Episode 124: Tim Schwab on Bill Gates, Dark Money, and Toxic Philanthropy

William Henry Gates III, better known as Bill Gates, has been a major figure in technology, business, and politics for forty years. In that time he created what is arguably the world’s best-known computer operating system, ran one of the leading tech companies in the United States, gained a reputation for predatory monopolistic practices during Microsoft’s anti-trust case in the 1990s, and then was reborn (or reinvented) as the face of philanthropy, the fabulously wealthy nerd-done-good who decided to dedicate his life to giving away his money by supporting global initiatives in healthcare, education, and poverty reduction.Tim Schwab, an investigative journalist based in Washington, D.C., disagrees with the carefully cultivated image of Bill Gates as a saintly technocratic thought leader selflessly divesting himself of his billions for the good of humankind. In his book, The Bill Gates Problem, Tim argues that Bill Gates, through the Gates Foundation, has continued the same predatory monopolistic practices that made him infamous at Microsoft. Far from being, as Andrew Ross Sorkin called him, “the most consequential individual of our generation,” Tim proposes that Bill Gates is at the wellhead of a toxic blend of dark money, intellectual property capture, and political influence-gathering that causes real-world harm to the very people it claims to serve, undermines democracy, and provides the perfect case study of a billionaire exercising undue, unquestioned, and largely unacknowledged control over public affairs.In our conversation, Tim shares insights he gathered while researching and conducting interviews for his book. He describes some of the ways that the Gates Foundation has affected news-gathering and the media, chilled academic inquiry, and stifled rather than driven innovation. He considers Gates to be a narcissistic power-broker who, through his own hubris, has mostly failed to provide the solutions at the core of his stated mission while ironically succeeding in becoming far wealthier than ever before, all while claiming the mantle of charity and the tax benefits that go with it.For your reference, in our discussion we compare the 1998 video of Bill Gates’s deposition in the Microsoft anti-trust case to a 2014 interview of him by the Washington Post about his role in the Common Core educational reforms in the United States. Filmed sixteen years apart, they provide a way to compare the attitude, tone, and mannerisms of the corporate ‘cut-throat’ Bill Gates of Microsoft to the ‘civic-minded’ Bill Gates of the Giving Pledge years.The Bill Gates Problem, published by Penguin, is available wherever books are sold.You can find Tim Schwab at timschwab.substack.com or on X as @TimothyWSchwab.https://1984today.substack.comhttps://www.1984.todayX: @1984TodayPod This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1984today.substack.com