Is it bad if Bill Gates gives away half of his estate?
That's the question I tackle with Ben Boychuk in our column for Scripps Howard News Service . You already got an early version of my take on this blog, so I'll give the floor to Ben. The problem here isn't charity. The problem is Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Americans tend to disdain the gaudy rich and ostentatious displays of wealth. Gates and Buffett are what might be called ostentatious donors. Through his family foundation, Gates has donated tens of billions of dollars to causes ranging from education reform to vaccinations for poor women in third world countries. Buffett has given $8 billion alone to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Have they helped people? Probably. Have they shaped public policy? Almost certainly. The question is whether those billions have shaped policy for the better. To the extent Gates and Buffett have pushed for reforms that expand the scope and reach of national governments, that's not positive change. Gates and Buffett bot
