Gates isn't the only one. John D. Rockefeller basically eradicated hookworm in the American South, and was instrumental in funding a significant number of the c

Gates isn't the only one. John D. Rockefeller basically eradicated hookworm in the American South, and was instrumental in funding a significant number of the country's historically Black colleges and universities, among many other things. Andrew Carnegie all but invented the public library in America (and some in the UK). Herbert Hoover fed Belgium and Russia after the First World War. If the government had taken their money in tax it could have done some of these things, but I know of no reason to think it would have, or that it would have done them efficiently if so.