Copyright washingtontimes
In “Grassley questions major U.S. nonprofits over purported financial ties to Chinese Communist Party” (Web, Oct. 28) Kerry Picket writes that “the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2023 reportedly directed about $11.7 million to various arms of the CCP.” You may be wondering how anyone who’s spent so much of their professional life battling the Chinese government over intellectual property violations would ever give a dime to the CCP. During one of my business trips to China between 2004 and 2006, Bill Gates was there meeting with officials over violations to Microsoft’s intellectual property rights. Flipping through TV channels, I saw numerous government warnings over the evils of pirating software — but when I walked across the street, I’d easily find a copy of Microsoft Windows for $12. Perhaps the genius of Mr. Gates is running into the same thing as J. Robert Oppenheimer’s did when it came to macroeconomics. Watching the movie “Oppenheimer,” I found it funny that with all his genius, Oppenheimer still thought communism was a swell idea. I’m sure to him the math was simple: Total wealth divided by total population equals prosperity for everyone. His formula couldn’t include the unquantifiable human dynamic where no one works hard if everyone gets paid the same, or the other dynamic, where competition brings out people’s best. With the absence of competition, government has no incentive to ever get better. After my sixth trip to China, it became obvious that at some point, there would be a collision between the free-market forces unleashed in 1978 and the Communist Party. BEN FURLEIGH Port Charlotte, Florida
