What is your take on 'creative capitalism'?

[Deja Q]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_capitalism

Creative Capitalism is a term popularized by American entrepreneur and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates at the 2008 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The ideology calls for a new form of capitalism that works both to generate profits and solve the world’s inequities, using market forces to better address the needs of the poor. According to Gates, 'disparity between the rich and the poor are greater today than ever'. Gates' idea of creative capitalism combines the "two great focuses of human nature -- self-interest and caring for others," he stated. By keeping business acumen in mind, the world's corporations can discover new, innovative ways to solve major problems for one billion of the world's poorest people, who don't get enough food or don't have drinking water or reliable access to medication, which the rest of us take for granted, he said.

[Taverner]

1. Sounds like having your cake and eat it too

Seriously - it could work, if there were forethought behind it. Not just some hair-brained pork barrel scheme created by a bipartisan effort. But a theory fleshed out with plenty of evidence to support it.

[depakid]

2. Or a rationalization for oppressive intellectual property laws

[Taverner]

6. I'm sure that will be part of it - the patents are gold to these folks

And if it were really to be what it is supposed to be, they would solve the patent problem.

[yourout]

3. Greed will get in the way as always.

Enough is never enough for most of the super rich.

[pitohui]

4. they're ALL creative capitalist who care nothing except greatest good for the greatest number

gosh, haven't you seen their ads? chevron's "people do" ad is one that always sticks in my craw

capitalism is not compatible w. ending poverty because, to work, capitalism has to play on the worker's fear of poverty

if the only man who gets to be creative is bill gates, fuck him, no offense to mr. gates who is no doubt a very nice but also a very naive individual

we could end poverty tomorrow by taking ownership of the oil industry and distributing any profits to the people in the form of health care and other benefits

instead we prefer the game of capitalism which makes a few billionaires and a billion living without even so much as a glass of clean water

go to africa for yourself and then ask yourself straight-faced if all the aid and nice words are helping anything but white wash a terrible inequality

[billyoc]

5. Microsoft under Gates is rivalled by few for worker exploitation, and has been sued for it(and lost)

The idea that Capital will act in the interest of Labor is the height of madness.


Other than that, it's great. :hi:

[Kutjara]

7. Candy-coated greed.

Whichever way you slice it, capitalism is ultimately about making a buck and nothing else. Hoping that, somehow, the desire to squeeze every last dollar out of a market is compatible with the public good (particularly in developing, poorly regulated, easily exploited markets) is naive in the extreme.

Bill Gates may be a genius at running a software company, but he's barely an adolescent when it comes to development economics.

[DJ13]

8. I think Gates is trying to ease his conscience for making so much money

Its not uncommon for the most successful to feel like they made it too easily, and to feel like a failure as a result.

As for his idea, the first step is that Wall Street must forget the notion of demanding ever increasing profits for it to work.

[baldguy]

9. "I'm cheating you, but its for your own good."

[GoesTo11]

10. Disagree with y'all

If you think of capitalism as big government protected monopolies with control over the basics of life, well you might get a bad impression. But having markets and prices as a mechanism to transmit information and provide incentives to organize activites, allocate resources, and innovate so as to have the most impact? Could be a fine idea, with some limits, e.g., don't let Enron make people pay a pound of flesh for drinking water. The biggest problem I see - one with capitalism in general - is that meeting poor people's needs generates less $ than meeting the same needs for rich people even though there's no moral argument to say that those needs are more valuable. For that, a societal decision to subsidize meeting of those needs could be an efficient way to bring it about. Governments don't innovate well - there are so many possible new things one could spend time trying to create, so many subtleties, that without the compass provided by trying to make a profit, no one can agree on what path to take. Microfinance programs - which for example might loan $100 to a villager to buy a sewing machine and set up a mending business for the village - have been very successful On the flip side, governments can often administer efficiently once things are established, so that's where you don't let Enron-types run everything. If it really can help people we should not throw out this idea with a jerk of the knee.

[izquierdista]

11. Gates is full of shit

To have him make pronouncements on how to save capitalism is like listening to Mark Foley pontificating on how to keep children from being abused. He has worked and worked and worked the system to serve him and his elite circle (like Ballmer, the ultimate toady) all while delivering a defective product to a captive public. Think of how much better off the world would be if all the people who had to buy or upgrade Windows because they had no other choice had that money to circulate elsewhere in the economy. I can't hear him talk about income disparity while his vacuum is making noise sucking up dollars from people who are forced to buy his products.

My idea of "creative capitalism" is to tax people like Gates 20% of their net worth per year and to use the money for health care, education, public transportation and infrastructure. If such a tax drops their net worth below $10 million, well maybe then the rate can be reduced. Corporation will never do anything more than they are set up to do -- maximize share value for their shareholders. The only time they have been set on a different track is when the CEO used the corporation as his personal slush fund and doesn't care about shareholders (like Enron, WorldCom, or anything Dennis Washington was in charge of).

[defendandprotect]

12. Capitalism is finished . . . we need democracy socialism . . .

Gates' "creative" pursuits seem all centered on "corporatiosn leading the way" --

but rather what we've seen is that capitalism and corporatism have brought us to ruin!

In fact, capitalism isn't about competition of ideas or any other competition ---

it's about killing the competition.

And we've seen this clearly with destruction of mass transportation post WWII --

blocking creative ideas for alternative energy over the past decades ---


Capitalism/corporatism continues to do harm to labor ---


We need a total change in thinking --

"Manifest Destiny" and "Man's Dominion Over Nature" are licenses for the few to

exploit nature, natural resources, animal-life and even other human beings according

to various myths of inferiority.

We need to overturn this patriarchal thinking --- this abuse of nature -- which

has brought us to self-destruction, pollution of the planet, Global Warming.



PS: And how much money does Bill Gates have? I don't see him actually giving it away ---

and philanthropy isn't giving it away --- it's a way to hold onto it.

[Deja Q]

13. Last I recall, Bill Gates has something like $50 billion...

Keep in mind, he moved his wealth into the Euro in 2005 then told the media how the Dollar would fall.

Now this guy HAS done some legitimately good things. But offshoring jobs, which I think has played a part into the Dollar's devaluing, has done some harm too.

[defendandprotect]

14. About 20 years ago, I think the Vatican had $50 billion ......

And he moved his money into Euros, eh . . . !!!

Meanwhile, didn't government research/set the computer -- pc --- and then pass it on

to Gates?

What did Gates actually invent/create?

[jwirr]

15. I think that Paul Neuman's idea about starting a business and giving

the profits to charity comes closer to helping than a capitalist company.