Reckoning with the myth of the Good Billionaire.

Author:	Tim Schwab
Publisher:	London, UK : Penguin, 2023.
ISBN:	9780241609477 024160947X
Characteristics:	357 pages, Paperback ; 24 cm.
Source:	Yarra Plenty Library
Date Read:	21-Aug-2025

When I first learnt about Bill Gates and his philanthropy, I thought what a wonderful person, giving something back for all the money he has made from society. I noticed The Bill Gates Problem in a nearby bookshop, and it piqued my interest. Luckily the local library had it which saved me buying a copy.

It’s hard to know if Gates means well and is misunderstood or if he has nefarious intentions. The Bill Gates Foundation is a huge well-funded corporation that also gets funds from other billionaires. For research organisations, schools and other groups to receive money from The Bill Gates Foundation they must submit to onerous conditions including opening up all of their financial records, and worse of all for research labs, give up all rights to any discoveries or inventions they have made, including ones before Bill Gates Foundation got involved.

This means that the donating billionaires aren’t as generous as first thought. They are making an investment and most likely expecting a return. Hardly philanthropy.

It’s hard to know if Bill Gates real goal is to make the world better, at least in his eyes, or is he on one big ego trip where everything is done his way? I suspect it’s a big ego trip, and which follows on from the dominance of Microsoft under his leadership.

This narrative speaks to Gates’s good intentions, and it frames the merits of his work around the spectacle he created. He made the world pay attention. He is well-meaning, even if imperfect. But what’s missing from this assessment is the fact that Bill Gates hasn’t been a champion of the poor as much as of himself. He’s asked us to direct our gaze not to the plight of the global poor but, rather, to his own philanthropic efforts to save them. Whether it is taking the podium at the World Health Organization or the World Economic Forum, posing for photos with poor children in some unnamed province or state, or sitting for interviews with 60 Minutes or CNN, the focus of the Gates Foundation is not on global poverty. It’s on Bill Gates. Between the media attention, the tax benefits, the awards, the political power, and the PR, the biggest beneficiary of the Gates Foundation, then, is Bill Gates himself.

The Bill Gates Problem, by Tim Schwab, page 349

There is no doubt he has an amazing, energetic mind; I am amazed at 70 years old he can keep up with everything going on is his life and his “philanthropic” life.

In short, while Bill Gates may have a fertile mind and grand ambitions, there is also something decidedly undisciplined in his promiscuous desires and wandering eye. We could also draw a similar lesson from his leadership at Microsoft, which was constantly trying to stay ahead of the curve with new technologies—an interactive TV, an e-book reader, a portable media player, a smartphone, a personal digital assistant—that never quite panned out. Microsoft was always hugely profitable not because of its pathbreaking innovation under Gates but because of its monopoly power. “Their technique had always been to see who was winning, then set its sights to copy, overtake, and crush the competition,” former Microsoft employee Marlin Eller and Jennifer Edstrom write in their book Barbarians Led by Bill Gates: Microsoft from the Inside.

Edstrom and Eller’s book recounts Bill Gates’s endless managerial snafus, failed strategic leadership, reorgs, and “monkey wrenches” that led to waste, duplication, and inefficiencies. One argument they make in the book is that Microsoft succeeded despite itself—despite its despotic and capricious chairman; despite its lumbering, labyrinthine bureaucracy; and often despite the existence of better products in the marketplace. “Some people like to use their talent and creativity to build things wonderful to behold,” they write. “Others simply want to be in charge. Sadly, as organizations grow, they fill out their ranks with the latter, and Microsoft was no exception. There were too many chains of command to deal with, too many fiefdoms to placate.”

The Bill Gates Problem, by Tim Schwab, page 255

Bill Gates’ special talent for annoying regulators with his games is well demonstrated when he represented Microsoft at the government Antitrust Deposition.

Conclusion

This book’s revelations came to me unexpectedly, as I always thought the Bill Gates Foundation was doing good work, but I was disappointed to learn that they are abusing their position of wealth and power. Schwab has well researched the material and the references he provides in the text back up what he is saying. Well written to keep the reader engaged the book is a must read.

---

Book Summary

A detailed and sharp examination of how Bill Gates leverages his immense wealth and influence through the Gates Foundation to push forward his personal vision—often at the expense of democratic accountability.

How much wealth should any one person be permitted to accumulate? And would the answer shift if that person were regarded as a saint? Gates embodies extremes: greed and generosity, detachment and compassion, villainy and heroism. Yet in recent years, he has been flattened into a simple caricature—the amiable, sweater-clad billionaire who, through the Gates Foundation, selflessly dedicates his fortune to improving lives across the globe.

This comforting image dangerously overlooks the political power Gates has amassed via his philanthropy, and the contentious ways he exerts it. While many imagine the Foundation as a benevolent charity dispensing funds, partnering with communities, and listening to those it aims to support, the reality is more complex. Its strategies are largely shaped by one man’s worldview, with financial backing directed toward groups that reinforce his vision—effectively projecting his agenda onto the Global South.

Through compelling narrative and investigative reporting, The Bill Gates Problem challenges the prevailing story about one of the world’s most prominent figures—a global icon with unparalleled reach. Beyond profiling Gates, the book grapples with urgent political questions about inequality and democracy: why should the ultra-wealthy be allowed to convert their fortunes into influence, and where should the limits be drawn?

Further Reading

Some books referred to in the book and worth a read:

• Hard Drive: Bill Gates And the Making of the Microsoft Empire, by James Wallace, Jim Erickson
• The Truth About the Drug Companies: How they deceive us and what to do about it, by Dr Marcia Angell
• Barbarians Led by Bill Gates: Microsoft from the Inside, by Jennifer Edstrom and Marlin Eller
• No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy, by Linsey McGoey

References