Bill Gates and Creative Capitalism

| 26-07-2008 | Blog | Written by Matthew Bennett

Gates’s first famous big idea – a PC on every desk and in every home – worked well enough, regardless of whether you’re a Windows or a Mac fan, and his ideas and efforts have played an enormous role in the world’s economic development over the last 30 years.

Does Bill Gates have the answers? (maveric2003, Flickr)

Having retired from Microsoft, can he now do the same with his creative capitalism idea?

Gates says he first used the phrase ‘creative capitalism’ (only once) in a Harvard University commencement speech in June 2007:

“We can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative capitalism – if we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit or at least make a living, serving people who are suffering from the great inequities.”

Then the idea developed: at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2008 he gave another creative capitalism speech, this time mentioning the phrase nearly 40 times, right up to:

“When you preach creative capitalism or I call it sometimes corporate global citizenship, you meet very often quite some cynicism of people, people saying that’s the end, I mean, you have enough arguments, the business of business is business.”

Even his friend and fellow bridge player Warren Buffet seemed unsure of the plan on being asked what it was all about:

Warren Buffet: I would rather have Bill, if he will, give me the main points.

An end to the rich-poor gap? (EyeTunes, Flickr)

Bill Gates, though, has argued that his ideas are founded in the very roots of capitalism themselves, quoting Adam Smith:

“How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortunes of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.”

His detractors accuse him variously of wasting Western aid money to no end (in terms of the economic growth of developing countries) and not understanding the benefits of traditional capitalism, whilst agreeing with him about the gap between the world’s rich and poor needing a system to help it close quicker.

Perhaps the most important thing Mr. Gates can do is to stir up debate around the topic and there’s now a Creative Capitalism blog and a star-studded list of economists and capitalists – Gary Becker, Warren Buffet, William Easterly, Clive Cook and many others – ‘blogging’ about the idea’s pros and cons.

They will continue the debate over the summer and publish a creative capitalism book later this autumn with an edited version of the blog’s ideas.

Creative Capitalism Links

2. Bill Gates’s June 2007 Harvard Commencement Speech on YouTube
3. Transcript of Bill Gates’s June 2007 Harvard Commencement Speech
4. Bill Gates World Economic Forum Keynote in January 2008 on YouTube
5. Transcript of Bill Gates World Economic Forum Keynote in January 2008
6. Creative Capitalism Blog – Warren Buffet and Bill Gates talk about creative capitalism
7. Creative Capitalism Blog – List of Contributors
8. Freakonomics post with a good long discussion thread
9. Excellent WSJ feature – Bill Gates Issues Call For Kinder Capitalism
10. Critical article by NYU Economics Professor William Easterly