Author(s): Tim Schwab

Current Affairs

Thanks to his vaunted philanthropy. Bill Gates is one of the most admired people on the planet. Even as divorce proceedings and allegations of misconduct have recently tarnished Gates's public image, the beneficence of the Gates Foundation is taken as a given. But as Tim Schwab shows in this fearless examination, Gates is still exactly who he was at Microsoft: a bully and monopolist, convinced of his own righteousness and intent on imposing his ideas on everyone else. At the core, he is a power broker, a clever engineer who has innovated a way to turn extreme wealth into immense political influence-philanthropy-and who has made us believe we should applaud him for it. No less than dark-money campaign contributions or big-business political lobbying. Bill Gates's philanthropic empire needs to be seen for what it is: a dangerous model of unconstrained power that threatens democracy and demands our attention.