Well, first of all stop with the linguistic fundamentalism already. Words mean what people collectively decide they mean, not what they once meant in some other language. Wikipedia has 'Philanthropy consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". [...] A person who practices philanthropy is a philanthropist.', and I think that's a fine definition of the term.
So, are Bill & Melinda Gates philanthropists? Although, as someone else pointed out simply giving away money isn't sufficient to do good, it is necessary. If, say, you want to deal with uncontrolled population increase you really do need to spend a lot of money on both contraception and education (or you could start a cult which preaches that sex is bad, which also costs a huge amount of money and we also tried this for a little while and it doesn't work). Or you could spend it on sofas, in which case you'd not be a philanthropist at all.
So, well, are they giving away a lot of money in absolute terms? Yes. Are they giving away a higher proportion of their wealth than most people? Yes. Is that money being used effectively? Well, I'll take almost eliminating polio, working hard on malaria and all the other stuff the foundation does, so yes again.
Does that make them philanthropists? Yes, it does. Does it make you, or I, not philanthropists? No. We just don't get articles written about us.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
