Re-evaluating Bill Gates

[JC]

Did not realize Microsoft's CEO was so involved in humanitarian concerns....

I give him props for dumping large quantities of money into producing cheaper Aids drugs for developing countries. Also for using India's weak patent laws to circumvent patents and copy patented drugs and resell them almost at cost...He actually got them down to 1.00 a day for Africa (still the average days wages but a far cry from 1,000 a month).

On the downside I hope driving down the worlds prices for the drugs does not hinder the amount of capital drug companies spend on research and developement in light of a lower profitabilty factor.

I may have to change my biased opinion of Microsoft in light of this. Next time my PC crashes I'll just think about how many people will be able live longer....hopefully live long enough to see the day when an actual cure for the dreaded desease can be found.


http://www.gatesfoundation.org/globa...n/default1.htm

[Cisco]

With a corporation that size and with that kind of profit you have two choices.

1. Give the money to the government in the form of taxes

Or

2. Donate it and look good


The only thing humanitarian about Bill Gates is that he is a very intelligent business man. Not that what he is doing is a bad thing but the resaons for it are not what you think.


Cisco....

[JC]

That is very true...give it to charity or give it to the government.

I still like the way he is doing this though and the types of charities he helps...it seems there is more to it then just throwing the money at someone.

ie. Here is a case where he just about built a pharmacuetical companie and droped the cost of the drugs to 1.00 a day..thats alot better then just giving the money to one of these notorius fund-raising groups who spend it all just doing more fundraising and do very little or anything to help the actual cuase.

[davem]

I know it's not p.c. to say so, but I'd rather see the money go to cancer research. It's a disease that people cannot avoid with behavior.

[drew]

pc or not, I tend to agree with ya there dave

[dswallow]

Ahem, but I really wouldn't say it's politically correct or politically incorrect. They're both worthy causes, however, as perhaps are quite a few other health-related issues.

As to the "avoidable by behavior" comment, that really just shows a total lack of understanding of the nature of the disease as well as the forms of transmission.

"Gosh darned sorry I had to have a blood transfusion, guess I should blame myself though for my behavior."

"I should've known better than to try to help a stranger who was hurt. I should've walked away."

"Sorry, didn't mean to get born. Don't blame me, blame mommy."

"I asked. S/he didn't tell. Maybe s/he didn't even know. We were safe. Somehow it didn't matter."

Anyway, I think it might be better in the long run to take action against ignorance or mental blindness.

[davem]

Doug, I understand that there are innocents who get aids, and that breaks my heart. I didn't mean to offend, but behavior can severely alter your chances of getting aids.

[dswallow]

Originally posted by davem
... there are innocents who get aids ...

And everyone else deserves it?

This is a subject change a bit, but it severely annoys me and there's some parallels, and I had to listen to it today so it's fresh in my mind...

On the news, it was reported that some 2-year-old was accidentally shot by someone who was trying to shoot another person nearby, and somehow it merits more concern or worry or sympathy because of the victims age; she's probably lost her vision in one eye... "and she was ONLY TWO years old." It's such a faux comment, like it's less important or sympathetic if someone older was shot. Frankly, that she's only 2 probably means she's going to grow up and learn with vision in one eye and not be hampered as much as if someone who learned to see and work with both eyes having lost their vision much later in their life. Age is irrelevant. That someone was shot is.

NOBODY, and I mean NOBODY (not even Republicans ) deserve to get any disease, AIDS or otherwise. They didn't earn it or deserve it, and any insinuation that some did is just plain old prejudice rearing it's ugly head.

[shawnee]

Don't want to put words in DaveM's mouth, but I think, and I believe, that he meant that some people get AIDS by their own actions, and others are born or contract it in other ways. NO ONE deserves it, I think on that we all agree.

As for Gates' charitable donations, let's just accept it that he found one that is worthy. I agree that too many of these foundations spend too much on administrative costs, look at the Red Cross, more goes to salaries than to charity, for example.

Happy New Year to all. Hope everyone is safe and happy. Nancy

[tileguytodd]

Any and all diseases are worthy.And while none of us are getting out of this world alive,I would much rather see everyone live to a ripe ol age (like John ) and go peacefully in thier sleep.What Bill gates has done is admirable,And others are constantly doing the same for other types of research(although they may not have the resources BillG does).Cancer,Aids,Heart desease,Alzheimers,Muscular dystrophy,the list is endless,Pick one.if we all give a buck to each,we can all outshine even Bill G.

[drew]

Charity is a wonderful thing and I think we should all give what we can, but IMO, we need to worry about taking care of the needs of our own citizens, before we go off to save the world. While I'll grant you that by & large, the people of the USA enjoy the highest standard living of any country in recorded history, there are still far too many folks that have to make very difficult choices that they may not be able to live with.

Come on folks, we've got senior citizens right here at home, that have to make a choice every month as whether to buy their prescription drugs, or pay the heating bill. There are veterans who are turned away from hospitals, that are supposed to be there to serve them, because of lack of staffing. We ask our service people to put their lives on the line, but there are many enlisted folks with families that need food stamps and rent assistance in order to provide for their kids.

If you're loaded and you want to do great good with your billions, why not start at home. Yes Bill G. has done some wonderful things for the world, but has been previously noted he had other motivations as well. I believe that MSFT has profited greatly by building manufacturing plants in India and other countries and staffing them with local workers for peanuts compared to what American workers would receive in this country. Of course MSFT isn't the only US company that follows this business practice and as long as it is advantageous to their bottom lines because of our tax and trade laws it will never change and the standard of living for many in this country will at best remain flat, or worse decline.

Charity should begin at home. Ok so there's my .02, and I'll get off my soapbox.

[davem]

Well said Todd.
I'm big on personal responsibility. If a person smokes 50 years and gets lung cancer, I feel bad, but it's their own damned fault. If a drunk driver causes an auto accident and kills himself, it's his own damned fault. If he kills someone else, they are the ones I feel bad for. If a person leads a lifestyle of promiscuity or drug usage and put themselves at risk of getting a disease, it's their own damned fault. On the point of children being harmed, it tugs the hell out of my strings and personally I don't think expressing some extra emotion is worthy of criticism.
I'm done now. I just wanted to join the conversation, not start a name-calling dialog.

[JC]

Alright guys...lets not get carried away here.

First we just cannot ethically start picking and chosing what deseases are good and what are bad. Good and bad are relavent terms...on other words some of us may feel that Gays are not worthy...then there are even some that would say anyone who commits pre-marital sex does deserves what they get...whats next? If it really came down to the wire might one day ,God forbid, some doctor would have to chose between transplanting a new liver into a Senator or a Tile setter...You see wants we start picking and chosing we are wrong. We are all Gods children and Gods mercy is for all of us regardless of what we did...deciding who gets what is Gods decision not ours.

Second Aids IS not a Gay desease....It is a virus that is transfered by sexual fluids and blood like many other STD's. It can be transfered to any person in many ways...some sexual practices are more prone to transmitting the virus becuse some practices have more probablity of transmission of fliuds.

FACT: You can catch HIV from heterosexual sex , not only can you but many people have. I believe the number is something like 28 percent of cases...so lets end this stereotyping. That issue is moot.


Basically anybody that can get a sexually transmitted desease can get it...in fact if you have one desease already you are 2-5 times more suseptable to catching HIV.
Just how many Sailors have cuaght STD's..does that mean they should not recieve help?

Bieng that Aids is at epidemic stages in many parts of the world does not mean we can afford to turn our backs on it. Even if we subscribe to the " lets worry about our own problems theory" which by the way I do not follow (I feel everyone on the globe is our people regardless of political bounderies when it comes to deseases). We still have to remember Africa is not the moon and we are only a hop skip and a jump away...it is just a matter of time till it becomes epidemic in this country.

In fact America has been accused of using Africa as an experimental testing ground for Aids...We go there and try new drugs that our FDA would not approve and that we can't test here due to many reasons. There like guinea pigs in many cases...so it is not like we are doing this just for humanitarian reasons...where else can you test 500 members of one tribe with a experiemental drug and give 500 members of another tribe a placebo and not get sued?

And lastly Nobody has ever died of Aids..and never will. Aids attacks the immune system...and what happens is "oppurtunistic deseases" attack the body due to not having enough resistence to fight them. Now these include cancers and a pnemonia and a number of things. Thats what you die from...other deseases and ones that you don't have to have Aids to die from.

The cure for Aids would be two part...to eradicate the desease and to ALSO beef up the immune system..So any cure for Aids would also greatly benifit any one else dealing with cancer and other deseases as a result. Not to mention if we knew how to build up the body to fight off deseases then that would no doubt help in many kinds of Cancers and such that are not Aids related...make sense?

Hiv infection amoung males has slowed down in this country...BUT the infection ratio amoung females is growing rapidly...particulaly in minorities.

And remember the only symptoms of hiv infection is a possible flu like symptoms(often mistakingly) 1-6 weeks after exposure then no smptoms till the immune system gets so weak that some kinda other desease can start to effect you...frequently this can take 10 years...So in a 10 years time frame there is no way to tell if the person you sleep with (girl OR guy) is carring the virus without testing. For us to assume this is not important for people who are not gay is foolish..If you have sex then you can get it.....a desease needs a warm blooded host and does not discriminate based on race,creed, nationality or sexual orientation.....we should'nt either!!

[davem]

Well, I said I was done, but I guess not. Your post was the first to mention gays, J.C.

[Sonnie Layne]

I'm waiting for a response to that, meanwhile I'm getting ready for big brunch thingy with all our friends tomorrow. Kitchen's getting smelly goody and all that, oh... did I mention they're all gay?

Please, guys and gals, let's not EVEN get started down that road... we'd have to start another forum, then we'd have to have another underpaid moderator that would bitch and moan everytime the moon changed cycles.

As far as I know, virii don't care who you sleep with. Being virii, they just change shapes to fit into whatever organism they choose for the day.

However, the note on Billy Gates' contribution to end the world of virii... uhhh, maybe he could do something to end the invasion of virii on his so-called operating system? Next time my 'puter crashes, I'll think of all those starving kids in ~wherever~ and be proud to be a part of it all.