Why is Bill Gates giving away his wealth? Microsoft co-founder says...
Bill Gates also mentioned that he lets his kids have some money to be comfortable but he doesn't need money for his own spending.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on Thursday spilled the beans on being a philanthropist and giving away his wealth saying that he always knew that he would have to learn how to be a philanthropist and found things like vaccines for malaria or malnutrition due to the wealth generated from his company.
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In an interview to news agency ANI, the tech boss said that he finds himself lucky that Microsoft was so successful that it generated gigantic wealth and through partnerships, governments, and money, he could help to eliminate the persisting problems.
"I'm very lucky that Microsoft was so successful. It generated gigantic wealth and I was able to find things like vaccines of malaria or malnutrition that would not be solved without philanthropy. That is, you know, people are malnourished. It's not a big enough market that, you know, companies were responding to that. And so, through partnerships with governments, I see a path to really eliminate a lot of these awful problems," he said.
Gates also mentioned that he lets his kids have some money to be comfortable but he doesn't need money for his own spending.
"Well, you know, I'll let my kids have some money so that they're comfortable. But, I don't need the money for my own spending and I think, having a limited amount be inherited means that the rest of it's available to give back to society and try to improve things as much as possible," he added.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-founder further said that he has never faced the problems of financial crisis as he belonged to an upper-middle-class family.
"Well, when I started, I was in an upper-middle-class family, so I've never been in what you'd call tough circumstances. My parents sent me to a great private school. When I dropped out of Harvard, I could have gone back at any time and as soon as Microsoft was successful, I wasn't going to spend that money because I was working all the time and that was my big focus. So I always knew that I would have to learn how to be a philanthropist. I didn't really figure it out until the year 2000, and that's when I created the Gates Foundation, and it became the largest in the world," he added.
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Microsoft ex-CEO, who is on a tour to India, on Wednesday, paid a visit to a slum in Odisha's Bhubaneswar on Wednesday and interacted with the people living there. The philanthropist also asked the slum residents about the changes in their lifestyle as a result of the welfare schemes. "He asked about how we were living earlier and our present status," a slum resident said.
Earlier today, he along with union minister Smriti Irani attended the "Poshan Utsav – Celebrating Nutrition" event and addressed the students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, on Artificial intelligence. Gates also has an invitation to attend Anant Ambani's pre-wedding bash in Gujarat's Jamnagar.
(With inputs from ANI)
