Posted on 01/25/2008 7:52:35 AM PST by .cnI redruM
Bill Gates seems to think there are bugs in the operating system of the modern economy. It doesn’t fight poverty well enough and sometimes suffers debilitating crashes. While attending the World Economic Forum at Davos, he called for a more “creative capitalism” than the one that America hasn’t had to seriously reboot since The Great Depression.
He defined “creative capitalism” as follows:
"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."
"Creative capitalism is an approach where governments, businesses and NGOs (non-government organizations) work together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit or gain recognition doing work that eases the world's inequalities," he said.
"I'd like to ask everyone here ... to take on a project of creative capitalism and see where you can stretch the reach of market forces," he added.
At first glance, this sounds refreshing. Bill’s not only worth around $30Bil, he’s also a swell guy who cares about the poor. No wonder he drinks his Stoli martinis with Bono.
It’s when I stop to think about the paradigm behind the platitudes that “creative capitalism” becomes as scary and implicitly insulting as “compassionate conservatism”. In one of the better lines in last night's GOP debate/ insomnia remedy was when Rudy Giuliani pointed out that he doesn’t need to be a compassionate conservative because if you really understand conservatism, the compassion is implied.
The same could be said for capitalism. It’s about making money. That involves moving assets from less productive and valuable uses to more productive and valuable uses. It doesn’t take Martin Heidegger to understand the implicit requirement that all successful capitalists must also have a profound wellspring of creativity within their beings.
It takes a certain creativity to genuinely give people something they want. Most of us can’t even figure out what that really is for ourselves. The truly successful capitalist either has to read our minds, or develop a strategy to change them. Someone who designs and writes remarkable software, with no bugs, and which never requires more patch trading than a Cub Scout Jamboree, would obviously understand this concept. It’s no wonder Bill Gates doesn’t quite grok the water.
Another thing that Gates gets backwards is that he thinks we need to get rid of unequal results. You can’t have freedom and equality of result in synonymy. We all eventually encounter the same situation, this author included, where the guy standing next to us, makes more money, has smarter kids, plays better rugby and, for lack of a less undiplomatic term, is genuinely better. And if that guy (or gal) who is better is also a genuinely decent person; this sucks even worse!
Bill Gates went through a period in his life where he had to fight like the Spartans at Thermopylae to get to the top. There was no quarter given and probably not too many quarters in the cup holder of his old used car. He fought his own poverty first, and then founded a corporation that heroically fought the poverty of just about anyone lucky enough to land a job there or to get into the stock early.
That’s what Mr. Microsoft needs to remember. Back when he was a college dropout, and his struggle against the world was about as fair as a bare-knuckles fight against Evander Hollyfield, Bill Gates understood what creativity truly required. He first successfully fought the poverty that stared vapidly back at him every morning when he shaved.
What Bill Gates should be preaching at Davos is the Gospel of Self-Mastery. He should be encouraging hard work, never quitting, returning value for value and making sure that no moment of your life is ever mundane and ordinary. None of us needs an NGO, The Davos Forum or a sappy lyric from Bono to harness that type of creativity. This is why these talking points never go up on the PowerPoint slides viewed by the powerful and arrogant in the mountain resort town of Davos, Switzerland.
F*%k the poor.
One Word: LINUX
If that’s your attitude, go with it.
I believe the word you meant to say is Mac.
Gates appears to want to assume the mantle of George Soros. Technocrats with too much time on their hands can be dangerous to the economic health of the world.
Andrew Carnegie, one of the wealthiest of Americans, wrote almost a century ago that the man who dies rich dies disgraced (meaning the rich should actively focus on acts of charity).
There goes Gates again, ripping off someone else's work and passing it as his own.
Roger that. In most cases, poor is a choice.
Giving them food doesn't get them where they need to go.
This country has had a great way to help the poor:
Liberal Guilt.
This is “rich”, coming from a dweeb that TOTALLY got famous and rich on that very system.
“The challenge here is to design a system including profit and recognition to do more for the poor,”
It’s called, “Going to church”.
In America poor is a choice. Screw 'em.
Hey, Bill: Set an example. Give ALL your assets away. Right now.
Leave yourself a modest home, two cars and a mortgage. Start paying taxes that actually have an impact on your lifestyle. Change your name and start over in an entirely new business (not software) with no capital.
Then, preach to me.
Please make sure to bring your own protection. Even though the poor get free condoms, they usually forget.
They have SO MUCH money, so MANY assets. Completely lose touch with reality. Lots of free time, too.
They also run with a different crowd.
There are MANY rich Liberals who have inherited their wealth or got rich very quickly. Mark Cuban is a good example.
Entertainment, sports and business. The Democrats have become the party of the rich. It’s going to take some hard times for that to change.
The American Dream has become The Global Fantasy.
Those last two paragraphs really sting.
Think about it Bill.
Earnest Hemmingway: “Yeah, they have more money.”
I’m not sure people change a whole lot because of money. It’s just that a $30Bil bankroll magnifies your faults and puts every last one of them out on the Internet.
Well, Mac works too... but... Even though I was a true Apple Person, that was back in the 8 bit days (Apple ][+. //e, //c, Apple //gs, owned one of each at one time or another and still have several working models)...
The Macs weren’t really what I was looking for in those days.
And even so, MAC is a computer, and not as much an OS (yes, I know there is an OS). But, Mac OS is proprietary as well.
So, no, I MEANT to say Linux. You can run Linux on almost every machine out there, including a Mac. The OS is compatible with pretty much all processors (with a couple of exceptions).
The OS is open source, meaning you can certianly CHANGE it to meet your specifications. Can’t do that with either MS or Mac OS.
Lol! Perhaps that’s why you and I both won’t be attending Davos next year.
They don't forget. They just don't care.
Bull. It's genetic, like homosexuality.
/s
I wish. Linux isn't as user friendly as the Mac OS or Windows. I'm running Firefox on Mepis Linux to surf FreeRepublic and type this message. And yet, I haven't been able to get CUPS to print to any printer, parallel or USB. And I know other would-be Linux converts having the same problem. I'm not exactly computer illiterate, having made my living by computers for 20 years. So, if I'm struggling with Linux trying to do something as fundamental as set up a printer, where does that leave Joe Sixpack?
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