Sean King

My photo
San Juan, Puerto Rico, United States

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Bill Gates on "Creative Capitalism"

I agree with him for the most part, though I'm sceptical of the significance of this phrase:

[N]o matter how hard businesses look or how creatively they think, there are some problems in the world that aren't amenable to solution by existing market incentives. Malaria is a great example: the people who most need new drugs or a vaccine are the least able to pay, so the drugs and vaccines never get made. In these cases, governments and nonprofits can create the incentives.

I have no problem with non-profits seeking to create incentives for business, but government action is inherently coercive, and therefore government "incentives" almost always involve forcibly taking something from one person or group to give to another.

That's not "creative", and it's not "capitalism."

No comments: