› Bill Gates Issues Call For Kinder Capitalism (wsj)
Bill Gates is advocating a fuzzy new concept: “creative capitalism”, which calls for wealthy westerners to give money and innovation to poor third-world cultures.
Here are my reasons this idea makes little or no sense:
1) Capitalism is inherently creative. Before something can be capitalized, it must be created. Capitalism provides incentive to be creative — to create a product or a service that does not yet exist. ‘Creative capitalism’ is redundant, like ‘oppressive fascism’.
2) Capitalism has produced enough wealth to make Americans fat and there is enough left over to help the poor. Bill’s money would be more effective advocating capitalism, at home and abroad. These people he wants to help aren’t disadvantaged because they lack money. They are disadvantaged because they lack capitalism - the system for creating wealth.
Bill isn’t advocating any new laws, or really advocating anything specific. But he’s still doing us a disservice by undermining the moral base of capitalism: by justifying it as a means of helping others. Microsoft thrived by caring about itself first. This approach — putting altriusm second — is what allows someone to make enough money that he has the option to help others.
Many people would scoff at this idea. They’ve been brought up to believe that self-sacrifice is a moral virtue, and they have never fully challenged this belief. But how do they intend to ‘share the wealth’ that doesn’t exist yet?
