I still don't think his motives are purely altruistic, I think a lot of it is to do with vanity, self-fulfilment and leaving a legacy. Nothing wrong with that, I just think it's naive when people speak as if he's doing it purely out of the kindness of his heart, despite his less than charitable approach towards other previous aspects of his life, and the fact he's set up a foundation rather than just discreetly donating money to existing charities. I know one could easily make justifications against those points, about how he wants to see his money put to best use and such, but I still don't buy it.
what's his less than charitable approach towards other aspects of life? his dominating force of will at Microsoft where he crushed the competition? isn't that... business? as a businessman don't you want the other guy to die?
The reason he set up the bill and melinda gates foundation is so that he can control where the money goes, i mean it must make sense to some other rich ppl such as warren buffet since he's the second biggest donor to the charity.
I mean look at bono's charity, i think that charity raised like 50million or so but like only 50k went to the charity, the rest went to pay salaries of ppl and "awareness".