GOODY TWO SHOES: Giving Away Billions Doesn’t Make Gates A Good Guy
The Los Angeles Times delves into the Gates Foundation portfolio – with assets larger than the gross domestic products of 70 percent of the world's nations – and found a pattern of socially irresponsible investing, including "companies ranked among the worst U.S. and Canadian polluters" and "pharmaceutical companies that price drugs beyond the reach of AIDS patients the foundation is trying to treat":
Like most philanthropies, the Gates Foundation gives away at least 5% of its worth every year, to avoid paying most taxes. In 2005, it granted nearly $1.4 billion. It awards grants mainly in support of global health initiatives, for efforts to improve public education in the United States, and for social welfare programs in the Pacific Northwest.
It invests the other 95% of its worth. This endowment is managed by Bill Gates Investments, which handles Gates' personal fortune. … Bill and Melinda Gates require the managers to keep a highly diversified portfolio, but make no specific directives.
… The Times found that the Gates Foundation has holdings in many companies that have failed tests of social responsibility because of environmental lapses, employment discrimination, disregard for worker rights, or unethical practices. …
[H]undreds of Gates Foundation investments — totaling at least $8.7 billion, or 41% of its assets, not including U.S. and foreign government securities — have been in companies that countered the foundation's charitable goals or socially concerned philosophy.
This is "the dirty secret" of many large philanthropies, said Paul Hawken, an expert on socially beneficial investing who directs the Natural Capital Institute, an investment research group. "Foundations donate to groups trying to heal the future, but with their investments, they steal from the future."
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