No Such Thing as a Free Gift Quotes

“Quite ironically, the answer to ineffective philanthropy is more of it: the failure of philanthropy is its own success. The perceived necessity — even the indispensability — of a donor like the Gates Foundation grows in proportion to its own inability to achieve the unachievable: mitigating the very inequalities that its own presence might be inadvertently compounding.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“This, fundamentally, is philanthrocapitalism in action: introducing policies that help concentrate wealth in the upper echelons of society in the hope that the wealthy will donate to the financially strapped rest.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“private philanthropy is no substitution for hard-fought battles over labour laws and social security, in part because philanthropy can be retracted on a whim, while elected officials, at least in theory, have citizens to answer to.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“Many reporters believed, Dvorak writes, that if you ended up in the ‘needs work’ category, Microsoft would take pains to try and have you fired.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“Gates and Allen’s use of Harvard’s lab space would return to haunt them over the years, as their rivals suggested time and again that Microsoft played a rigged business game,”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“But patents are not market devices. They are the opposite. They are a government-sanctioned monopoly permitting exclusive sales of a product for a limited period of time, protected by courts of law.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“Despite a history of policy reversals and failed efforts, the foundation continues to be upheld as an exemplary and uniquely results-oriented organization.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“gimmicks. A closer look at the online school movement illustrates how tax dollars and philanthropic donations are being used to fuel huge windfalls in the private sector.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“Strangely, the greater the debilitating toll poverty takes on the lives of America’s schoolchildren, the more taboo discussions of poverty have become.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“Approximately four out of five – or over 80 per cent – of charter schools achieve no better test results than traditional public schools, and some are considerably worse.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“The idea that we should augment the wealth of the richest 1 per cent so they have more to spend on charity is trickle-down theory in its baldest form.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“Study after study has proven than only a small percentage of charitable donations from wealthy donors reach poor individuals. Most of it tends to go to alma maters or cultural institutions frequented by the wealthy.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“Anyone who’s ever run a business knows that hiring more people is a capitalist’s course of last resort, something we do only when increasing customer demand requires it. In this sense, calling ourselves job creators isn’t just inaccurate, it’s disingenuous’.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“that ‘the rich should be trusted to tithe, or should we have a society with a basic taxing-and-spending structure that ensures a modicum of economic security for all people?”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“question is whether the practices associated with the new philanthropy – tighter control of grantee decision-making; a demand for swifter indicators of project success – might be stifling ingenuity and progress rather than engendering it.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“What’s novel today is the outspoken way that powerful donors admit and even champion the fact that gift-giving is a useful vehicle for preserving privilege, something that distinguishes them from earlier donors.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“Philanthropists themselves are often the first to admit that their philanthropy is aimed at preserving rather than redistributing wealth.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“What to make of the fact that growing philanthropy and growing inequality seem to go hand in hand? Does philanthropy actually make the rich richer and the poor poorer?”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“reality, a businesslike approach to charity has been dominant within large-scale organized philanthropy for at least 120 years, ever since industrialists such as Carnegie and Rockefeller vowed to apply business techniques to the realm of philanthropy.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“the Carnegie approach to wealth: increase concentration at the top and hope wealth reaches the masses through charitable bequests.”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

“What's the best way to make sure that the poor have a share in a country's growing wealth: Regulation? Taxes? Philanthropy?”
― Linsey McGoey, No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy