Full: <http://blog.healthmongers.org/2006/07/11/prof-howard-berliner-on-the-buffett-donation-and-the-gates-foundation/#more-156>
The Gates Billions By Howard Berliner The recent announcement that Bill Gates is stepping down from his Microsoft position to play a greater role in his foundation and the subsequent announcement that Warren Buffet is giving $31 billion to the foundation (of which he is a board member) has certainly set the philanthropic world aflutter. The largest foundation ever, with more money to distribute than the United Nations and largely focused on areas of public health (both topical and geographic) that get little other support. In the early 1900's, the gifts of John D. Rockefeller to international public health not only created the initial schools of public health ( e.g., Johns Hopkins), but also brought new medical discoveries to large segments of the world that had no other way of obtaining them. The initial analysis of the Rockefeller gifts was explained in terms of religious obligations and the needs of the wealthy to help the poor, if only to further their entrance into heaven. Later analyses, by myself and E. Richard Brown, among others, looked to the way that the philanthropy eased the inroads of western business into hostile areas and how the gifts ultimately led to the expansion of markets. Rest: <http://blog.healthmongers.org/2006/07/11/prof-howard-berliner-on-the-buffett-donation-and-the-gates-foundation/#more-156>
