Riginslinger -

If all of Gates' fortune had been given to "the people" in taxes, then the ones who would be spending it (right now) would be Cheney and Bush. It's pretty easy to guess what "great good things" it would be doing.

A show I saw recently on PBS (which could have been a rebroadcast from some time back) featured Gates and Buffet "discussing wealth" with what appeared to be a "college age crowd." Buffet stated quite emphatically: "I don't pay enough taxes. It's ridiculous how little I pay." He clearly expressed his opinion that the current policy of tax breaks for the super-rich is not a justifiable policy. Slim would apparently disagree, but Gates hasn't really expressed an opinion that I've heard.

The Gates foundation is chartered to do exactly the thing that both government and business have refused to do. It looks for medicines and treatments for the "orphan diseases" that affect/kill large numbers of people but "aren't profitable" for drug companies to research. It's apparently had some very significant success.

John