The Wealth of the Mighty and the Small

Nobody’s Opinion; There they were; the two richest men in the world, and one rich wife, confidently facing the questions that everyone in the world wanted to know today which is; Why would the second richest guy in the world give most of his money to the first richest guy in the world? This had never happened in history before, it was a first… and being a skeptic, thousands of nobodies like me were trying to imagine what was really going on.

I was thinking about this when I was ordering a hamburger at Wendy’s. I was pretty happy to get change from a five, and I was amazingly thinking that Warren Buffet was just as happy to hand over 37 billion, 85% of his fortune, as if it was a relief and he had gotten a good bargain. He looked as if he had gotten change.

What goes here?

My nobody natural proclivity to always “follow the money” especially when it comes to the very rich--- kicked right into gear.

In reality, it’s hard to believe that both these guys got to be so rich being good-hearted philanthropists. They had to play hard ball at every turn, and there were times I’m sure, sheer ruthlessness came into call.

If you’ve ever sat through five minutes of a Paul Allen pitch, you feel like you’ve been hit by a fast ball in the head.

We all give the credit to Bill Gates, for giving us all this wonderful stuff to do on computer, but it’s also true that he purposely created a monopoly that frustrated his competitors into perhaps some mental breakdowns.

Not to mention the executive order he got from Bill Clinton so that he could drive his beautiful blue Porsche.

These two guys are the finest example of what capitalism can achieve. In Warren’s case, when you see your own death approaching, and whole troops of government vultures waiting to come in and take probably at least 75% of what’s left after you die, you’d better get rid of it quick. These Foundations are the only thing that governments can’t touch. Recently we heard that Warren’s son didn’t want to take over…so perhaps that had a hand in it. But foundations are the greatest way to protect your billions. It’s not like these guys don’t know what they are doing.

Bill Gates…besides having the most brilliant poker little boy face in the world, which I’m convince has giving him much of his success because it probably hypnotizes anyone who comes into within twenty feet…is going to cure the world of aids, at least that’s what Melinda hopes.

She explained that part of their effort was to find a cure for diseases, a cure for tuberculosis, aids, malarias, not just the vaccinations. One wonders if they will also be so benevolent to the scientists that find the cures to let them own the patents…or will the patents belong to Bill and Melinda foundation? Can you imagine what the cure to aids will bring in?

These findings in medicine alone might make the Microsoft Empire look tiny. With the Buffet/Gates merger---GE, Ford and the other foundations looking for this pie must be very upset right now. I’d say they have the Microsoft advantage.

Melinda was admitting that kids that are starving cannot even take a vaccination because they have no food in their stomachs to hold it down. It’s a problem. And if there is no electricity in those refugee camps to hook up their computers, well there’s another problem.

Did either one of these two guys even mention the fact that if not for the good old USA, the country which they were both lucky to born in, they would probably not have risen to such great wealth?

No…not a word. Because they believe that it was their own high IQ’s and talent---that’s the real reason that they amassed such fortunes.

After all…the Saudi’s are rich, right? That’s why they send all their children to Harvard.

Which goes to show you, even genius have their limits. If Bill Gates had been born to a middle class family, you can bet he might just be getting started about now. He was lucky. Warren Buffet knows it. And frankly, I would have like to hear them mention that fact. But they were too busy enjoying feeling good about themselves.

My nobody mind went on. Bill will donate computers to kids in the mud all over the world, but first they must learn how to read. That’s why they love India so much…there is a big middle class over there, many who will work for Bill Gates for less money.

Bill Gates is not thinking of Americans…he is thinking of the bottom line.

And even though Bill Gates acts like now he is quitting and giving it all away, Bill has picked the industry that in the future will be the most lucrative, and that’s medicine.

In education, even his free computers need updated software.

I didn’t like this road I was going down, especially when I heard Warren Buffet talking about how he thought estate tax was good. Why the rich will still end up with $ 30 million after the tax, which is plenty in his mind. He forgot to mention that the majority of the people are not millionaires and the estate tax takes can wipe out everything. Besides…it’s not fair.

Oh…this wasn’t going good, the spin on all on the nightly news was that these guys had joined the fellowships of the Rockefellers and Carnegies, great philanthropists…only if you look into the lives of these fellows, they weren’t’ exactly angels.

So, why give away billions? Is it like the nightly news reported? “Those who have the least should benefit from those who have the most?”

I don’t like the sound of that. Right out of Karl Marx. Oh great

The whole thing left a bad taste and my day was not going too well, and then the day took a turn, as it does when God comes up and smacks you in the head.

He presented me an angel. Right there working in a government office, taking car renewal taxes.

Her name was Bee. I have never been so thankful to hand over money to the government in my life.

I don’t know anyone who likes going to renew their car plates, especially near the end of the month when everyone goes and wait can be over an hour. But I was watching this amazing woman while I stood there….it was taking a long time, because Bee was basically holding up the line…with her goodness.

This lady gave every single person that came to her so much goodness and light, that no one wanted to leave her, and most of them were white people, Bee was black, and not a prejudice bone in here body. And I was lucky to get her.

She greeted me with “you look so pretty” and coming from a woman, that’s like someone given you a real gift. When I asked her how she managed to be the obvious wonderful person she was she said, two things.

She had been born that way. And-- 2. The lord.

She went on to tell me how her husband had left her for being so “good.” And that whenever there was a problem he would get frustrated because she would always “pray.” She showed me her little girl’s picture. She said she was 47, and was glad to tell her age because she used to work for a hospice and had held many a young person, even those as young as 27 who had died in her arms. She was thankful for every moment she lived.

She was hoping to meet a companion to be a husband to her and a father to her child someday. Her little girl had only been one and half pounds when she was born.

Bee liked flowers she said. She went very slow processing all the paper work, doing all the stuff; I would have gladly stayed there for another hour just to be in her presence.

I wanted to ask her to be my best friend. You don’t meet too many people like that.

It wasn’t till I got home that I realized that perhaps Bill, Melinda, and Warren had maybe met some “Bee’s” in their lifetimes. And maybe, even though they have a gift for making money, that I should give them the benefit of the doubt. They truly did want to give to the “Bee’s in the world--people who are born in the wrong place, at the wrong time, through no fault of their own. I had been too cynical, too judgmental, and too jealous.

There will be children and people everywhere in the world that will benefit from the merging of the two richest men on the planet, just as surely as I am benefiting from using this software program to put these words onto paper.

Now, I realized that most people would not have put these two different happening together and thought anything of it. Most people would have thought the better of them both in the first place.

But as far as I’m concerned…God was just sending me a message, via a little Bee.
And even though Bill Gates is the richest man in the world, he doesn’t have the kind of wealth that Ms Bee had in her heart. But he’s getting there.

Nobody’s Perfect; Google not only works with China to censor the internet, it also put up student social security numbers, taken illegally from a grade school. I guess when Al Gore’s on your board, anything can happen.

Nobody Knows; Bill Gates IQ is actually 550, and he is not from the planet Earth, but from nearby Mars…

Nobody Cares; No, I didn’t think you would care if he was.