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Bill Gates Calls for a 'Kinder Capitalism'
Strudelkugel writes "The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft's Chairman Bill Gates is going to call for a revision of capitalism. He will argue that the economics that drive much of the world should use market forces to address the needs of poor countries, which he feels are currently being ignored. 'We have to find a way to make the aspects of capitalism that serve wealthier people serve poorer people as well,' Mr. Gates will say in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 'Key to Mr. Gates's plan will be for businesses to dedicate their top people to poor issues — an approach he feels is more powerful than traditional corporate donations and volunteer work. Governments should set policies and disburse funds to create financial incentives for businesses to improve the lives of the poor, he plans to say. Mr. Gates's argument for the potential profitability of serving the poor is certain to raise skepticism, and some people may point out that poverty became a priority for Mr. Gates only after he'd earned billions building up Microsoft. But Mr. Gates is emphatic that he's not calling for a fundamental change in how capitalism works.'"
Mohammed Yukos has been evangelizing a number of ideas about entrepreneurial businesses whose primary motive is helping their communities, and who only make enough "profit" to build their businesses and help more people. If this means that Gates is buying into those ideas, with Gates's resources, and the commitment to philanthropy he's always shown (outside his day job as the Satanic Overlord of the information economy, obviously), this might lead to good things.
Doesn't mean I'll be buying a copy of Windows any time soon, of course; and I'd still like to see the DOJ actually investigate some of Microsoft's shenanigans, but give the man credit where it's due.
When I skim down the list of the world's billionaires, the ones that stand out when it comes to philanthropy tend to be the ones that made their money in software. Phillip Knight (of Nike) has given a lot to the University of Oregon, where he started out, but that's all I see from a first glance. I wonder if software folks have a different take on poverty than the rest of the super-wealthy?
So does that mean Bill will embrace Free Software on public institutions of poor countries to save cost and dependence from corporations which don't necessarily have their best interests at hand?
The only types of infections that could wipe us all out aren't likely to be treatable with the sort of drugs that big pharma is interested in patenting - the anti-obesity, anti-cancer, antidepressant and other sorts of anti-whatever-social-disorder-is-trendy drugs.
It's likely to be a viral infection of the influenza type, for which the technology to create an effective vaccine already exists, and for which no lengthy clinical trials are needed.
There will always be a market for such vaccines with or without patents, so your FUD is badly aimed in this case.
One swallow does not a fellatrix make
Yeah, because Bill Gates and Microsoft are ONE, like the borg...
People tend to group things illogically. Separate the two, because in reality they are separate.
The Soviet Union had communism, not socialism. There was the word "socialist" in the name of the USSR, but to call it socialist on that basis is like saying the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was a democracy. Saying that communism has never been implemented is a lame attempt to disown the excesses of the Soviet Union.
The ideal Marxist state, however, has never been implemented. Though the Soviet Union was founded in the spirit of Marx's work, it was by no means the kind of state that Marx thought would necessarily appear. Marx's worker's state required an industrialized economy to arise (since this foster development of class consciousness among the proletariat), and there's no way you can fairly say that Russia was an industrial economy in 1917.
None of this is to endorse Marx's theories or the desirability of a Marxist state, merely to point out that one of his key stipulations didn't actually obtain in Russia at the time of the revolution.
I have read mr. sachs book and I think it is a piece of crap.
In short it reads more like an adverticing for himself and the UN system.
If your are interested in ending poverty I will suggest you read
The Future of Money by B.A. Lietaer
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
Wikipedia: Human Development Index
#2: Norway
#6: Sweden
#12: United States
Democratic socialist Scandinavian countries -- where people live in abject squalor and poverty due to the evil scurge of socialism...
Systemd: the PulseAudio of init systems
1) So he's the least well paid CEO? No. something must be wrong here. Are you insinuating that BG is laundering drigs money or something?
2) He kept an incredible amount of wealth for himself (see 1)
3) He's killed the market for third parties. Many companies have failed to get funding once MS announced they were making one too. Then never made it.
5) He's brought the price of software HUGELY up. Before MS, there was no economy of scale, so comparing enduser costs between the two completely different realms is ridiculous.
I can't believe I'm actually defending Bill Gates here, but that was 13 years ago, and if you read the article he does talk about how he started out being unaware of the realities of the world, and has been learning as the years have gone by, and is still learning. People do evolve, you know. I'd say, considering how low down on the "decent person" scale he started, he's actually come a really long way (but still has very far to go).
"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein
- Needs. It doesn't matter if you can easily fill those needs or not.
- Trade. Some sort of means to exchange economic goods and services.
- Comparative advantage. There are goods and services that it makes sense for someone else to provide even if you can do every task better and cheaper than anyone else.
- Existence of capital. Some goods or services require infrastructure in order to be provided.
- Private ownership of capital. It is possible for someone to own this infrastructure.
There you go. That is capitalism. To be blunt, there's no current economic system that revolves around people providing valuable economic services to avoid starvation, poverty, or worse. There used to be, Nazi Germany comes to mind, the Congo Free State, and the Communist countries of the 20th century.In some ways I agree with what Bill is doing. His idea is good, but instead of adding more government funds to this type of incentive, the money that our governments CURRENTLY spend on sending cash and food and other things that are misappropriated, fall into the wrong hands etc needs to be re-allocated to make a better impact. How much do we spend sending tankers of water rather than building wells?
What's the most effective way to really combat poverty? Building schools like the Central Asia Institute (http://www.ikat.org/) does for only around $12K per school, or helping developed world lenders (like me) support entrepreneurs who want to open or run their own businesses (help themselves) like Kiva (http://www.kiva.org/) does is the best way to combat real poverty. Education, jobs and drinking water is the best way. Educated young people are less likely to be recruited by extremists as well.
Sending truckloads of rice is a temporary bandaid that's not even guaranteed to get to the hands of the needy.
Hell, Kiva has more people in countries like USA and Canada who want to help, but Kiva is small and can't scale up fast enough to get to enough needy people to take advantage of all the interested donors/lenders. Government money that ends up in the hands of rebel groups could be better spent here. There is a business case to be made as well since Kiva for example is looking into passing interest back to the lenders.
Next steps can be to help bring medical skills and sustainable agriculture to a region - something that building schools can help solve.
Anyway, the current model of foreign aid is waaay broken. Fix the root of the problem like lack of education, rather than trying to fix a collapsing damn with your finger tip in the hole.
(This post is kind of all over the place, but philanthropy issues have recently become something of a passion, and I can't write prettily just now.)
This view is one which is rarely expressed nowadays,
I agree.
yet, usually the less it is heard of, the more true it is.
I disagree. Your post is mindless drivel based on a loose and ungrounded interpretation of world events. `Poverty' is a necessity for capitalism only in the sense that not everyone may posess the same amount of wealth. But if you compare the poverty level in a developed nation like the United States versus a developing nation like China, you'll see why you should be qualifying a lot of the statements you just made. I've been to China within the last ten years. I've seen what they call `poverty.' Think going outside, peeling bark off a tree, and boiling it for food. The beggars on the street here where I live in Texas make above minimum wage.
Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
I have friends that live in Scandinavia, and they have to pay an assload of taxes. 180% on a new car, up to 63% income tax - that starts at about $70,000, and 25% VAT tax.
.... just to pay for all the 'free' stuff:
.... because there vets suck too.
In Denmark young people are moving to escape the tax system:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/05/business/labor.php
Oh if you do go and look you'll see all those people riding backs...not because they want to stay in shape, because they can't afford a car. Would you really want to live in a country where you had to pay 300,000 dollars for a BMW 3 series? I guess you could pay 30,000 grand for a new Kia....
The unemployment rate in Sweden is supposed to be as high as 20%
http://truckandbarter.com/mt/archives/000589.html
Because everything is so heavily taxed - forget the fact that college is free - everything is so expensive students have to take out loans anyway.
Oh then there is the gas tax. They pay 9 - 10 dollars a gallon. Yep 7 dollars a gallon in taxes for gas. Not for any environmental reasons
http://americanindk.blogspot.com/2007/08/gas-prices.html
Then there is health care....the wonderful system where you have to wait. Yep you really do. It's not a myth. Oh and you don't get a choice of doctor either. You pretty much get whoever the government decides. Unless of course you one of the few rich people and can afford extra insurance - and then you get better care.
Vets suck there too. My friend has had too dogs killed by vet ineptness. She is lucky because she can go to the police vet sometimes, but most of the time she is stuck with idiots. She can't always go the him though because he travels around the country and to Germany to help people
Yep its great there. No choice, high taxes, dead pets, everything is really expensive...