World famous closing designer 80-year-old Ralph Lauren stepped up big donating $10 million to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Putting his money where it counts, the Ralph Lauren Foundation made the whopping donation to help the World Health Organization’s [WHO] Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund. Lauren’s donation also goes to the Emergency Assistance Foundation for Ralph Lauren employees in need, including those laid off because of the crisis. Lauren’s donation also goes to the Pink Pony Fund that supports the American Fashion Industry currently dealing with widespread shutdowns and layoffs. Donating 25,000 hospital gowns and 250,000 masks, Lauren hopes to help the chaotic situation in New York City hospitals where doctors and health care professionals lack the proper protective gear to perform their jobs without risking exposure to Covid-19.
Starting his fashion design company in 1968, Lauren’s company grew into a multinational powerhouse, Ralph Lauren Corporation [RL] with a market capitalization of $5.48 billion, trading today a $74.32 a share. Forbe’s estimates Lauren’s net worth at $6.3 billion a drop in the bucket compared with high-profile billionaires like 64-year-old Microsoft’s Bill Gates, 56-year-old Amazon’s Jeff Bezos or 35-year-old Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Yet instead of giving cheap advice like Gates and Bezos, Lauren wrote a check to deal with New York’s medical emergency, not far from where he grew up as Ralph Lifshitz in the Bronx. “At the head of our company, there has always been a spirit of togetherness that inspires our creativity, our confidence and most importantly out support for one another,” Lauren said, announcing his $10 million donation. Lauren set the tone for other American billionaires to step up.
Speaking today billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates, took a different tack, countering 73-year-old President Donald Trump’s suggestions that parts of America could open back up for business by Easter, April 12. Gates believes America needs an “extreme shutdown” to beat back the current Covid-19 epidemic that’s running rampant in New York City or near his corporate headquarters in Kirkland, Washington, also corporate headquarters for Costco, the nation’s biggest big-box discount chain. “It’s very irresponsible for somebody to suggest we can have the best of both worlds,” Gates said on a Ted Talk March 25. “What we need is an extreme shutdown so that in six to 10 weeks, if things go well, then you can start opening back up,” Gates said. But unlike Lauren, Gates isn’t taking out his big checkbook. Worth an estimated $96.3 billion, Gates has far more cash than Lauren.
Like his friend Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Gates prefers to let others write the checks, while he touts Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Founded in 2000, the Foundation has given away $36 billion, giving $4.3 billion in 2019. But whatever Bill and Melinda have given with their Foundation, they’d haven’t stepped up in the coronavirus pandemic. “The sooner you do it in a tough way, the sooner you can undo it,” Gates said, alluding to China’s totalitarian approach to reversing the raging SARS CoV-2 epidemic in Wuhan, China. Taking extreme measures, moving millions of Wuhan citizens out of the area and enforcing a strict quarantine, Gates thinks China did a spectacular job of containing the epidemic. Gates has nothing back to say about China where he manufactures most of his products sold by Microsoft. No, Gates takes a veiled swipe at the man in the White House.
Gates reacted to Trump March 25 daily press briefing. “The expression, ‘We can do two things at one time’ . . . and that included not just economics, that also includes life and death,” Trump said. “We have to keep it that way,” hinting that the country needs to go back to work at the earliest possible time. While Trump suggested he’d evaluate at Easter, April 12, he didn’t say he’d interfere with states’ “shelter in place” orders. Gates would be far more helpful, like Lauren, if he cut a check to a foundation that specifically deals with the coronavirus epidemic. What irked Gates was Trump saying the U.S. “wasn’t built to be shut down. This is not a country that was built for this,” “America will again and soon be open for business. Very soon. A lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was suggesting,” Trump said, maybe referring to Gates who’s cautioned about returning to back to work..
Gates pits himself directly against Trump, warning that there can be no compromise when it comes to “shelter in place” orders around the country. “There is no middle ground and it’s very tough to say that to people,” Gates said, as if talking to the president. Gates would have far more clout if he followed Ralph Lauren and made an appropriate donation to Covid-19 relief. Lecturing the president about how he should do his job only raises more questions of how Gates could be worth $96.3 billion. His friend Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos raised eyebrows when he asked Amazon customers to donate to an Amazon relief. Even though Bezos paid his ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos $38 billion in a divorce settlement July 6, 2019, he’s still the richest man in the world at $119.6 billion. Like Gates, Bezos doesn’t need donations, he’s well-equipped to write any size check for Covid-19 relief.
