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January 24, 2008
Shortcomings of capitalism
Shortcomings of capitalism: Bill Gates will speak tomorrow at Davos, and the Wall Street Journal had an early interview. "Mr. Gates said that he has grown impatient with the shortcomings of capitalism. He said he has seen those failings first-hand on trips for Microsoft to places like the South African slum of Soweto... He has voraciously read about those failings in books that propose new approaches to narrowing the gap between rich and poor." The latter "equalization" goal is the wrong goal... we want to improve the condition of everyone, not just flatten out differences... the latter goal devolves too frequently into impoverishing everyone. And capitalism definitely does not work as well where there is no rule of law, where the political system rewards its cronies instead of getting out of the way. "In particular, he said, he's troubled that advances in technology, health care and education tend to help the rich and bypass the poor." The leading edge may get earlier access, but hunger is less a production problem than a distribution problem... South Africa has wonderful farmland, but the local social and political structures work against each person controlling their own capital and making their own decisions. It's each little step of how you treat others that makes the difference, and large overarching programs from the powerful usually turn out to just lock in the status quo. I agree with Gates' quote later in the article that all "profit" is not measured only in terms of government script, and that the feeling that you did the right thing is a rightful form of "profit" as well. It's cool that he read Julian Simon; Thomas Sowell on culture might help too.
Posted by JohnDowdell at January 24, 2008 08:10 AM
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Comments
Economic Democracy is a great resource on eliminating poverty.
Posted by: Michael Ramirez at January 24, 2008 09:30 AM
Julian Simon and Thomas Sowell? Bluh! I don't like spam.
That's not to say the liberals have better answers but those guys just end up defending class and race-biased systems based on short-termed profits used to buy the laws of the marketplace.
The fruit of their work is delay of changes that WILL be made come hell or high water!
[jd sez: An open society can accept even the delusional. It's just a challenge sometimes, that's all.]
Posted by: rich at January 27, 2008 04:53 PM