Gates to donate $120 billion to charity

The Herald reports:

Bill Gates said his three children understand why he has pledged to leave his £70 billion (NZ$120b) fortune to charity when he dies.

In a revealing insight into his private life, the Microsoft founder, 60, said his children are “proud” of his decision to dedicate his money to helping the world’s poorest.

Gates said that instead of billion-dollar trust funds, his two daughters and son will be given a “great education” to help kick-start their own careers.

But the business mogul did say there would still be a financial safety net in place, adding: “They are never going to be poorly off”.

Speaking on This Morning, Gates said: “Our kids will receive a great education and some money so they are never going to be poorly off but they’ll go out and have their own career.

“It’s not a favour to kids to have them have huge sums of wealth. It distorts anything they might do, creating their own path.”

Some hold Gates up as an example of the huge inequality in the world – that he has more wealth than many countries.

So let’s say we practised socialism and confiscated all his wealth from him – say when he died, and gave it all to the world’s poor.

That would be US$20 per person in the world. Now many people in the third world would find that useful.

But think how much good will be done by Gates being allowed to keep his wealth and donate it to charity. His foundation has already spent billions in fighting third world diseases such as malaria and improving life expectancy.