Tim Schwab

Schwab makes a strong case, based on years of reporting, that under the direction of a humbler man the Gates Foundation would probably be a more effective force for good.

A tale of frustration and even rage at the culture of secrecy and often incompetence inside Gates’s philanthropic world, it is also strangely heartening.

Schwab's excellent exposé of hyper-billionaire ‘myths’ could yet help to catalyse political murmurations towards...more collective ends.

Tim Schwab has written the definitive critique of Bill Gates as bully-philanthropist. Schwab uses the case of Gates to tell a compelling and carefully researched story that raises disturbing questions about the lack of accountability of power-philanthropy.

Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor, The American Prospect

In this incisive and penetrating book, Schwab dares to confront a question society has long ignored: should a secretive, unaccountable billionaire dictate policy in public health, education, and science? Fearlessly rendered and much-needed.

Sonia Shah, author of The Next Great Migration

This is not the story of one bad man, so much as a demonstration of the inability for anyone-no matter how smart or rich-to solve the world's problems from the top down with money and technology.

Douglas Rushkoff, author of Survival of the Richest

An extraordinary and detailed work of investigative journalism into an underexplored nexus of influence in global affairs.

Tim Schwab follows the money to expose what happens when one man-however intelligent or well-intentioned-amasses so much wealth and so much power, he can literally dictate to governments around the world. With great skill-and given the range of Bill Gates's influence, considerable courage-Schwab pulls back the curtain to deliver a classic of muckraking journalism.

Read it and learn the brutal truth: there is nothing altruistic about the world’s favorite billionaire.

Thomas Frank, author of What's the Matter with Kansas

Investigative journalism with a fierce polemical edge … Nobody who comes away from reading The Bill Gates Problem will look at him in the same way.

Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire

You know him as the founder of Microsoft; the philanthropic, kind-hearted billionaire who has donated endless funds to good causes around the world. But there’s another side to Bill Gates. 
 
In this fearless, groundbreaking investigation, Tim Schwab offers readers a counter-narrative, one where Gates has used his monopolistic approach in business to amass a stunning level of control over public policy, scientific research and the news media. Whether he is pushing new educational standards in America, health reforms in India or industrialized agriculture in Africa, Gates’s unbridled social experimentation has shown itself to be not only undemocratic, but also ineffective. 
 
All of which begs the question: why should the super rich be able to transform their wealth into political power, and just how far can they go?

Tim Schwab

Praise for The Bill Gates Problem

Schwab makes a strong case, based on years of reporting, that under the direction of a humbler man the Gates Foundation would probably be a more effective force for good.

A tale of frustration and even rage at the culture of secrecy and often incompetence inside Gates’s philanthropic world, it is also strangely heartening.

Schwab's excellent exposé of hyper-billionaire ‘myths’ could yet help to catalyse political murmurations towards...more collective ends.

Schwab makes a strong case, based on years of reporting, that under the direction of a humbler man the Gates Foundation would probably be a more effective force for good.

A tale of frustration and even rage at the culture of secrecy and often incompetence inside Gates’s philanthropic world, it is also strangely heartening.

Schwab's excellent exposé of hyper-billionaire ‘myths’ could yet help to catalyse political murmurations towards...more collective ends.

Schwab makes a strong case, based on years of reporting, that under the direction of a humbler man the Gates Foundation would probably be a more effective force for good.

A tale of frustration and even rage at the culture of secrecy and often incompetence inside Gates’s philanthropic world, it is also strangely heartening.

Schwab's excellent exposé of hyper-billionaire ‘myths’ could yet help to catalyse political murmurations towards...more collective ends.

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