World's Richest Man: 'Charity Doesn't Solve Anything'
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Re: World's Richest Man: 'Charity Doesn't Solve Anything'
#2The "teach a man to fish" argument has been around for a few millennium. But saying that philanthropy ends in giving away fish seems to me like an excuse for people to abandon charity altogether. Isn't Kiva still a form of philanthropy, even though it's just a loan? Charity cannot be about cementing poverty by creating dependence, but can work if it's a reallocation of resources (outside the free market) that results in more balanced partners.
Re: World's Richest Man: 'Charity Doesn't Solve Anything'
#3It seems strange that someone with the business acumen to become the world's richest man would not look on the inefficient and broken charity and aid systems as an opportunity to create a better solution. There won't be good new jobs in places where there isn't reliable electricity or clean drinking water.
Like most aging industries, the "making the world better" industry is definitely in need of some disruption. We see newer entrepreneurs talking about this space more and more, so I wonder how long it will be before the richest entrepreneurs start looking at new ways of solving these problems.
Re: World's Richest Man: 'Charity Doesn't Solve Anything'
#4Not a huge fan of Slim based on what I've heard, but I mostly agree with him on this. Makes me wonder though, what he's doing holding on to tens of billions in wealth if he could be building businesses and creating jobs for the poor instead. It makes it sound like "Business is better than charity, but I'd rather just be rich"
Re: World's Richest Man: 'Charity Doesn't Solve Anything'
#5It seems strange that someone with the business acumen to become the world's richest man would not look on the inefficient and broken charity and aid systems as an opportunity to create a better solution. There won't be good new jobs in places where there isn't reliable electricity or clean drinking water. Like most aging industries, the "making the world better" industry is definitely in need of some disruption. We…
The article mentioned that he donated to the Gates foundation, which in fact uses capitalist principles to help third world countries.
Re: World's Richest Man: 'Charity Doesn't Solve Anything'
#6I can buy the argument that just shoveling huge amounts of aid to people doesn't fix anything long-term. But it's not solely a decision between that and no charity. He mentions employment, which often benefits from having a stock of not-yet-exploited research to commercialize (SV firms do a lot of innovation, but they also do a lot of commercialization of stuff for which the early-stage R&D was done in academia, at government research labs, etc.).
Charities funding research, and especially insisting that the research be published in some open-access and not-patent-encumbered form, can provide that raw material that new companies need. Charity-funded medical research can also directly produce treatments that improve conditions in a region long-term. And, although it runs into a bunch of political controversy, same for charity-funded research on things like new crop varieties.
Re: World's Richest Man: 'Charity Doesn't Solve Anything'
#7Not a huge fan of Slim based on what I've heard, but I mostly agree with him on this. Makes me wonder though, what he's doing holding on to tens of billions in wealth if he could be building businesses and creating jobs for the poor instead. It makes it sound like "Business is better than charity, but I'd rather just be rich"
Are his billions in cash, or is his net value based on stock holdings, private investments, etc.?
Re: World's Richest Man: 'Charity Doesn't Solve Anything'
#8Not a huge fan of Slim based on what I've heard, but I mostly agree with him on this. Makes me wonder though, what he's doing holding on to tens of billions in wealth if he could be building businesses and creating jobs for the poor instead. It makes it sound like "Business is better than charity, but I'd rather just be rich"
I suspect that a large fraction of his money is invested in various businesses and not just under a mattress, so maybe that's his way of helping.
Re: World's Richest Man: 'Charity Doesn't Solve Anything'
#9Not a huge fan of Slim based on what I've heard, but I mostly agree with him on this. Makes me wonder though, what he's doing holding on to tens of billions in wealth if he could be building businesses and creating jobs for the poor instead. It makes it sound like "Business is better than charity, but I'd rather just be rich"
Rich in irony as well -- Slim's purchase of Telmex, the state-controlled telephone monopoly, meant that he could stifle competition and charge exorbitant rates. That's pretty much as far as you can get from encouraging employment for the poor.
Re: World's Richest Man: 'Charity Doesn't Solve Anything'
#10Where you find widespread poverty, you also find an absence of both the rule of law and freedom from expropriation. And you people trying to get to places that have those things.
The vast majority of people are inherently capable of meeting their own needs, figuring out the needs of others and trading with them for mutual benefit...if they are allowed to do so.