The Gates And Buffet
Foundation Shell Game
By Sheldon Drobny
Co-founder of Air America Radio
8-26-6

My background is finance and accounting. As a socially conscious
venture capitalist and philanthropist, I have a very good understanding of
wealth management and philanthropy. I started my career in 1967 with the
IRS as a specialist in taxation covering many areas of the tax law
including the so-called legal loopholes to charitable giving. I have known
for years that a smart wealthy person could keep control of all his
assets without estate or income taxes through cleverly structured
charitable foundations. These foundations are perfectly legal and allow the
donors to keep absolute control of all their money and power and
accumulate enormous appreciation free of taxation. In 1967, the loopholes were
outrageous and the law has tightened some of these tactics for the rich.
However, the Gates Buffet foundation grant is nothing more than a shell
game in which control of assets for both Gates and Buffet remain the
same. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT THE ACCUMULATION OF WEALTH BY THESE
TWO WILL BE MUCH MORE MASSIVE BECAUSE THEY WILL NO LONGER HAVE TO PAY
ANY TAXES. The Gates Foundation now has about $60 Billion under the
control of the wealthiest people in America. They do not have to sell any
of their positions in the stocks that they put under the tax-exempt
umbrella. Furthermore, they can vote their stock holdings the same as if
they did before and they can make the same investment decisions about
their considerable corporate holdings. Both Buffet and Gates exhibited
the most predatory capitalistic practices as corporate executives and
investors. Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway are not models of socially
responsible capitalism. That being said, this foundation will be in the
long run richer than the Catholic Church, which has accumulated wealth
and power for over 1500 years. However, the results will be exactly the
same. They will never liquidate enough of their assets to do any real
good for the most onerous problem we have as humans; the worldwide
poverty that is caused by the great disparity between the haves and the
have-nots. GATES WILL BE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE POPE The Gates
Foundation and the Catholic Church have the same goals. They are to keep the
legacies for which they were created. For Bill Gates and Warren Buffet it
is the control and legacy of family wealth as in the ancient days of
the Pharos of Egypt. And by not paying any taxes, Gates will be more
powerful than the Pope. I realize that this foundation has done more for
disease research and education than any single government institution.
But, that is just a condemnation of how little rich countries do for the
less fortunate. AND THE UNITED STATES IS ONE OF THE WORST EXAMPLES OF
HOW LITTLE IT DOES FOR ITS OWN PEOPLE. The great problems of the
world today are a direct result of the wide disparity between the rich and
poor. But, it is hard for the wealthiest to even look at this as an
issue of most importance. Catholic Charities do a lot for the poor and I
am sure that the Gates Foundation will do a lot for diseases of the
poor. But, that is merely a band-aid for one of the symptoms of poverty.
The real issue today is poverty. The governments that keep their people
in abject poverty while their leaders are obscenely rich from oil
revenues cause many of the problems in the Middle East. But, even the
poorest of their people now have access to satellite TV and Internet
information that shows these people how much they are being exploited. The
simple answer that they hate us for our freedom is absurd. They hate us
because they see the wealthy and powerful as the cause of their suffering.
As was the case in Germany in the 1920s, even a cultured society can
succumb to irrationally violent leaders if they are hungry and poor. It
is a human problem that we saw occur in a 1st world country. The 1968
movie, The Shoes of the Fisherman was a fictional account of a new Pope
who had the conscience to solve world poverty by giving away all the
Church's assets. Below is a summary of the plot from www.imdb.com.
"After twenty years in a Siberian labor camp, Kiril Lakota, the
Metropolitan Archbishop of Lvov, is set free. The Catholic Archbishop is released
and sent to Rome, where the ailing Pope makes him a Cardinal. The world
is in a state of crisis - a famine in China is exacerbated by United
States restrictions on Chinese trade and the ongoing Chinese-Soviet feud.
When the Pontiff dies, Lakota finds himself elected Pope. But the new
Pope Kiril I is plagued by self-doubt, by his years in prison, and by
the strange world he knows so little about. This movie contains extensive
information about Catholic faith & practice, as a television news
reporter steps in from time-to-time to explain the procedures involved in
selecting a new Pope." OUR CHANCES OF SURVIVAL ARE MARKEDLY DECREASED
The movie was not great but it did emphasize the point I am making in
this piece. Unless wealthy people and governments around the world
recognize the threat that poverty has on humanity, our chances of survival
are markedly decreased. And unless the major wealth of the world is used
to help feed its people, the diseases caused by poverty will never be
cured. The prevention of diseases, both physical and mental, caused by
hunger and poverty are the real dangers we face. And with all the
concentrated wealth, we have the capacity to give everyone enough to survive
and still leave the wealthy with plenty of luxuries. IF BILL GATES
GAVE $29 BILLION AWAY AND KEPT ONLY $1BILLION HE WOULD STILL HAVE A
WONDERFUL LIFE. IF HE GAVE IT TO SALLY STRUTHERS, SHE COULD PROBABLY FEED
THE WORLD. SHELDON DROBNY The Gates and Buffet Foundation Shell
Game - Url.: www.commondreams.org/views06...-26.htm>
www.commondreams.org/views06/0823-26.htm Published on
Wednesday, August 23, 2006 by CommonDreams.org