This book was a bold take on billionaire Bill Gates. Gates says he is an "impatient optimist" trying to save the world of every problem from overpopulation, education, food production, sanitation, vaccines and more. However, author Tim Schwab reveals his bully side as a clever broker that benefits both Microsoft and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In the Foundation, he shares that his "experts", the media, and even politicians are all under his control with money, which he has plenty of to spend on his "projects" and people. He believes he knows the answer to all the world's problems, not listening to any nay-sayers. This kind of uncontrolled power is quite dangerous and no one, including governments of every country he has his Foundation in, has any control over his power. Most willing to accept his power for the money.

Personally, I found the book enlightening and the part on population control with birth control in African countries scared me a bit after reading Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, which reminded readers of what the US did to young black girls in the 60's south with birth control and surgical procedures that took away freedom from these girls all in the name of controlling the birth rate in poor areas.

One area I disagreed with the author on is his question of why there are even billionaires allowed. This borders on another area of control, which dictates that "someone" (government is surely not a good choice!) should control this. There is much to ponder in this book and very glad I read it.

My thanks to Net Galley and Macmillian Audio for an advanced copy of this audiobook. The narration was done very well!

I went into this with a negative opinion of Bill Gates and I am leaving this with even more of a negative opinion but now I have more understanding to both sides of why he is unstoppable. I think the Schwab does a great job of breaking down each area and explaining why the Gates Foundation is problematic while also talking about some good that they do. I never thought I would say this, but I agree that we need some tax reform when it comes to philanthropy. Schwab makes a great argument that if you are giving to a charitable organization, you shouldn't be able to control how that organization uses the money for it count as a tax write off. That creates a fine line between charitable giving and a payoff or service (in my opinion).

Thank you NetGalley for letting me listen to the ARC audiobook!

I have a longstanding bias against Bill Gates so my review is definitely going to reflect that. This book was chock full of information about the foundation and Bill himself. To be honest, it lowered my opinion of him even further. It gave me a glimpse behind the curtain on how these non profit companies use their money to influence politics to sway things in their favor. Basically using their non profit to push their agenda on people whether or not it’s founded in facts or what is best for the world. Their opinions rule and that is not okay. Props to the author for putting this all together, especially with the lack of participation from certain parties.

A very comprehensive book filled with insight and building a strong perspective. It certainly provides a new awareness but few solutions. Perhaps Gates has some altruistic qualities but they are not on display here and the stereotype is that people like Gates are more manipulative than altruistic. But we have to ask is this leadership or dictatorship - not in a literal political sense but in a "my way or the highway" way? A strong case that will make you think about Gates and billionaires in general.

I saw this for download on Netgalley and I’m firmly in the “billionaires shouldn’t exist” camp so I was intrigued to see what this said. This is a rather scathing takedown of Bill Gates and his charity work and how he often does more harm than good. Turns out throwing billions of dollars at social problems doesn’t make them go away. Who would have thought?

While the author very clearly has a bias against Gates this is still a fascinating read. It went into multiple topics that I knew nothing about and really helped with an understanding of them. I don’t 100% agree with his takedown of GMO food but you can’t 100% agree with anyone.

Overall I really liked this book. Highly recommend for nonfiction fans and people that like reading about social issues facing society today.

It is fascinating to read how someone like Bill Gates went from overbearing, arrogant computer software to thinking his money made it OK for him to force his will on the entire world. I've always known that Microsoft was too big. That Bill Gates was overreaching into things like education, most of which he had no expertise in. We need to be aware of how the uberrich are trying to control the world and recreate it into their own dream world.

This book is incredible. It shows how the Gates Foundation is operating as a private equity fund and profiting from charity. It's unbelievable how much influence the Gates Foundation has on public policy, agriculture, and pharmaceuticals. Through its subsidy scams, the Gates Foundation is a drain on taxpayers and society. This book is eye-opening to a massive problem.

Sometimes it is difficult to review a book based on the political or ideological ramifications of MERELY EXPRESSING A VIEWPOINT.
So... I will not express my personal opinions on the subject. With that being said, this author did an excellent job. It is very well written, and a massive amount of information was shared in an organized manner that kept your attention in its entirety.
It is different than most books that attempt to vilify an individual or group in that it ends each section with more of a question... Is it ok that we allow these people the free reign to do the things that they do... when they aren't elected officials... or medical professionals... or farmers... or geneticists...??? They're simply uberwealthy.
It raises a lot of questions and gives us much to consider. The author definitely has an agenda in this book, but it is NOT expressed in an overtly hateful way.
This is an excellent read. It did NOT impact my personal opinions on Mr. Gates. It did, however, inspire a lot of interest in further research on the many subjects that it explored.