Philanthropy Is Undemocratic

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Billionaire Bill Gates has donated millions of dollars to philanthropy. The money gives him a lot of power over what's happening in the world, says Simon Tisdall. Even scholars acknowledge that big philanthropy is undemocratic and not subject to checks and balances. But if there are more billionaires who follow in his footsteps, i think you're going to see that threat to democracy becomes even greater," he adds.

Paris Marx is joined by Tim Schwab to discuss how Bill Gates wields his wealth to shape public policy, the many conflicts of interest of Bill and his Foundation, and how legitimate criticism of power is being positioned as conspiracy.

Tim Schwab is an investigative journalist whose recent work on the Gates Foundation has been published by The Nation, the Columbia Review of Journalism, and the British Medical Journal. Follow Tim on Twitter as @TimothyWSchwab.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Tim wrote about the Gates Foundation’s conflicts of interest, in particular during the pandemic. He also wrote about how Gates’ funding of media and health data produces accountability and transparency problems.
Paris had a viral thread about Gates’ intervention in the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, after which an interview said it was a conspiracy theory.
After getting the rights to the Oxford vaccine, AstraZeneca ran into trouble in clinical trials.
The Associated Press found three factories in Bangladesh alone that could be producing vaccines if patent protections were waived.
The Mail and Guardian in South Africa published an article on Bill Gates’ complicity in vaccine apartheid and the author’s Twitter account was locked for tweeting about it.
In 2015, Thomas Piketty talked to the BBC about the problems with billionaire philanthropy.