The Gates Foundation
Billionaire Boys’ Cause
By Thomas Goetz
Village Voice
Warren Buffett, a tycoon so tight he turned down his own daughter for a loan, has earmarked overpopulation as a primary cause of his foundation upon his death. In the meantime, he reportedly gave $2 million to fund research on RU-486, the so-called abortion pill…
In 1995, during a train trip across China, [Bill] Gates and Buffett “did visit a government-run family planning clinic,” according to Gates, to see how that country was dealing with its billion-plus citizenry…
Buffett declined to talk with the Voice about population … but against his legendary reputation for tightfistedness, population marks Buffett’s one exception…
The public participation of [Ted] Turner, Gates and Buffett is all the more remarkable, considering that population is closely linked with hot-button issues such as birth control, abortion and immigration. The passions surrounding these subjects are the tinder of bad publicity and boycotts…
