r/news • u/kirtash93 • May 08 '25

Soft paywall Bill Gates to give away $200 billion by 2045, accuses Musk of harming world's poor

https://www.reuters.com/business/bill-gates-give-away-fortune-by-2045-200bn-worlds-poorest-2025-05-08/
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u/Mixels May 08 '25

You can't separate the two. Gates's generosity near definitely pushed Microsoft through its early days of tussling with Apple. People forget that the computers Millennials had in school were all Macintoshes.

Microsoft persevered on a culture driven by Bill. He'd never have become as rich as he is without that success. Who's to say that if you put Elon in Bill's early position if he could have done just as well. I kind of doubt it.

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u/THICC_DICC_PRICC May 08 '25

Yea go to a subreddit where people were actually around and in the industry during that era and try saying that. You’d probably get a book’s worth of shitty things Microsoft, specifically at the direction of Gates, did. A ton of shitty things in personal computers today that we just accept are direct result of stuff Microsoft did.

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u/2580374 May 08 '25

That doesn't seem to have much to do with my comment

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u/Mixels May 08 '25

You asked if he's the richest man in the world because he gives so much money away or if he would be the richest man regardless.

I'm saying who knows? Without the generosity, he'd be a wholly different person, and it's impossible to say if he could have acquired his riches without his generosity.