An often overlooked point

Via TaxProf blog: Business success helps society more than philanthropy.

I hope that the Gates Foundation accomplishes something important, but the biggest contribution Bill Gates made to mankind was the creation and management of Microsoft.  It would be very hard to reduce that extraordinary contribution to employment and productivity to dollar terms.  Wouldn't it have been better for the U.S. economy if, instead of giving his money away, Gates had created more companies such as Microsoft?