This made for a very interesting read from Time Magazine where Bill Gates a>discusses capitalism and morality. I find this article especially interesting because, whereas Bill Gates has been a major benefactor of capitalism, he actually has a sense of responsibility to the rest of the wold and this is very evident when he quit working full time for Microsoft to work for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation .
In Time, he calls for the big co-operations to do more for the world's poor and he calls this creative capitalism. One of the world's richest people may be onto something here, but like many people in similar thinking radar, he has received criticism from a cross section of publics. Others argue that he is trying to reinvent capitalism. For Bill Gates, this goes beyond Corporate social responsibility where Friedman says that the responsibility of companies or corporations is to maximize profits to their stakeholders. Gates on the other hand wants companies to use these profits in alleviating world poverty and disease. Is he onto something? Are his efforts unjustifiable and against capitalism? I wonder.
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I think most organisations, and especially those that have been quite successful, participate in some extent to Corporate Social Responsibility.
ReplyDeleteBill Gates obviously recognizes how fortunate and lucky he has been so it is great that he is making such philanthropic efforts. I have also heard though that when the "Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation" makes a significant donation to a charity that most of those funds come from other donors and not the Gates personally. It makes me question how much of their personal wealth they are really donating, or if they are doing it for the name recognition.
I would say, it might be true that Bill Gates wants his capitalistic kingdom remains exist. but it might be true as well, that he somehow thinks about the poverty, especially the in third world countries, and now fourth world countries. you know, people exploit each other in competing to make as much money as possible. and perhaps, he realises that if he continues donate money, at a certain time he will stop giving money. then he is trying to find a way how to make this effort sustainable, with a certain way in which he calls "creative capitalism".
ReplyDeleteIn my blog, i use case study of The Body Shop which is trying to promote fair trade. it activates local farmers to explore their own natural resources, then The Body Shop compensate that with a fair long-term wage. perhaps, that could be a good way.