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Elon Musk is responsible for “killing the world’s poorest children,” says Bill Gates
(arstechnica.com)
this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
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So are you Bill. You utter piece of shit.
Fuck all Billionaires
"I haven't killed as many kids in so short a timeframe," is the implication here.
Bill Gates might hold the record for number of starving babies saved and illnesses cured, though.
Even if you think his wealth is stolen, can you prove the average american would have done more good with it?
But plenty of Americans are still dying of malnutrition, dehydration, heat stroke, hypothermia, and many other preventable diseases. You think we'd be worse off if the average American had more money?
And nothing against helping starving children in foreign countries or whatnot, but if we're so bad off that people think more police and prisons are the answer we're clearly underinvesting in our own well-being.
Dehydration is a major cause of pediatric illness and death worldwide, some number between 14% and 30% of fatalities in infants and toddlers.
In the USA it does not even make the top 10, with some number lower than 1.6% according to the CDC.
You're actually required by law to provide drinkable water to people who ask in some states, though there is no federal recognition. There are also many programs to assist with heating and cooling for those who cannot afford it.
You don't deserve an extra side of fries more than a starving child in Afghanistan. Get over yourself.
Side of fries? How about a side of affordable housing, affordable health care, and free quality education?
Assume Bill Gates is worth 102,200,000,000 according to Forbes
That could be split evenly among 340 Million americans as $300 each.
Can you afford housing and education with an extra $300?
Not all of us need $300. I don't and I'm not asking for it. I'm asking for more help for the people that will die or turn to crime because their needs aren't met.
Americans have the power to vote for that without needing Bill Gates to do a single thing about it.
I’m out of the loop.
I’m not down with hoarding of wealth or the shit software he’s made, but what are the allegations against Gates? (The legit ones, not the “he’s putting microchips in Covid vaccines” shit)
During the pandemic, he crippled COVID-19 vaccination efforts in the global south by pressuring Oxford not to open source their vaccine.
https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-world-loses-under-bill-gates-vaccine-colonialism/
https://archive.ph/2024.10.22-141139/https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-world-loses-under-bill-gates-vaccine-colonialism/
The Gates Foundation backpedaled that stance shortly after. Their initial objection was over quality assurance.
can you provide a source for this?
Who is he to decide this? He is not an epidemiologist or a public health expert or a leader of a low-resource nation or even a health professional. He's a tech billionaire. This is exactly the problem.
Many large US companies, including pharmaceutical drug retailers, directly invest in the Gates Foundation Trust, creating a massive conflict of interest which is rarely talked about.
https://healthscienceandlaw.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Public-Interest-Position.WHO_.FENSAGates.Jan2017.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/science/16malaria.html
Literally the first search result LINK
He was cohosting the multinational committee event for Gavi, a vaccine alliance which includes the WHO ans UNICEFF. He is widely respected there because he runs an organization which spent decades of providing medicines and vaccines across the globe.
This appears to be just a statement of support for "narrow" patent waviers during the pandemic. This is not the same as open licensing the Oxford vaccine and calling this "backpedaling" is misleading at best.
Goalpost successfully shifted, gj team
Question is, how many vaccines would those countries have got if it wasn't patented?
AstraZeneca sold the vaccines without making a profit
Gates has history of lawsuits against open source projects. And he actively donates against any real systemic change. For example he has invested heavily in carbon capture technology which is useless to making impact to climate change.
Just imagine a World where ALL governments, ALL schools of all countries did not have to pay a fee to the then world richest man.
Imagine if a fraction of those governments invested instead on infrastructure, both physical (imagine literal bridges going to schools) and software (as some are doing now) or better paid teachers. Imagine that some of that money would be invested in Linux, gcompris, etc.
That's the genuine cost of Gates wealth.
Think I'm a "communist" for thinking that? Well I guess then the American DoJ is on that boat too because the 2001 antitrust law case was a landmark, not a matter of my opinion.
So... yes, he's a billionaire who did donate a lot of money, but how did he get that money in the first place? It wasn't his to donate to.
Bonus : as others also highlighted Gates isn't sadly just about software, he's also, unfortunately, about intellectual property more broadly (because that is how he made his fortune) in health business (not health care) cf e.g. https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-world-loses-under-bill-gates-vaccine-colonialism/
If he stole tens of billions from the Americans then donated it to starving children in the poorest region, isn't that still a net possitive? It's like the tech dystopian Robin Hood.
In your analogy that'd still be Robin Hood coming from a very rich family, accumulating more wealth that anybody he knows around him, fighting with his best friends to keep more, getting indicted by the most powerful government on Earth because he abused his power... then giving only a very small fraction of his wealth to some starving children while still sitting in his mansions, accumulating still more money without working.
That's not the Robin Hood of my childhood to say the least. To me that's clearly not a net positive.
I do recommend listening to the episode of Behind the Bastards to get a clearer view of the entire process, not "just" imagining a "net positive" outcome regardless of the path that lead to it.
Edit : sorry but while re-reading what I wrote, somehow confabulating the richest man on Earth for years to Robin Hood shows how excellent his PR work was. Like... what the fuck?!
Edit2: oh yeah and Robin Hood would fight for Big Pharma during a worldwide pandemic, ... no, absolutely NOT Robin Hood.
Small Fraction?! It's been over 90% of income for decades, recently he's vowed to distribute 99% of not just income but total wealth.
"Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's wealthiest person for 18 out of 24 years between 1995 and 2017, including 13 years consecutively from 1995 to 2007. He became the first centibillionaire in 1999, when his net worth briefly surpassed $100 billion. According to Forbes, as of May 2025, his net worth stood at US$113 billion, making him the thirteenth-richest individual in the world."
Wake up. Not Robin Hood.
That doesn't argue any of the things that I said.
That's fine, you're missing the point as I clearly don't manage to explain it clearly enough for you so please document yourself anywhere else you want. I gave you few sources but feel free to search elsewhere. Take care.
Motherfucker met with Epstein multiple times. That should be enough to say he is just as bad as Elon.
He is also buying up farm land for pennies on the dollar for himself. His education reform was such a painful failure we continue to pay for it. The gates foundation thought they knew mkre than educators and spent a shit ton of money to run an experiment."aimed at making teachers more effective" my ass. How do you make people more effective when you don't listen to their needs? Time and time again bill turned educators away or straight up didn't listen to them when they expressed concerns. Kinda reminds me of doge raiding the department of education now that I think about it. Bill just fucked shit up in a more clean non obvious manner.
He continues to hoard his wealth and placate everyone with his "i am going to donate a lot, don't worry fellas" statements. Bill why are you waiting til 2045 to donate $200 billion? Why not fight elon now if you are so worried? Because he isn't.
He is evil just like the rest of them. He has just done a better job at reorganizing the skeletons in the closet over the years to stop people questioning.
Yeah this just seems like a troll or argument for the sake of argument. It’s just too preposterous an argument
Did Melon discover Lemmy?
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/part-one-the-ballad-of-bill-83715310/
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/part-two-the-ballad-of-bill-83806379/
I must have missed those, thanks for reminding me. Btw can u recommed podcast similiar to behind the bastards.
Well, if you like BtB, you’ll probably enjoy any and all Cool Zone Media pods.
But if I take similar here to mean: Episodic true history that is partly educational, partly comedic, with an air of “How the fuck did this ever happen?”
There are a few that fit:
Some other ones that I always recommend:
Thanks for the list! I have started to "You Are Not So Smart" and I already like it.
Oh, I didn't know he had a podcast! Added, thanks
He's the lesser of two weevils, though.
Let him out his money where his mouth is
He kinda already has. Supposedly already over 100B in charitable donations and has pledged another 100B (basically all of his fortune at) over the next 20 years
The lesser of two evils are still evil
Yep. Equally evil.
I can see how these look the same. /s
Woosh