Originally Posted by SomeCreep

Look at it this way. If someone has 2 dollars and donates 1 of them, they are being very generous. If someone has 1000 dollars and donates 2 dollars, they are not being very generous at all, even though they donated more money than that first person, and this is how it is with Bill Gates. When one has as much money as Bill Gates, there are a lot of politics involved which dictate how much one donates. It turns out that he actually makes more money by donating some of his money, than if he were to keep it an pay taxes on his net total.