The relevant thing is that if the public sufficiently taxed gates' wealth, how it would be spent to reduce poverty and disease, would be democratically driven, instead of being driven by the interests and opinions of one man.
What's surprising is that he gave away 49% of microsoft which would have made him the first trillionaire at current valuations...
I hope that was given as stock to the foundation...
I cant even fathom those sums let alone giving them to charity and putting it to good use...
Bill and Melinda Gates have pledged 95% of their wealth to charity. So far, they have given away about $45B, and have a remaining wealth of about $110B -- even if they didn't give away any more than that, that's still over 30%, which I don't know if I'd consider a "minor portion".
How do you envision going significantly farther towards the objective of reducing poverty, disease etc than the Gates Foundation?