Opinion

HART: Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation Crumbles

Global Citizen/Handout via REUTERS

Ron Hart Contributor
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This is how you elegantly end a marriage, by releasing a classy statement: “Over the last 27 years, we have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives. We continue to share a belief in that mission and will continue our work together at the foundation, but we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives. We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.”

Bill Gates commented privately that now, with the divorce, he can spend more time with his money. Melinda Gates now has billions in her name. She was seen recently making an ostentatiously expensive purchase: a two-by-four piece of lumber at Lowes.

Even in the demise of a marriage, there is always opportunity. Keep a sharp eye for the Ron and Melinda Gates Foundation coming to a charity near you. I have always had the dream of giving back. I really want to focus on teaching scrapbooking techniques to the homeless, an overlooked charitable endeavor.

In 1987, Bill met Melinda at Microsoft, where she was employed. This was before sexual harassment was invented; folks could actually meet and date at work. Now you cannot even make eye contact with a woman at work for fear it will end your career.

Bill and Melinda Gates went on to found the Gates Foundation, which has spent billions on vaccines for various viruses. If Gates’ vaccines protect us from viruses as well as his Microsoft software does, I fear for civilization.

Gates is like all of the tech oligarchs. They act like Republicans but, to maintain their monopolies, for protection they fund the Democrats. There is this unholy alliance between them and establishment Democrats. They give money, and Dems act like they are taxing them, all the while giving them tax breaks and deals on the side so the blue collar proletariat does not catch on.

It is an article of faith with tech titans that you can cheaply buy your protection from Democrats, like a third-world country and the police. Protection is not even, it is paid for. And who are they paying to be protected? The government itself.

This is like hedge funds with their loophole called “carried interest,” wherein they can defer and not pay taxes on their management fees indefinitely.  The more you know about how these guys work, the more disheartened you are.

Just to sum up Microsoft and why Gates was worth $70 billion. He got there first with Microsoft and Word. It was a crappy product, but he had a monopoly and had no interest in making it better. So you just buy into politicians who provide monopoly cover for you, and you can survive. Competition be damned!

Yet Bill Gates did take a meeting with Donald Trump when Trump was president. It was historic: two of the worst haircuts in the history of man in the same room.

Senator Schumer also met with Gates and other tech titans. They were summoned to Schumer’s office to try to figure out his iTunes log-in password.

The Gates divestiture of his wife (actually she is probably divesting him) will be like most divorces: Only the lawyers win. Do NOT kid yourself: The worst of humanity are divorce lawyers, who have no interest in settling a divorce until they can bill as many hours as possible. Families are torn apart, and there are no winners — except the divorce lawyers.

To give credit to the Gateses, they have done a great job giving away their money in third world countries. The Clean India and Ethiopia project brought clean running water to millions — and it produced 80 tons of human waste, second only to CNN.

Scott Fitzgerald was right when he wrote in “The Great Gatsby,” “The rich are very different than us.”

Ron Hart, a libertarian syndicated op-ed humorist, worked at Goldman Sachs and is an award-winning author and TV/radio commentator. He can be reached at Ron@RonaldHart.com, or visit www.RonaldHart.com.