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Melinda Gates Pledges $560 Million For Contraception
theodp writes "Melinda Gates has pledged $560 million as part of a campaign to expand access to contraception for women. From the article: 'The funding commitment was unveiled on Wednesday at the London Summit on Family Planning alongside pledges totaling $4.3 billion from the British government and leaders from African nations wrestling with the health and social problems brought on by high rates of unplanned pregnancy.'"
Capitalism would do a better job with education, housing and healthcare if government would stop introducing massive distortions in the market.
The three most dysfunctional sectors of our economy from the standpoint of the consumer are housing, higher education and healthcare. Skyrocketing costs for healthcare and education. Students and mortgage borrowers awash in debt with under-valued assets (homes and useless degrees). Millions unable to access basic medical services. Poor price/quality tradeoffs. This is not because "capitalism has failed", it is because government has decided that their central planners can "manage" these things better than the market. They have failed miserably as all central planning systems do.
Art? Are you F***ing kidding? You're saying that painting, sculpture, theater, music and film would cease to exist without the power of governments? LOL The free market has produced some quite amazing advances in medical technology. If the government would stop its practice of mandates, price controls, cost shifting and barriers to competition, medical services would once again be affordable. Education? Plenty of excellent private schools. If you want the service, pay for it. The free market has been superb with communications. Look at the evolution of cell phone technology. Steadily smaller, faster, cheaper and more capable. Thank $deity government isn't in the cell phone business. Housing? Another government clusterf***. We have an over-abundance of cheap food and I'm confident that we could ensure that people don't die of thirst without having men with guns confiscating our wealth and throwing us in prison.
While many say that there are great famines in Africa, they still have the fastest growing population among the continents. The biggest problem of Africa is overpopulation.
It all depends on how you skin the cat.
Tell you what, give me 100 times more money than I could ever spend in my lifetime even if I bathed in champagne each morning, paid my kitchen maid escort fees and never used the same helicopter twice - and I wouldn't even flinch when you ask me to part with half of it.
Now give me an average family that barely makes ends meet and has been saving for a new car for two years, and tell me again that they are not charitable if they give as much as a buck.
Who gave more in absolute terms? The rich guy.
Who gave more in relative wealth? The rich guy.
Who actually felt the loss?
Look, let's get away from Gates, who quite frankly is an asshole who abuses even his Foundation to drive out competition and control markets, and let me say that I do think rich people giving to charity is a good thing.
I just don't think that it deserves headlines when many people sacrifice more to give to others and don't get any mention in the news.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org