No Such Thing as a Free Gift: The Gates Foundation and the Price of Philanthropy

by Linsey McGoey

Overview

Philanthro-capitalism: How charity became big business

The charitable sector is one of the fastest-growing industries in the global economy. Nearly half of the more than 85,000 private foundations in the United States have come into being since the year 2000. Just under 5,000 more were established in 2011 alone. This deluge of philanthropy has helped create a world where billionaires wield more power over education policy, global agriculture, and global health than ever before.

In No Such Thing as a Free Gift, author and academic Linsey McGoey puts this new golden age of philanthropy under the microscope—paying particular attention to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As large charitable organizations replace governments as the providers of social welfare, their largesse becomes suspect. The businesses fronting the money often create the very economic instability and inequality the foundations are purported to solve. We are entering an age when the ideals of social justice are dependent on the strained rectitude and questionable generosity of the mega-rich.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784780838
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	10/20/2015
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.77(w) x 8.49(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Linsey McGoey is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex. She has been a member of the World Health Organization’s expert steering group on the impact of a human rights–based approach to maternal and children’s health. She has published reviews and op-eds for the Guardian, Spectator, Globe and Mail and Open Democracy.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Winning Paradise Economically 1

1 Big Men 29

2 TED Heads 63

3 Mandeville's Bastards 89

4 Pintsized Profit-makers 113

5 Gods Work 149

6 Forgive Them, Bastiat 181

7 Always Coca-Cola 207

Conclusion: The Selfish Gift 235

Acknowledgements 249

Notes 251

Index 285

Editorial Reviews

08/31/2015
This debut from University of Essex lecturer McGoey is a scathing but overly one-sided indictment of contemporary global philanthropy, with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as the primary target. McGoey claims that the charitable sector’s rapid growth is being driven more by greed, ego, and the pursuit of good PR than a commitment to lasting change. She devotes considerable time to tracing the roots of American philanthropy, evoking figures such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, before launching a critique of the “international architecture of celebrities and policy-makers” that includes Bill Clinton and his Clinton Global Initiative as well as elite conferences such as TED, Davos, and Skoll. Turning to the Gates Foundation, she skewers their initiatives in education and health, concluding that philanthropy is “a mode of giving that is not imperiled by its own ineffectiveness” but instead “thrives upon it.” It is clear that McGoey has done considerable research on global philanthropy. However, her unwavering attack on the Gates Foundation and a generation of global philanthropists comes across as tedious, and she neglects to consider other perspectives. Despite the abundance of interesting information, the nonstop harsh negativity may lose the reader’s interest. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

2015-08-09
McGoey (Sociology/Univ. of Essex) probes the business motivations of contemporary philanthropic organizations. "One of the most acute ironies concerning the size of today's philanthropic foundations," writes the author, "is that the emergence of will-financed, politically powerful behemoths is rooted in a political philosophy that cautioned against using the centralized power of states to plan or develop economic growth." McGoey charges that philanthropy does not necessarily help the underserved and poor, and it often undermines taxation and preserves both wealth and inequality. The author exemplifies her argument by concentrating on Bill Gates and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Business and philanthropy have always been related, she insists; the giving of Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller was driven by a desire to counter hostile public opinion. The author takes up the question of "whether a self-interested action can ever be truly philanthropic," and she draws attention to "a new, pugnacious, explicitly commercial form of philanthropy." As the author notes, current charity law does not prevent philanthropists—and their organizations—from donating to for-profit private companies, as long as the "grant is used for solely charitable purposes." Gates, a hands-on leader, oversees donations and their effects, and in 2013, his organization became "the largest single donor" to the World Health Organization. This provides considerable political clout, and experts have questioned the effectiveness of his polio and HIV/AIDS programs abroad. In the U.S., his funds have gone largely to education, but when initiatives are deemed failures and shut down, recipients have little recourse. There is a public interest, as McGoey acknowledges, in both health and education, where accountability and continuity are primary concerns. Private initiative, tainted by corporate entanglement, often lacks accountability and can cause stability to be replaced by personal whims. The author stresses that much good has been accomplished, as well, but questions continue to accumulate. Picking up the cudgels wielded by Ida Tarbell and her fellow trustbusters, McGoey produces a startling report.

Kirkus Reviews

The charitable model represented by the Gates Foundation is failing to address the root causes of inequality and ecological crisis. This path-breaking book is a sorely needed, historically grounded investigation into the difference between philanthropy and justice.”
—Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine

“Fierce … provocatively examines the power imbalances and ambiguities of charitable giving … a clear-eyed and much-needed study.”
—Andy Beckett, Guardian

“On both the left and the right, social critics sense that there is something deeply corrupt in the way we live now … With extraordinary insight and original investigation, Linsey McGoey understands how this twenty-first century mess was made. Her voice is reasoned and never shrill, her research is solid, and her courage is remarkable. Rather than spin far-fetched conspiracy theories, she simply shows what the oligarchs are doing in plain sight, which is frightening enough.”
—Jonathan Rose, author of The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes

“McGoey correctly questions whether Big Government would, in fact, be more efficient than Big Philanthropy in addressing the rise of inequality.”
—New Republic

“It’s worth hearing what she has to say, because it’s not said enough … we give too little scrutiny to people like Gates, and too much credence to the idea that philanthrocapitalism can ‘save the world.’”
—Fast Company

“Picking up the cudgels wielded by Ida Tarbell and her fellow trustbusters, McGoey produces a startling report.”
—Kirkus

“A timely criticism of a society that allows an individual to accumulate such a distorting amount of financial power; it is an indictment of unaccountable power.”
—Maclean’s

“A brave, intelligent and important book that raises vital questions about the full impact of a key source of the world’s public health funding. As the book shows the drive to do good can raise a host of ethical and policy questions—many of which have not been considered or even acknowledged prior to this book.”
—Arthur Caplan, New York University

“A book that is by equal measure provocative and compelling that finally gives a voice to concerns that many have silently harbored … charts the speed of the Foundation’s emergence and influence with conceptual fluency and historically referenced gusto that in parts left me gobsmacked.”
—Sophie Harman, Queen Mary, University of London

“Impeccably researched and beautifully written, Linsey McGoey’s book is the best and most complete examination of the Gates Foundation and the workings of big philanthropy. A must-read for anyone concerned with where the world is heading.”
—Michael Edwards, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Demos

“In this valuable, dense, but accessible book, McGoey illuminates a major cultural shift in leadership and control of power in the US. Highly recommended.”
—Choice

“A lively and well-argued antidote to the comfortable but superficial assumption that giving money away is, by definition, good: it helps you understand why things are more complicated than that.”
—Third Sector

“Essential reading for any scholar interested in contemporary development issues … McGoey convincingly shows that contemporary philanthropic thinking abides by the same underlying ideology than that of the so-called robber barons.”
—Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies

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