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