CLOSING THE GATES

Article by Loukas Christodolou.

Bill Gates, corporate idol, cyber Napoleon and midwife of the electronic age 'retired' recently from his post at Microsoft. His legions of fans in the media reacted with groans and plaudits. Gushed The Times, 'On almost every desk, in almost every office, sits a softly humming monument to Mr Gates's vision and tenacity.[1] Panted Fiona Bruce, The Telegraph's interviewer, 'The build-up to meeting chairman Bill was akin to what I imagine the atmosphere to be on a Hollywood film set before Tom Cruise arrives'[2]; she went on to assert that Gates 'hasn't chopped down forests or built great smoky factories. His is an empire of brain, not braun [sic].' All tame journalists subscribe to the dominant theme of corporate culture – that companies and company bosses 'create' wealth through their cleverness and their willingness to take risks. In Gates' case the picture is drawn in an even more ethereal style – all hail the nerd king who created the world's largest fortune, simply from lines of software code.

Well no, actually. Computers are not magicked out of thin air, but constructed in factories – you know, old fashioned industry, horribly boring, un-21st century and usually based in a far off country. In Gates' case, his fortune was built on licensing software for IBM computers; the same IBM that has factories accused of contaminating drinking water with pollutants that cause birth defects and exposing workers to cancer-causing chemicals.[3] And Microsoft's own software, well that requires work to create as well. Not that Bill himself dreamt up much of it. Microsoft's first success was n licensing the operating system MS-DOS to IBM; this system - bought by Gates et al from a developer for $50,000 - went on to make them all billionaires.[4] And the modern work of maintaining Gates' empire of dreams is done by an army of 'permatemps', workers ostensibly on a temporary contract who are hired and rehired. In 2000, Microsoft paid out $97 million in damages to settle a case brought by a large number of permatemps, in lieu of the benefits they should have received during their time at Microsoft.[5]

Now Bill is off into the sunset to pursue philanthropy. What is philanthropy? Dogbert defined it as 'mostly about watching people beg, and having buildings named after me[6]. Gates' philanthropic foundation has already been outed, in the LA Times, for investing money the bulk of its money in companies that actually cause the problems that its philanthropy supposedly ameliorates.[7] Not that this will dissuade the myth makers, for whom Bill Gates will always have clean hands.

References
[1] Editorial, 'Macrosoft: Bill Gates is much more than a rich man - he has changed the world', The Times, 28/06/08
[2] Fiona Bruce, 'Bill Gates: a very retiring billionaire ', The Telegraph, 13/06/08
[3] Benjamin Pimentel, 'The valley's toxic history: IBM trial is latest round in long-running dispute over the tech industry's environmental record', San Francisco Courier, 30/01/04
[4]Author unknown, 'Programmer sues author over role in Microsoft history', 03/02/05, Tech, USAtoday.com, accessed 07/07/08
[5] Bill Virgin, 'Microsoft settles 'permatemp' suits: Two $97 million cases reshape employment for temps nationwide', 13/12/00, Seattle PI, accessed 07/07/08
[6] Scott Adams, dilbert.com.
[7] Richard Stallman, ' It's not the Gates, it's the bars', 03/07/08, BBC Online, accessed 07/07/08