The Bill Gates Problem
Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire
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Narrated by:
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Tim Schwab
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By:
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Tim Schwab
About this listen
This program is read by the author.
New York Times Editors' Choice
A powerful investigation of Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation, showing how he uses philanthropy to exercise enormous political power without accountability
Through his vaunted philanthropy, Bill Gates transformed himself from a tech villain into one of the most admired people on the planet. Even as divorce proceedings and allegations of misconduct have recently tarnished his public image, the beneficence of the Gates Foundation, celebrated for spending billions to save lives around the globe, is taken as a given. But as Tim Schwab shows in this fearless investigation, Gates is still exactly who he was at Microsoft: a bully and monopolist, convinced of his own righteousness and intent on imposing his ideas, his solutions, and his leadership on everyone else. At the core, he is not a selfless philanthropist but a power broker, a clever engineer who has innovated a way to turn extreme wealth into immense political influence—and who has made us believe we should applaud his acquisition of power, not challenge it.
Piercing the blinding halo that has for too long shielded the world’s most powerful (and most secretive) charitable organization from public scrutiny, The Bill Gates Problem shows how Gates’s billions have purchased a stunning level of control over public policy, private markets, scientific research, and the news media. Whether he is pushing new educational standards in America, health reforms in India, global vaccine policy during the pandemic, or Western industrialized agriculture throughout Africa, Gates’s heady social experimentation has shown itself to be not only undemocratic, but also ineffective. In many places, Bill Gates is hurting the very people he intends to help.
No less than dark-money campaign contributions or big-business political lobbying, Bill Gates’s philanthropic empire needs to be seen as a problem of money in politics. It is a dangerous model of unconstrained power that threatens democracy and demands our attention.
A Macmillan Audio production from Metropolitan Books.
©2023 Tim Schwab (P)2023 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“In Stage One of the neoliberal revolution, we cut taxes, encouraged tech monopolies, deregulated everything, and built up a set of billionaires like the world had never seen before. Stage Two will come when we learn to love all these changes—because those billionaires are fine people doing good in our sadly privatized world. Thanks to Tim Schwab’s devastating account of the Gates Foundation, however, that day of rationalization may never arrive. Read it and learn the brutal truth: there is nothing altruistic about the world’s favorite billionaire.”—Thomas Frank, author of What's the Matter with Kansas
“Tim Schwab has written the definitive critique of Bill Gates as bully-philanthropist. Schwab uses the case of Gates to tell a compelling and carefully researched story that raises disturbing questions about the lack of accountability of power-philanthropy.”—Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor, The American Prospect
“This is not the story of one bad man, so much as a demonstration of the inability for anyone—no matter how smart or rich—to solve the world’s problems from the top down with money and technology. As this well-argued and immensely engaging account of Bill Gates’s forays into world-saving by fiat make clear, the problem with Big Philanthropy is the Big Hubris that comes along with it.”—Douglas Rushkoff, author of Survival of the Richest
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A Gripping and Necessary Work
- By booklover on 11-24-24
By: Ben Austen, and others
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Ho Tactics
- How to MindF**k a Man into Spending, Spoiling, and Sponsoring
- By: G. L. Lambert
- Narrated by: Patrick Stevens
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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I have discovered a group of women who refuse to be exploited, are immune to manipulation, and who never settle in the name of love. These ladies know what they want and take what they want by beating men at their own game. Utilizing the secrets exposed in this book, these women gain power, money, and status. Men call them gold diggers, women call them hos, but they call themselves winners. This is the book that society doesn't want you to listen to….
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I spent $24,000 in 4 months
- By B.M. on 10-06-18
By: G. L. Lambert
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The Autobiography of Malcolm X
- As Told to Alex Haley
- By: Malcolm X, Alex Haley
- Narrated by: Laurence Fishburne
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Experience a bold take on this classic autobiography as it’s performed by Oscar-nominated Laurence Fishburne. In this searing classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and Black empowerment activist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Human Rights movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American dream and the inherent racism in a society that denies its non-White citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.
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it's Nearly perfect
- By Kerry on 09-16-20
By: Malcolm X, and others
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I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t)
- Telling the Truth about Perfectionism, Inadequacy, and Power
- By: Brené Brown
- Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on seven years of ground-breaking research and hundreds of interviews, I Thought It Was Just Me shines a long-overdue light on an important truth: Our imperfections are what connect us to each other and to our humanity. Our vulnerabilities are not weaknesses; they are powerful reminders to keep our hearts and minds open to the reality that we're all in this together.
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I'm sure its great if you are a mother ....
- By Leslie A Hill on 08-09-11
By: Brené Brown
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Mythology: Mega Collection
- Classic Stories from the Greek, Celtic, Norse, Japanese, Hindu, Chinese, Mesopotamian and Egyptian Mythology
- By: Scott Lewis
- Narrated by: Madison Niederhauser, Oliver Hunt
- Length: 31 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Do you know how many wives Zeus had? Or how the famous Trojan War was caused by one beautiful lady? Or how Thor got his hammer? Give your imagination a real treat. This Mega Mythology Collection of eight audiobooks is for you....
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An interesting set of introductions.
- By Kevin Potter on 05-30-19
By: Scott Lewis
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The Philosopher's Toolkit: How to Be the Most Rational Person in Any Room
- By: Patrick Grim, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Patrick Grim
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Original Recording
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Taught by award-winning Professor Patrick Grim of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, The Philosopher’s Toolkit: How to Be the Most Rational Person in Any Room arms you against the perils of bad thinking and supplies you with an arsenal of strategies to help you be more creative, logical, inventive, realistic, and rational in all aspects of your daily life.
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This should NOT be an audio book
- By Brooks Emerson on 03-21-20
By: Patrick Grim, and others
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My Big TOE: Awakening
- Book One of a Trilogy Unifying Philosophy, Physics, and Metaphysics
- By: Thomas Campbell
- Narrated by: Thomas Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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My Big TOE: Awakening, written by a nuclear physicist in the language of contemporary culture, unifies science and philosophy, physics and metaphysics, mind and matter, purpose and meaning, the normal and the paranormal. The entirety of human experience (mind, body, and spirit) including both our objective and subjective worlds is brought together under one seamless scientific understanding.
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What a Trip (but to where?)
- By Michael on 11-26-13
By: Thomas Campbell
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Be curious, not furious
- By Axel Merk on 02-20-21
By: Bill Gates
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The Wuhan Cover-Up
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From the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Publishers Weekly bestselling author of The Real Anthony Fauci comes an explosive exposé of the cover-up behind the true origins of COVID-19.
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More Important than The Real Anthony Fauci
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Billionaire, Nerd, Savior, King
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What listeners say about The Bill Gates Problem
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Louwrentius
- 02-10-24
Billionaires should not exist
This is such a thorough assessment of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and it shows in great detail the absolute hubris of billionaires.
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- Anonymous User
- 02-05-24
This book is a must-read for anyone curious about billionaire philanthropy.
This book was incredibly well researched and eye opening. It’s a brave undertaking considering the power the Gates foundation wields to neutralize dissent in many ways. I hope it tips the scales towards a more just distribution of wealth and power. Thank you Tim!
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- Andrew Ballard
- 11-18-23
Well researched & raises important questions
Meticulously researched, this book lays a path for further scrutiny of how the public entities are being co-opted by private interests. Bravo.
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1 person found this helpful
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- David R Hall
- 10-07-24
How corrupt gates is while the media who he funds looks the other way.
Gates foundation didn’t cooperate and so there is not concrete data but it’s because the foundation is not a charity but instead gates private play ground.
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- Harbinger
- 01-09-24
Accurate and fair
The only way this could have been better is if the author worked at MS or BMGF. He left some stuff out but a great start to the process of scrutinizing one of the greatest grifters of all time.
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- Max Petrucci
- 02-08-24
Necessary outlook
Relevant, balanced and coherent approach to extreme wealth, philantropy and the way this is played out today.
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- Kindle Customer
- 05-02-24
Lástima de narración
Aunque el tema es interesante, los argumentos están en muchos casos faltos de potencia y contundencia.
La narración es muy mala, completamente falta de emoción. Parece un periodista leyendo el resumen de noticias, pero por 14 horas seguidas.
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