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Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away, Bill!

Bill Gates gave an interesting speech recently about why he started giving away his money, and why it made him want to retire. It seems that spending your days making money -- and evenings and weekends giving it away -- might get confusing. So Bill decided that as long as the Microsoft money keeps pouring in on its own, he might as well devote himself to philanthropy.

Gates is now helping to solve problems few of us have even heard about. Instead of learning that half-a-million children die each year from rotavirus, we are subjected to hours of TomKat's wasteful wedding, Paris Hilton getting hammered and Michael Richards' ridiculous rants.

Gates really nails the disconnect between the goals of capitalism and the needs of the world. For instance, companies have very little interest in curing problems for which they can't get paid. It's the nature of the beast. But as capitalism creates wealth, some of this can be diverted by individuals to treating disease, curing hunger and spreading education. Can Gates save the world? Probably not. But I'd settle for him saving half-a-million kids.

Posted by Doug Barney on November 29, 2006


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