The wealth and influence of a country that rivals other countries
In India, hundreds of thousands of people die from the epidemic every day. Their bodies have no way to be cremated but are burned on the ground. Their bodies are left undisposed of and even left in the wild. When the dog bites, Gates, who is known for his philanthropy first, categorically refused to share vaccine technology with India, which naturally attracted criticism at home and abroad. In fact, the Gates Foundation's global philanthropy has been criticized. For example, it spent huge sums of money to deal with AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria in Africa, draining away the already severely lacking medical personnel and affecting the local basic medical services. Nutrition is even poorer. The World Health Organization also criticized the Gates Foundation for monopolizing malaria research, causing many scientists to stop sharing their research in order to receive bonuses from the foundation, hindering the development of scientific research. The Gates Foundation facilitated Oxford University's sale of the rights to develop a COVID-19 vaccine to AstraZeneca, causing Oxford to renege on its original promise to donate its intellectual property.
Although governments of various countries have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to help develop vaccines. For example, the Trump administration's "Operation Warp Speed" spent more than tens of billions of taxpayers' public funds to develop vaccines with seven pharmaceutical companies. The pharmaceutical company is exempted from legal responsibility for the safety or efficacy of its vaccine in advance, and its vaccine has been ordered in advance before the development is successful, regardless of success or failure, but the pharmaceutical company can still enjoy the patent rights. The share prices of AstraZeneca and its parent company have continued to rise last year, and the market value of Novavax, which has been profitable in the past 20 years, has surged tenfold to US$10 billion after receiving a capital injection from the US government. Last year, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla sold US$5.56 million worth of company shares to cash out on the day he announced the successful development of a vaccine, which also aroused suspicion that he was manipulating the market for profit. The Gates Foundation has invested heavily in vaccine research and development. Now Gates and pharmaceutical companies oppose the suspension of patents, and they are also accused of conflicts of interest.
With the financial resources of the Gates Foundation, which is as rich as the country, it is easy to influence public policy. For example, the educational theory supported by the Gates Foundation has received a large amount of resources, causing research on other educational theories to be gradually excluded from the mainstream. The private schools it supports have also driven out many community schools, making the grading criteria it sets the only standard for students, teachers, and schools. However, its education policies are not accountable to voters or taxpayers. As the largest agricultural landowner in the United States, Gates has invested heavily in Indian agriculture in recent years and used centralization and big data management. Locals have also questioned the lack of scientific evidence base and worry that his experiments will change India's agricultural ecology and cause a food crisis. Gates has also been questioned about his preference for big pharmaceutical companies and agricultural companies over local interests. In recent years, the Indian government has attempted to market agricultural products, triggering the largest farmer demonstrations in recent years.
Society cannot rely solely on the realization of the rich
Gates is undoubtedly one of the most successful entrepreneurs in recent decades. He is different from imaginative invention companies like Jobs or Musk. He has been single-handedly building the Microsoft empire with pragmatic thinking that meets the needs of the public, and has rewritten the human life model in the past few decades. Gates is also the first richest man to pledge to donate 95% of his net worth to charity, setting the precedent for contemporary wealthy people to spend their wealth on charity. However, its philanthropy has never been able to get rid of the business practices that put capitalist interests first. In addition to leading to a serious tilt in the distribution of public health resources in Africa, it also changed India's agricultural ecology. Its huge influence on education, vaccines, and public health policies has bypassed the supervision and accountability of the government, voters, and taxpayers. It has once again called into question the lack of checks and balances on public power, even though its original intention is to be charitable. , does not mean that it will not have a negative impact on society.
Just as Gates said that his idea of ??doing good was inspired by American oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie, banker J. P. Morgan, etc. at the end of the 19th century. During the Second Industrial Revolution, when he accumulated a large amount of wealth and was denounced as a greedy vampire, he created a discipline of public relations and used charity to save his reputation. Carnegie even left an article "The Gospel of Wealth" to set an example for the rich to do good. However, it was also the era of progressivism in which Roosevelt cracked down on plutocrats and restricted capital. Rockefeller was found guilty of violating competition laws and his oil empire was broken up into 34 companies.
In recent decades, the information revolution has transformed the industry, and emerging technology plutocrats have emerged. Although the richest man headed by Gates has voluntarily donated his wealth, how can we sit back and ignore the social instability caused by wealth inequality?