The Problem with Being Nice

 The big news in Singapore is the fact that Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and now Chairman of the Gates Foundation, paid Singapore a visit and announced that he would be making Singapore the Asian Headquarters of his foundation. Given that the Gates Foundation has an endowment of around US$75.2 billion, making it one of the largest charitable foundations in the world, the Singapore Government drooled at the prospect of adding “philanthropy” to the things that Singapore could be a “hub” of. Mr. Gates met everyone from the President down. We even went out of our way to make a song and dance of how Mr.Gates enjoyed a good old fashioned “hawker meal.”

https://mothership.sg/2025/05/bill-gates-mothership-newton-food-centre/

 

 Whilst the powers that be were delighted with Mr. Gates’s visit, there were those who were less happy. Some people thought that since Singapore had voted to return the PAP to government, it was no coincidence that Mr. Gates chose to visit and make the announcement after the election. Apparently, Mr. Gates chose this move to Singapore because his “nefarious” plans to rule the USA were coming to an end because the Trump Administration’s health department under the ever-competent Robert F Kenedy Jr. (“RFK Jr”) was blowing through his scheme and Singapore’s compliant population by contrast offered a more fertile ground for Mr. Gates and his “devious” plots.

 

OK, let’s state the obvious – Mr. Gates is not and never has been a candidate for sainthood. Mr. Gates has been by all accounts an exceedingly ruthless businessman and for the longest of times, Microsoft was known for being “predatory” in its practices. We all use Microsoft, not because its software is the best and cheapest but because we don’t have a choice. As the Old Rogue used to say, “He forced us to use an inferior product.”

Having said that, Mr. Gates did do good things. For one, he made entering the ranks of the super wealthy accessible. Seattle is filled with millionaires who simply went to work for Microsoft and ended up very rich, thanks to their stock options. If you define a successful business as one that makes lots of people rich, then Mr. Gates would be amongst one of the best.

The second area in which Mr. Gates deserves credit is in the way in which he’s tried to use his wealth for the greater good of humanity. Look at the webpage of his foundation and it starts of with a slogan about how every life has value:

https://www.gatesfoundation.org/

 

 Mr. Gates has talked about developing better toilets (which may seem obvious if you live in a developed nation but in the majority of the world its different story), research a cure for HIV/AIDS and providing vaccines against ailments that kill millions every year.

Sure, there are criticisms to be made against Mr. Gates and his foundation, but that should not distract from the fact that he’s putting vast resources to fund things aimed at solving major risk. How do you argue that funding research into medication that could save lives be a bad thing?

Apparently, it is. Mr. Gates’s philanthropy is a favourite topic among people who don’t like other people. You could say that he’s the bigger and almost “eviler” version of this group’s previous bogyman – George Soros, who is apparently also trying to disrupt the world and rule it from the shadows.

Unlike Mr. Gates, whom you might call the “nerd made good,” Mr. Soros is a less sympathetic character. He didn’t invent things. He made his money using other people’s money to take on financial markets. His most famous moment came when he announced that he made a killing going short on the British Pound in 1992’s infamous “Black Wednesday.” Mr. Soros, who is Jewish, ended up becoming cast as everyone’s favourite “evil Jewish money manager,” and was attacked for being so by Malaysia’s Never Ending Prime Minister, Dr. Mohamad Mahathir back in the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997.

Whilst Mr. Soros may have made lots of money attacking financial systems, he put his money to good use, trying to fund “Open Societies,” promoting things like free speech and safety for journalist etc. Again, how exactly does someone promoting the struggle for more freedom end up being villainized by people living in countries where things like freedom of speech are taken as a “given.”

 https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/

 

 Say what you like about Mr. Gates and Mr. Soros, but they are at least giving the façade of trying put their vast resources to make things better for people. Unfortunately, this makes a lot of people upset.

What makes these actions of Mr. Gates and Mr. Soros so upsetting? I’m not really smart but it seems the people who don’t like Mr. Gates and Mr. Soros don’t like the things they’re promoting. Take one of Mr. Soros’s fiercest critics as an example – Victor Orban, the current and probably never-ending Prime Minister of Hungry. Mr. Orban hasn’t exactly been cheerleader for anyone else’s rights except his own.

Then, there’s the issue of vaccines. There’s a group that believes that vaccines are evil. Whilst I do agree that not everyone reacts well to vaccines, the record of vaccines is ultimately beneficial. A century ago, small pox was a sure killer. Today, it probably only exists somewhere out there in a secret lab of conspiracy theorist. Four years ago, there was Covid, which killed more Americans than all the wars America has fought. Today, vaccination has made it such that Covid is like a flue.

So, what do the people who don’t like causes like open societies and vaccines think billionaires should be funding? Apparently, whilst funding lifesaving vaccines and open societies, which are more likely to make life better for people living in them are bad things, its perfectly acceptable for billionaires to salute a regime that promoted a genocide and political parties that celebrate what that regime did:

 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy48v1x4dv4o

 

 Furthermore, whatever “nefarious” schemes Mr. Gates and Soros are supposed to have, according to their haters, neither of them has ever gotten close to the levers of power. Nobody offered Mr. Gates or Mr. Soros positions in government. Yet, the people who hate them for funding vaccines and open societies have no problem when a billionaire like Elon Musk who funds parties that are trying to echo the Nazi regime.

Sure, billionaires can be a problem. The amount of wealth they control can be an issue in that it may cause resentment. However, they can also be inspiring. Their vast wealth makes them influential in their mere public pronouncements. You cannot
“ban” them in as much you want people to be inspired to create wealth. However, you can and should encourage them to use their power for the greater good and discourage them from supporting the awful.