Bill Gates Calls for Modification to Capitalism

Of course he does, he's already made HIS Billions.

I wonder how Mr. Gates would feel about his proposal if I told him I just perfected a time machine in my basement, went back to 1973 before he made his fortune and implemented changes to the capitalist system. However, due to this, he never became wealthy and never got laid. How would you feel about that Bill?


I am curious to hear what some of the finer minds I know have to say about this. My first cut, but I need to read it again, is Crackpot Gates Scraps Capitalism after he's accrued a fortune that not even Brewster could blow.

Plus Melinda Gates is a HOTTIE! She looks like she's channeling Busta Rhymes in the photo.

From the WSJ article

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To a degree, Mr. Gates's speech is an answer to critics of rich-country efforts to help the poor. One perennial critic is Mr. Easterly, the New York University professor, whose 2006 book, "The White Man's Burden," found little evidence of benefit from the $2.3 trillion given in foreign aid over the past five decades.

Mr. Gates said he hated the book. His feelings surfaced in January 2007 during a Davos panel discussion with Mr. Easterly, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and then-World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz. To a packed room of Davos attendees, Mr. Easterly noted that all the aid given to Africa over the years has failed to stimulate economic growth on the continent. Mr. Gates, his voice rising, snapped back that there are measures of success other than economic growth -- such as rising literacy rates or lives saved through smallpox vaccines. "I don't promise that when a kid lives it will cause a GNP increase," he quipped. "I think life has value."

Brushing off Mr. Gates's comments, Mr. Easterly responds, "The vested interests in aid are so powerful they resist change and they ignore criticism. It is so good to try to help the poor but there is this feeling that [philanthropists] should be immune from criticism."

The old adage "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime" is apropos. But perhaps some of the Gates foundation money is mis-applied.

I applaud Mr. Gates for engaging in philanthropic activity. It looks like from his chart above that the lions share of the cash goes to "Global Health". I would assume that the needs in the poor areas he refers to are such that the basics of Maslow's hierarchy of needs need to be met before any significant progress can be made in development. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs).

I hope the disproportionate amount of cash going to Global Health is as a stopgap measure to set the table for future economic development. Granted, its hard to surf the Internet gleaning stock picks if you're starving or dying of smallpox. The basic needs must be met before one can expect to progress to the higher levels with any chance of success. I would hope to see in future years that the balance of the money shifts to Global Development. In my opinion, the most effective way to combat Poverty is to teach the man to fish.

And, as a final note, I have done some traveling myself. Some of it has been to extravagant destinations, but some of it has been to some of the most poverty stricken places on the planet. You would be surprised to find that some of the most impoverished areas are right here in the United States. Clearly there is opportunity here, readily available, in the United States. There may not be truly equal access to all the benefits, yet we are all born into different circumstances and our lot in life is to determine how to overcome the obstacles in our way. I wouldn't disagree that it is easier to overcome obstacles in the U.S. than it is say in Somalia or Bangladesh or Greenland. But the fact that there is abject poverty here in these United States, supposedly the richest country in the world, begs the questions what is the nature of Poverty, what is its vector? Why does it exist? Certainly, no one wants to be poor. However, I also don't believe that as some people might try to tell us that its a case of the man trying to keep his brother down.

I don't have the answers. But it is thought-provoking, as is the WSJ article that spawned this blog.

Whatever the common ground and views may or may not be, Mr. Gates philanthropic use of his Billions for the greater good is laudable. But Bill, leave the Capitalist system alone until I am right up there with you hanging out at the World Bank and making speeches.