Microsoft founder Bill Gates pitched a new form of capitalism on Thursday that would help better serve the neglected poor in a speech to company bosses assembled in Davos.
He posited that capitalism worked because people were motivated by self-interest to create wealth, but the system did not reflect the other key driver of human behaviour: the desire to help others.
This could be overcome if companies made more philanthropic gestures and gained recognition from the public for doing so. They could also work at stretching their activities to serve neglected and seemingly unattractive markets.
“The challenge here is to design a system including profit and recognition to do more for the poor,” he said, calling for a new form of “creative capitalism.”
via Harness capitalism to help the poor, urges Bill Gates – Yahoo! Canada Finance.
(I must admit to being a bit confused by the timing of this item. It came out in January but it only being reported on now by Yahoo)
I think he makes a point that has been made, from time to time, by others, including Bill Clinton and Jean Cretien.
There is a widening gap between rich and poor, in North America and around the world. Oh, and the middle class is being gutted. Historically, a large gap has led to global unrest, often global violence. World wars, civil wars. This time we’re seeing terrorism on a level that was never seen previously, but it’s still violent unrest.
Mostly the decisions that contribute to this gap, this disparity, are made by nations, but with the increasing power of corporations, especially multi-nationals, there are decisions that can be made by non-elected individuals that might contribute, at least somewhat, to a solution.