a doubt makes it back to him through those private institutions. As well as the tax write offs that save you more money than what you donated.
Philanthropy is a distraction from the actual good that would be done if we never allowed money to be hoarded in the first place.
Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
The bill and Melinda gates foundation has done a lot of good though, which is more than can be said for most rich people. But yeah, I agree that no-one should be able to amass that much money, it’s obscene.
It would be objectively better to never allow wealth to be hoarded.
We should never even entertain the idea that philanthropy is helpful when it’s just stealing from the poor and giving a fraction back.