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Persons Of The Year

TIME NAMES BONO, BILL AND MELINDA GATES PERSONS OF YEAR

The good deeds of an activist rock legend and one of the world's richest men and his wife carried the day in 2005, as Time magazine on Sunday named U2 frontman Bono and philanthropic couple Bill and Melinda Gates as its "Persons of the Year."
Ref. https://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/18/time.poy/index.html

Year The Persons

These were very interesting choices as myself and my fiancee were in a debate about this last night. I believe that they are all very good choices personally however my fiancee believes that Bill Gates should never qualify. While I believe that he gives a good amount of money to different charitable organizations she feels he does not give enough simply because of how much he makes each year. I look at the total amount that he gave back to the community in money and actions and I feel it is a good amount, however since he makes such a large amount more than he contributes she feels that he doesn't do enough to qualify as a person of the year. She also made the comment that it is only since his wife is there that he donates at all. She believes that his wife tells him how much to help which organization. I know this isn't the only qualifying factor for person of the year, but I believe in a lot of people's minds this is what it really takes.

Persons Of The Year History & Civil Business Politics

I don't think the Times person of the year has any real importance. They quite often tend to be people who are int he news a lot regardless of what they do.

I remember a few years ago Donald Rumsfeld was voted person of the year which I found a bit strange. Bush was last years. I think it is more a reflection of the newsworthyness that the Time Magazine editorial staff place on an individual rather than what they have actually achived over a given year.

Bono is great but he is a singer. Gates gives a small fraction of his money to charity. They both do good in the world but are also both in very privileged and comfortable positions to share their wealth/influence. So I don't place a great deal of importance on this choice.

Year The Persons

So it seems even though Gates is the richest cat on the planet, he still is unhappy.

Bill Gates wishes he weren't so rich

https://money.cnn.com/2006/05/04/news/newsm...dex.htm?cnn=yes

If Gates really was so unhappy with all this money, don't you think he would give more of it to charity and other organizations?