982
Elon Musk is responsible for “killing the world’s poorest children,” says Bill Gates
(arstechnica.com)
this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
982 points (98.7% liked)
politics
23401 readers
3625 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
If you had rumours about you of being involved with a worldwide sex trafficking ring I think it would put a strain on your relationships too, pal.
So in the absence of evidence, let's defend Bill. Got it.
We could stay neutral, but still be concerned that this person still has power, wealth, and influence...but everybody loves billionaire philanthropists, am I right?
Saying Bill Gates is as bad as Elon Musk is not Neutral. You should not be Neutral about Musk, Zuckerberg, or Bezos, they are the enemy.
I'm personally saying that no person should be able to accumulate wealth, power, and influence to such a degree and also use his wealth to pay people to sing his praises and like him.
I'm not making value judgements on these two individuals. I'm simply stating that there is no merit to billionaires existing.
Okay but that stance in no way dictates that an individual in our actual reality, where there are no such idealist barriers, has already accumulated wealth and used it to do good things.
This is the value judgements discussion. Feel free to exit.
How much money has Bill put towards developing Africa and directly improving their living standards?
Has he addressed modern slavery and modern child slavery (which we rely on for our cocoa)?
Has he addressed colonialism and imperialism?
These countries are extracted for everything they are worth, they are exploited for their labor, resources, and goods, and they remain poor while wealth concentrates to the few in first-world countries.
His "philanthropy" surely helps him to be aware of the situations that these countries face. But let's just shift an important topic and reduce it to value judgements. Got it.
Only for their development program and only in Africa would be $92M USD SOURCE
Because $92 million is such a large number when you have so much wealth. What would that fund here? A handful of buildings and a few highways?
His total contributions alone are $100Bn, mate. You asked for a very specific metric and got it.
If you were to build, for example, a townhouse with USA labour costs it would be about $55,000 to $100,000, so you could build a couple thousand with that amount. Be a pretty dumb way to spend it, imo.
That's all I see Bill doing. Throwing coins at impoverished and exploited people does not properly address or solve the issues they are facing. Bill Gates surely knows of the exploitation that African countries face at the hands of western imperialism. He could use his influence to shine a light on modern atrocities.
If they were paid fairly for their labor and paid a fair price for their goods and exports; these countries would not be starving, they could afford their own vaccination programs on the back of the own economies, they would be able to provide everyone with access to clean water, and they would be able to develop their societies as they see fit, including providing education to their citizens.
You think 100Bn USD is coins compared to what he actually lives off of...?
If there is still slavery and these countries are largely poor, yet western society relies on them for their labor, natural resources, and goods/exports, his 100 billion dollars means nothing.
He could've spent that 100 billion a whole lot more effectively. Like shining a light on western companies supporting child slavery to harvest cocoa or enabling these countries to break free from western imperialism.
You're mad that Bill Gates isn't God?
I'm mad that he's silent and complicit while people suffer. Perhaps I'll work on my anger while he hopefully works on finding his voice and speaking the truth.
He pays regularly for media attention, why can't he pay to expose western atrocities?
He's literally in the headline speaking out and you're still criticizing him, lol
It seems like you're mad just for the sake of being mad.
He's acting like Elon Musk is solely responsible. He's diluting a very large issue (modern slavery) and watering it down to Elon Musk bad.
Bill Gates is educated and present in these countries. He knows what really is going on.
Can you blame me for being angry that there is mass suffering, death, and slavery, while everybody in the know acts dumb, and the truth is hidden from the masses?
Edit: Your downvotes have been noted. Thanks for providing your feedback finitebanjo.