" the privations of ordinary citizens, whose savings are vanishing and pensions becoming worthless as stock markets tumble."

Wow, thought I was reading the Daily Mail for a moment there.

That is all

To offer my condolences to Bill on his sad lost. Capitalist pig dog!

Paris cos she don't charge to screw you.

It's the beginning of the end of money ... hahaha ... fools, they should have invested in something worthwhile like people ... bring it on, we the enlightened are more than ready!

Like gods they are, with their huge funding they could change the world but instead they ignore our peril and play dice with the stars (and coke and methamphetamine)

Or so I've been led to believe

I am sure the world has lost more bacause of the sad quality of Windows than Mr Gates will ever be able to repay through his "tax gimmic" charity.

who could single handedly wipe out third world debt...

Their employees like them. Larry Ellison can't say that.

I thought that was what Melinda had on her face, or was that.....eww enough of that thank you.

How does Bill who acquires money through bullying and stealing become a good guy because he gives some back to charities?

If I rob a bank, then donate some to Oxfam, would I be a better person than today?

Mine's the one with the arms tied to the back.

If the big guys suddenly sold billions worth of investments and took the money out of the bank to redistribute it, what would happen?

The stock markets would show massive amounts of panic buying and the banks would show huge losses, promoting further collapse and chaos. There may be a few million, a tiny percentage of the population, who keep their houses. In comparison to the damage caused by the further collapse of stocks and banks, I cannot imagine it being worth it.

Redistribution of wealth isn't the answer right now. What seems to be needed before improvement can be seen is stability: 'we are as low as we are going to go, and now we can work on recovering'.

We should just create a new currency and leave all the old ones behind. That's how they got all the power in the first place, we need to reverse that.

Let the markets crash into oblivion, screw them. Let them try and repossess most of the country's houses, there would be service men and police amongst that lot, as well as most of the able bodied men in the country. It would be interesting to see what they would do, but I imagine democracy would be kicked into touch, and dictatorship would be the new order of the day.

In fact the more affected the better, the more the ability to evenly distribute wealth. I think most of us we would end up a lot wealthier for it.

There is far more to go, this is just the first weekend, we ain't reached the bottom yet, you want to go faster?

And it is panic selling (not panic buying), but is it; will there even be stock markets by the end of this?

It's a wonderful life, anyone up for making a building society?

If I had $50 billion, I could afford to "give generously" too.

Bull might give large amounts of money, but the charity is little.

When Joe Sixpack gives $10, that has a far greater impact on Joe's financial well being than Bill giving away $100million.

Further, Joe does not do his giving on a stage wrapped in Microsoft advertising.

When Bill gave $20M to CMU to make the "Gates Center" he turned them into a bunch of pathetic sycophants. When you have billions then throwing down a few million to get an ego-rub is rather pathetic really.

Let's call Bill's "charity" what it is: buying ego-bling.

With the crash in value of so much, has the US Gov. actually achieved that which the terrorists have been attempting - the steep decline of the Western way of living. Western economy has massive loss of jobs, loss of incomes, loss of savings, loss of personal freedom, collapse of banks. Entire countries are bankrupt. How could any terrorist group done better in such a short time? (Seemingly without direct loss of life.)

When I worked for a living and I found that I didn't like the Boss, I quickly buggered off , and told the Boss my opinion/before leaving.

Good luck to all you workers.

Should that title actually be: "Gates dethroned as tech's richest get, thumped"?

Hope so. All these rich gets deserve a good thumping if you ask me.

@ Ralph: No, it shouldn't be that, because that would be grammatically incorrect. What you're trying to say (i.e., tech's richest get thumped) is what the headline already says. Perhaps you should give Bill G a ring and ask for a few grand to fund your education? ;)

boop@microsoft.com

Bill [the] Office Of [the] President - or maybe its now Ballmer, nevermind. I once got a cease and desist letter from there :)

Cheers.

I noticed the gutter press releasing a lot of these "Billionaire loses money" stories lately. Sorry but I do find it hard to have sympathy because someone's paper fortune has dropped by $10bn or whatever, leaving them with only $15bn. Oh how will they survive with only 16 houses and their small meager collection of 54 top of the range sports cars!

Perhaps a thought for most of us, who breath a sigh of relief every month when we just about manage to make all our payments on pay day, without the bank throwing us out on the street?

the guys are rich, far richer than you or me could ever dream of.

let them live their life, they aren't required to give away their money that they've earnt because some other twat in the banking industry has clucked up.

i know bill gives away far more than i would ever would if worth $55billion, in fact I'd give none of it away quite content in the knowledge that I had earnt it.

you sad monkeys need to get off their backs.

can we have a dead penguin icon please.

paris because the people whinging here seem to share the same IQ levels.

Don't be bitter because someone's good idea/marketing/skill at some task netted them a fortune. Redistribution of wealth mechanisms only drive down the human spirit. Imagine you having developed or invented a product that made you $1 million, only to have the government surmise that since you can "afford" to give away most of it, helps you do just that by redistrubting your wealth (through a series of taxes and hand-outs) to people who didn't have good ideas or skills.

How motivated to create new things only to see the fruits of your labour vanish? Conversely, how motivated would you be to work if you were handed a lump sum every year to subsidize your non-working lifestyle?

Whether Gates is ego-buying or not, the fact still stands that his foudation has the capability and will to give more than any other charity in the world, even if chunks of it still go to middle-men or administrative purposes (like it happens in all charities--Red Cross, PETA, name your cause). And, with the endowment from Buffett, that can continue for quite some time to come. Anyone interested in learning how Gates has spent his money can check out this month's Esquire magazine (75 most influential people) or head over to http://www.gatesfoundation.org/nr/public/media/annualreports/annualreport07/AR2007GrantsPaid.html or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_and_Melinda_Gates_Foundation.

No I think Ralph B is half right. What it should say to be grammatically correct, albeit with an unusual sentence construction, is "Gates, dethroned as tech's richest get, thumped"

Note: "get" noun, derog slang a stupid or contemptible person;