Poverty outside the US isn’t out our problem. If anything, the eduction in poverty in China and India has been “funded” by outsourcing American jobs while importing Third World working conditions.
Here come the posts: birth control, birth control, birth control.
Actually, Africa is vastly underpopulated compared to Europe and Asia. The increase of population in cities and an exponential increase in population were at least coincident with Europe's and Asia's development of civilization. Yes, there were wars, many bloody, brutal ones, including World War Two, which Europe did not recover except for the aid from the so-called New World. Bloodletting, already evident, is nothing Africa needs to increase or replicate on the scale of world war. But this whole yelling for birth control in Africa strikes me as racist given what the decided benefits of an increased population provides. It may not be a straight line, but Nigeria et al. will get their act together. Human beings do.
1
I honestly don’t get where all the hatin’ on Bill and Melinda Gates is coming from; seems nuts to me. I mean, all they really did was work hard, make a ton of money, and essentially give it all away.
Some of it seems to be coming from the stupider parts of the Left—you know, the “neolibs is done ruint the world!” types—and a lot of it seems to be lurching onstage from the AMERICA FIRST!!! loons. This just in as of five years ago: Gates gave up Microsoft, and most of the loot.
In any case, might wanna read up a little, folks.
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/Who-We-Are/General-Information/Leadershi...
As for all the yelling about how they’re either too dumb to work for population control, gee whillikers, read the dern-burn article. Oh, and could we stop the lecturing on the moral inwardnesses of people we’ve never met?
Oh yeah? This is pie in the sky sales stuff from a discredited billionair who still smells bad, regardless of what Melinda might tell him. What about population control (copulation control)? There are too many people for a limited planet. The capitalists have had their chance at the planet and their greed messed things up but good. Now it's time (way past time?) for something else... want to live on the Moon or Mars? How exciting...
5
*ttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/18/opinion/pricing-hiv-drugs-america.html
‘…A new gold-standard triple therapy for H.I.V. has just made its debut in Africa. It costs $75 a year. In the United States, many people with H.I.V. take an almost identical therapy. It costs $39,000 a year…
*ttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/us/politics/median-us-household-income-increased-in-2017.html
“…Median household income reached $61,372 in 2017…
Putting the two together – typical American household needs to spend:
> 7-8 months of income to pay for a family member’s HIV meds…
> 60-90 minutes of income to pay for a family’s African member‘s HIV meds…
Seems like some people have raised global pricing practices – that maintain 1000X pricing differentials from one country to the next – to absolute art form…
Now if you could just forward us the spreadsheet of things that cost 1000X more in other countries than in the US, would appreciate – or is it bundled with W365…
Karmic justice will be served when the Chinese come in and undersell you all – having learned from the best…
That's what's about to change...
5
This is easy to fix. Pay girls to go to school and use birth control until age 20.
7
Fix the south side of Chicago and other inner city areas of the US. Charity starts at home.
5
By all means we should make life better for those who make 100 grandchildren, that way hopefully they can afford to make even more. Just what the world needs.
3
These are countries that are extremely male-centric. Just consider the fact that Nigeria has the most cases of female genital mutilation in the world. Real progress on solutions to poverty will only occur when women are given control of their futures. Birth control is one critical component, but there are many others.
4
Thank you, Bill and Melinda, both for your efforts and for this hopeful essay.
2
I partly agree with Mr. and Mrs. Gates and some of the commenters. However, to emphasize all my main points here, even if some of them agree with the views already said by others. The main problems I am listing here are not independent of each other.
1. Population explosion. The most human solution is education of girls and women and helping them to have easy ways of contraception.
2. Global warming. The solution is promoting ways of production of energy that do not produce greenhouse gases and taxing those ones that do.
3. Bad governance. Media and politicians should show their responsibility regularly.
4. Conflicts among groups of people based on ethnic origins, tribes, nations, religions, etc. This is an extremely difficult problem, research into its underlying causes would be very important. These conflicts obstruct the potential of those institutions/people who try to help solve the previously mentioned problems.
2
To accomplish this in the long term they need fewer people, not more, and just getting rid of say "extreme poverty" is a poor measure of improvement. If you reduce the death rate and do nothing about all those children things will get worse, not better.
1
I am entirely grateful to Bill and Melinda Gates for the efforts they are making on world development geared at the most needy. Please carry on.
7
Perhaps I missed it. Was there anything in this essay about women's access to birth control, women's ability to control their reproductive lives or the impact of neoliberal global economic "development" (i.e., colonialism with a sanitized new name). Here in the U.S. we have one of the most highly educated populations on the planet yet the health and well being of the majority of Americans has been sliding backwards for decades as people such as Mr Gates have worked hard and successfully to create and exploit policies that allow them to amass ever more wealth. Perhaps its time to simply abandon the idea of tax exempt foundations. They are a failed social experiment. Little more than a tax dodge for the wealthy to work their will and to do so out of all proportion to either their numbers or their wisdom. The revenue from a sharply progressive tax system would allow Americans to collectively determine the wisest social investments rather than vesting so authority in the hands of people such as the unaccountable Mr and Mrs Gates. The plague of foundations have much too much influence on social policy here and abroad. So lets just turn off the lights at the Gates and other foundations and leave Mr and Mrs Gates the pleasure and satisfaction of donating their after tax dollars to any cause they find worthy.
7
I am thankful that there are kind, generous people who are willing to use their resources to help others. I hope that those like the Gates are blessed in this life and the next. I would like to see billionaires pay a larger percentage of their wealth in taxes to create more opportunities in the USA and other countries, and to alleviate the stress and difficulties of the poor. I wouldn't mind making it law that a certain part of the wealth could be controlled by the billionaire, but had to be used for the good of the less fortunate. Build a hospital, vaccinate kids, provide support for people with disabilities, give poor kids scholarships, etc., but let the billionaire decide where some of his or her money flows. Require it, though. The positive changes in our world are important to note, along with the ways we can do better (giving, climate change, decreasing wars, etc.) A good read...Factfulness about the poverty statistic sited here and other things you didn't know.
4
I don't normally write comments as such. Lately , a few more for as much as Gates Foundation does massive, concrete good it is really overall missing the point regarding sustaining humanity. I have tried to get someone to listen at the Gates Foundation but they seem to know better and are not willing to discuss especially since the agenda has been made for us by Mr. & Mrs. Gates who with expert advice know better. Yet, someone like me that started and runs the largest private human rights organization in Eastern Europe who does not want his name in the public is not listened to. I do not have time for so-called net working as such for there is too little time. However, with boots on the ground I do reach out to some of those who have the means to assist, the Gates Foundation has not for they do not see, among others things, that a person is more than food (vital), more than health (essential), more than education (potential).
O.K., in summary, one justifiably asks what is missing. I have written about it but right now can't afford the time to write more (hopefully into the future). To Mr. & Mrs, Gates I would say for everything one does there is something else one does not do....which means I have worked 24/7 since I was fourteen at human rights and duties and there is something we are missing which is something like remembering that nothing is as important for longer term stability of humanity than addressing people's souls, people's world view whatever it is.,no space left
1
For Hadjo Haruna to be the grandmother of 100 grandchildren is to say we've made significant progress in disease eradication, but at what expense? Tune in to any program on wildlife and there are tremendously interesting species out there - and then dire warning of how close to extinction they are. We need to have a global view of both population levels and environmental impacts. The globe cannot support an unlimited population of humans. We are become a cancer uncontrollably fouling the very petri dish in which we exist. All the good intent of wanting to improve the life of those at the bottom will be of little consequence if the whole system collapses.
15
So, all countries are doing great in reducing poverty, except for a dozen countries in Africa.
That tells me that those 12 or so countries and their citizens, have a problem, not the world.
Bill and Melinda are very proud of the fact that hundreds of millions escaped poverty in China and India. However that was largely at the expense of increased economic insecurity for the citizens of the USA, the very country who enabled Bill to make his fortune.
And poverty in America has been stuck at 12-13% of the population for decades.
It is disgusting that Bill and Melinda care more about the poverty in 12 distant countries than in their own country.
I have zero respect for their foundation and this editorial is abhorrent for Americans.
9
Now, let's also think about why poverty exists in the wealthiest country in the world, and why millions have no health insurance.
5
Just educate women and girls and give mothers tech and smart phones, and grants and seed capital to start co-ops. Give directly. Keep working on your Malthusian bias which is 100% incorrect in every way; women who are healthy, happy, not starving, not beaten, and educated have fewer children, not more. Never believe that as an hubristic "do-gooder" you know more than the people innovating within their own culture. You don't. Don't change them.
3
Before disparaging the amazing philanthropy of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, including in this country, one should instead be criticizing the foundation of the great Philanthropist-in-Chief who wants to make America great again.
A suit was filed in New York against the Trump Foundation for repeated violations of both state and federal laws by tapping into the foundation’s funds for his own personal purposes, including paying out legal settlements, making political contributions and purchasing a portrait of himself to hang in one of his golf clubs.
It seems that his 'faux foundation' never dedicated its funds towards making America great again never extend its largess an iota towards eradicating homelessness, poverty, pollution, climate change, safe drinking water, etc.
Bill and Melinda Gates are selfless humanitarians and will be celebrated as such both here and abroad long after Trump's foundation is dismantled for the fraudulent operation it is along with its founder.
2
We are paying for Gates' phony generosity. Billionaires keep getting tax cuts, then spend, as if they give something up.
An illusion for the rubes.
8
I respectfully suggest that the authors use a nom de plume in the future to assist more readers in focusing on the subject of the essay.
5
The Congo and Nigeria are political disaster areas. Internal conflict is out of control and the governments prey on the people. There is no question that politics can cause poverty. And human avarice knows no bounds.
7
"more than a billion people have overcome poverty just since the turn of the millennium."
Yes, but because of the increase in population since 2000, it is possible that both that is true and that there are more people in poverty than before.
The relevant question is how many people net have entered the ranks of poverty?
Which is it?
8
"These problems can and will be solved, provided we retain faith in human ingenuity and give it space to express itself." The foregoing is from an award-winning book, "Fault Lines", by Raghuram G. Rajan. I think that although the first part regarding faith is admirable, the chances of success would be increased if more emphasis was placed on attitude, rather than some religious connotation. The second part, "we...give it space to express itself.", is the crux of the matter. Many years ago Mao Tse Tung stated that "Land reform is long overdue." It still is. To me that means that with all of the available ingenuity on earth, people still have not learned to co-operate with one another sufficiently. If the expansive communities of the capitalist utopian mind set were to be subjected to behavior modification, such as that evidenced by the Chinese construction innovations (for one thing, building up and not out), then, in learning to live together, people would also learn to cooperate with one another to an increased extent, and I think that more and more progress in solving social problems would be achieved, and thus "the hardest part" could see more light at the end of the tunnel than ever thought possible.
Bill and Melinda Gates are remarkable people trying to do the most good for the most needy.
But I also think that no one should control the wealth that they control. There will always be the suspicion that their good work provides cover for the fact that a few people in the country or the world control a wildly disproportionate amount of resources.
The kind of work being done by private foundations should be done by governmental entities The money should be public and accountability should be to the public.
To help the world's poorest, in the long run, Bill and Melinda Gates must double down on Democracy. Even if it means giving up control.
1
They gave away most of the loot, and control of Microsoft, some years back.
It's great that the Gates are using the money they made from unfair business practices and reduced taxes the help the world. You have to wonder if they hadn't suppressed competition and hadn't used their resources to cut their taxes and emasculate the US government, whether poverty would be reduced more from programs agreed upon by experts than from programs that appeal to Mr. Gates.
9
Corporate is as Corporate does.
I'd be a lot more impressed by Mr. and Mrs. Gates if they were not so closely affiliated with companies such as Monsanto, (now Bayer), and if they understood that GMO foods, whether they are, or are not harmful in themselves, deny the poor control of their own food supply.
It's a great big chess game, and it's very complicated, but as Henry Kissing laid it out for all: "To control the people, control the food."
You're move, Mr. Gates. You can play games, but you can't play God.
4
Blowing one's own horn about efforts abroad at the same time that domestic standards of living and quality of life have diminished or stagnated is a shocking spectacle.
12
This from the guy who just proudly announced that he jad “helicoptered,” his family out of Dallas.
What's about to happen? The big money doesn't feel guilty any more, Bill.
A man as brilliant as Bill Gates, so prescient that he could foresee the day that newspapers would largely be read on screens rather than on paper, fails to acknowledge the twin 600 pound gorillas in the room:
Climate Change
Population Growth
11
This heartening message comes on the same day as the story in the NYT on Trump's policy to economically cleanse America of "loser" immigrants: don't give them green cards to work if they legally apply for public assistance:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/22/us/politics/immigrants-green-card-pub...
This from a guy who has used bankruptcy laws to escape from his own business incompetence in the past and has justified this sort of help for "losers" because it's legal.
1
Bill Gates continues his transformation from villain to saint with every dollar of the billion of dollars being invested in global health. However, while The Gates Foundation searches the ends of the earth for communities to uplift, outside its own headquarters here in Seattle, the number of homeless skyrocket and the middle class cling desperately to elegant subsistence. This is largely driven by a profoundly unbalanced worker compensation system and corporate tax system that Microsoft pioneered and that Amazon and others companies now exploit to the nth degree. Thanks to Microsoft laying the groundwork with a contractor system that denies full-time employees benefits or a proper living wage, Amazon workers in fulfillment centers are being forced to live in their cars and use food stamps because they can't afford living expenses. Others are suffering from medical issues brought on by Amazon's brutal warehouse worker monitoring system. When the results start to tarnish "the brand," the very leaders that created this profound inequality ride in to save the day. Their largess not benefitting workers, but instead supporting PR-perfect organizations and causes, which they can tout with false modesty in the New York Times.
14
Set a ridiculously low poverty line and then declare that world poverty is decreasing. From the mind of a narcissist, anything is possible.
5
Mr and Mrs Gates,
Please disregard the generally critical tone of most of these comments. Like some of your critics, I, too, have worked for more than 10 years in international aid in the developing world, and I, too, have written commentary critical of your past NYT op-eds.
But nit-picking over development strategies misses the big picture here. And you folks should not be the place where we vent our frustrations over current politics.
Thank you for using your wealth and position to help those most in need in this world. And thanks to Warren Buffett for adding so many resources to yours. If all americans invested the same portion of our assets and time to ameliorate illness and poverty, the world would no doubt be in a better place.
11
The efforts of the Gates Foundation are admirable, beyond any doubt. But I doubl if even ten foundations like the one of the Gateses could wipe out poverty in this world.
3
Everyone is in agreement that unrestrained population growth among the world's poorest is a big problem. And yet, as soon as a Republican president is elected, the "global gag rule" gets re-enacted by presidential order. This executive order cuts off American aid dollars from any international charitable organization which provides, or even counsels about, abortion *anywhere* in the world, even with their own money. This doesn't cut off aid funding for abortions (that's always been prohibited), it shuts down health care providers who provide birth control and many other health services for women. Read the link below to see the even more cruel twist Trump added to it.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/jul/21/trump-global-...
The results of this cruel, pointless, and counterproductive policy are devastating to women and children in desperately poor countries.
Tell me again who cares about babies and women? Oh, and the Catholic Church also fights hard against the provision of contraception for poor women. The Republicans and the Catholic Church, enemies of women and children the world over.
21
Only committed GOVERNMENTS have the power, money, and resources to affect this problem.
Billionaires writing checks based on whims and with strings attached is glorified posturing.
15
Johnson County, Iowa population 144,250. 18% of the population lives in poverty. They live in tents, under bridges, in the woods and on the streets. This is one small example of a larger problem across the US. It's wonderful that Bill and Melinda Gates have helped people across the World, but it's time to consider more help here at home.
13
@jacquie. I’m sure they would like to, but they’d be blocked by conservatives who discourage any help, public or private, for the poor. Republicans, who control government at every level, have fought unionization so that workers can collectively bargain for higher wages, sabotaged Obamacare that prevents people from going broke over a cancer diagnosis, support cutting food stamps that help poor children, and want to dismantle Medicare and Social Security that would surely shorten the lifespans of the elderly. You don’t need Gates in Iowa; you need to reject the GOP’s callous agenda.
14
@AlNewman
Al, Iowa went for Obama twice, let's hope for change this election.
@jacquie. And the state that keeps going for Tea Party Republicans Steve King, Rod Blum and Chuck Grassley. There’s your state’s problem right there.
1
Yes, global poverty has diminished somewhat thanks to globalization. But at the expense of working and middle classes in developed countries and to the benefit of billionaires like the Gates family. The jig is up, and Brexit and Trump are the pipers now. Gates should donate and his own net worth to $500 million before he starts pontificating on what the rest of us ought to do.
8
I've lived in Africa and have seen, and appreciated, some of the advances in education and health care that the Gates are so generously supporting. Yet this opinion piece is very hard for me to read because it is based on simple misunderstandings.
The metrics to think about are not the data on "poverty," or life expectancy, or even "happiness." Rather, we should be thinking about human psychology, which points to better metrics like human dignity, order, and richness of experience. On these metrics, people everywhere are suffering terribly, and "progress" is ambiguous. The key point is that people want to occupy a place in a social order that gives them value, meaning, and significance. People in poor places in sub-Saharan Africa now have facebook, and see first-hand how their compatriots are participating in brain-drain, leaving their villages behind, and enjoying great wealth. Our world order is becoming simplified, and our self-understanding is becoming one only of haves and have-nots. Try to think about how that must feel, to be a have-not in this imagined order, a part of the "surplus population," with everyone else just waiting for you to die and get out of the way.
I know that the Gates are aware of the complexities of economic development. I just wish they would look inward more, about how they find value in life, rather than at statistics on world poverty. Other people are just like you - they want to be significant, to fit into an order that has a place for them.
5
In describing the conditions in Africa that is driving poverty "violent conflict, severe climate change, weak governance and broken health and education systems" this read like a number of places in the US. The tax breaks that the Gates Foundation has no doubt benefited from allows them to continue to undermine efforts to help American democracy work to provide for the impoverished here. There comes a point where YOU need to stop paying corrupt partners in developing countries.
3
@Past, Present, Future - it's not lack of money that's hurting the US. It's your government. Bill Gates giving more money for Trump to allocate is not going to fix anything.
Thanks for this piece.
I appreciate your work but as a doctor who has spent much of the last two decades working in Subsaharan Africa I’d like to see this conversation become a little more sophisticated. Whilst it is undoubtedly true that neoliberal globalisation has resulted in global reductions in poverty it has entrenched and exacerbated the socioeconomic inequities we see between the worlds poorest and the global elite.
A significant part of the reason that several African countries continue towards economic oblivion is because of systematic economic structural adjustment which has been mediated through Bretton Woods instututions like the IMF and world bank after the signing of the Washington consensus.
Neoliberalism assists Microsoft but as you must surely know it has led to the unmitigated commodification of health and well-being. This means that 17 so called neglected diseases which effect one billion people like schistosomiasis, rabies have almost zero new pharmaceutical innovation compared to diseases effecting high income countries.
The call for young people in low income countries to change the world is misleading. When governments become accountable to big business and foreign aid, their own people are often disenfranchised. The contract between the poor and their world is broken - how do you expect them to suddenly take part in a conversation from which they have been systematically and perniciously excluded?
17
Might one humbly inquire, how exactly did Bill and Melinda Gates come by their expertise?
Where exactly have they succeeded?
Have they ever considered that their pursuit of U.S. intellectual property claims abroad, in favor of their portfolio, greatly contributes to upward transfers of wealth, from the destitute to the fabulously comfortable?
And why, if they're serious, have they done so a poor job in the U.S. of reducing inequality?
13
It is reasonable to say that humanity's main argument in tackling the challenges of the future should be the very survival of the specie which, an axiom in a world beyond sustainability that is rushing towards tipping point rapidly. Africa is on course to increase by another four billion people. That and the global warming could increase the rate of destruction. To focus on sustainable west and forget the billions more in Africa and Asia is elitism at best and gross mismanagement with the inevitable collapse of ecosystems at worst.
I see Gates efforts with optimism providing they accelerate the Pledge to Give into a Gospel of Human Transformation which is first meant to reduce human population for its own sake.
Education and multifaceted social management parallel to governments corrupted institutional practices is a must! Young professionals in the troubled countries can be paid to develop parallel forms of equipping millions of young to sway the endemic political and economic corruption in their countries to end and managed towards equitable and just practices.
It is heavy duty economic-societal management practices besides health and education investment that need be installed to divert attention from corrupt politicians. This is valid not only for troubled spots but for developed countries with political gridlocks. Politics must die and give rise to human management. If that will be at the heart of Gates driving principles, their efforts will yield exponential results!
4
We need people like Bill and Melinda Gates and their efforts in fighting world poverty. We also, however, need good governance as well. There will always be extreme poverty where there are corrupt, ineffective governments. Where good governments succeed, so do its people. Most importantly, those governments do not necessarily have to be in "our image".
4
Bill Gates: "We believe that people when given tools, and opportunity can defy the odds."
Greetings Bill and Melinda...this is an ancient Canadian economist writing from a Mayan fishing village.
During my first two years in India...1966-1967 I was a UNICEF Field Rep in the States of Odisha and Bihar.
Two monsoons had failed and over 50 million people
lost their crops. The rains failed during the crucial 20-30 days when the rice was about six inches high.
Farmers struggled to irrigate by hand from hastily dug wells.
During this time I met Steve Allison, A Canadian World Bank irrigation engineer, and Tim Journey
an American well driller.
We agreed that conventional diesel or electric pumps
wouldn't solve the problem the problems for small farmers.They were too big and too costly.
Steve Allison and Tim Journey came up with a concept using a 300 watt solar panel and a low cost two inch PVC pump.
Solar panels are now cost effective and combined with the PVC pump would be ideal for micro-irrigation. Needed: an efficient 12 volt motor and gear drive mechanism.
Would it be possible for your engineers to help us design a rugged low cost reliable motor and drive system?
This project doesn't need a lot of money...just good engineering and field testing with farmers. I have some Mexican engineer friends who will help.
saludos David Andrew Henry
ref
waterloo pump idrc journey
world bank steve allison irrigation
66
@David Andrew Henry
Why reinvent the wheel? There are numerous submersible well pumps specifically designed for rural
applications with solar panels. RPS even sells complete kits with everything needed, including matched panels. I recommend contacting some of these companies directly if necessary to get what you need. Maybe one or more will even supply at cost or donate equipment.
A Man From Earth
https://www.rpssolarpumps.com/
https://thesolarstore.com/submersible-pumps-c-53_62.html
3
@David Andrew Henry How about instead of asking here you get in touch with an engineering university in your country, I know they exist. Making motors and drive systems is not a Microsoft talent.
"We see equal value in all lives. And so we are dedicated to improving the quality of life for individuals around the world. From the education of students in Chicago, to the health of a young mother in Nigeria, we are catalysts of human promise everywhere."
This is the mission statement of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For all who have commented on "taking care of our own first", please note that Chicago is in the U.S. One can challenge you to show one issue you mention like homelessness on the platforms of any of the candidates for public office in November. One can also challenge you to know if you have ever held a child with a distended belly from hunger in this country. One can also challenge you to read the latest income data released by the U.S. Census Bureau showing the 2017 median household income in the U.S. to be the highest on record at $61,372.
Perhaps the Trumpian cry of "America First" is your belief but please do not critique the incredible work of the Gates Foundation both here and around the world.
10
I'm already hugely grateful that Bill and Melinda Gates choose to devote their fortune to making a better world. The eradication of diseases (polio, TB, Guinea worms thanks to Jimmy Carter, etc.) has to be the most globally humanitarian action ever. And the reason I'm a big supporter is that they explore scientifically the bases of poverty and measure results of programs intended to alleviate it. Like any big idea there will always be detractors and naysayers. Unless the world's biggest problems are remedied it won't matter what they think is wrong about this approach - we only have this one world and limited time to work it out. Keep trying!
77
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Gates,
The measurements you are making--one billion less on less than $1.90 a day--do they really tell the story of poverty? As someone working in the field for some years, I don't think so. If giant corporations have taken over hundreds of millions of hectares, paying people a small wage but exiling them from their land and community, is that really progress? If people live in crowded slums instead of beautiful villages, have no job security, no health care, and substandard schooling, while breathing in polluted air and drinking polluted water but make $1.90 a day, is that progress on poverty? If in China, many people are making more money but the the natural legacy of rivers, air, forests and seas is being destroyed for all future generations, is that progress? If millions upon millions of families are torn apart because one or both parents must migrate to work to places where they have no human rights and no job security, but they send home 2 dollars a day, is that progress? I know you mean well, but not everything--almost not anything--is measurable in dollars. With climate change the wild card, once again the poorest are the most vulnerable, suffering for the sins of the wealthiest. We have to do much better--and that means a fundamental change in how we think about economics.
126
Bill and Melinda, thank you very much for your heartening yet cautious message. This is important to hear from someone with no axe to grind and who are well know for their giving. Kids in India want to be like Bill "Gay" (because of the language difference they drop the "tes", it is not a slander). Yes, you will be known for your riches but also for your giving. Thank you!
3
Trump is doing his best to slay the scourge of global hunger and poverty. Once POYUS is done cleaning out the corrupt stench in the deep state CIA/FBI/DOJ, he will have more time available to conquer the world's problems. Be patient.
Tell that to the tent dwellers in lower Queen Anne mere steps from your HQ here in Seattle. We cannot continue to rely on noblesse oblige. Another article in the NYT focuses on the Adelsons, your antipodes. We must support the change of the system itself and not rely on the potentially ephemeral charity of the few.
15
I wonder why the Gates’ published this op-ed now. Is there an important UN vote coming up or is he trying to influence local politics in Congo and Nigeria? Whatever their intention, we all owe a huge debt of gratitude for their efforts. This is the sort of leadership I wish inspired the grifters in the Trump Administration, which is probably one of the biggest threats to the Gates’ agenda. Conservatives did their best not so long ago to discourage breastfeeding in the developing world and as always discourage the use of birth control. I hope they’re contributing lots of dark money to Democrats for the midterms.
1
I suggest Bill and Melinda Gates pay a little more attention to what is going on in the US where Trump and his minions are busily ripping off our country and doing their best to making it more like Russia..
Gee Bill and Melinda, how about a billion or two to help Democrats get rid of the thieves. Can you spare a few hundred million?
This is especially true if you want to continue working your magic helping the many who need your services overseas.
1
The UN Recently reported that It’s the population that’s out-of-control and Africa will be 36% of world population by the turn of the next century… A whole continent who can’t feed themselves and only enable by Western technology.
4
No country with a birth rate of 7 children per woman can get out of poverty. Not a chance. No economy can (or should) grow that fast.
Too many people on this planet. It's becoming a human feedlot. What's the point?
Way, way too many people.
16
@Will. "No country with a birth rate of 7 children per woman can get out of poverty. Not a chance." - the 20th century suggests otherwise.
If you make $1.90 per day you are extremely poor. If you make $2.00 you are not poor?
5
Don't you just love it when a couple of elite democrat billionaires lecture the rest of us about poverty and our responsibility? The fact is that the pauper who put a penny in the jar was looked upon more favorably by God than the braggart shouting about his generosity from the mountain top. Take heed.
3
You would think the Gates’ would be celebrated by conservatives: a self-made man who is using his own wealth to help other people through private means. Instead they’re vilified for what? Helping others? I’m starting to think that conservatives just hate people less well-off than themselves.
1
It is education and women’s empowerment. In 1970 Bangladeshi Woman had 6 children but now she has fewer than 3. Literacy rate soared from 20% to 70%. Women in this backward conservative Muslim country are among the most empowered in Asia. What mattered is they have had a female prime minister during last 27 years.
Overpopulation is symptom, education and female empowerment is the cure.
12
One of the solutions must be birth control.
6
All what Bill and Belinda Gates say is truth... to certain extent.
There are many, many suicides of Indian farmers because, when their harvest fail, they can not pay their debts and lose the land: the only way of feeding their families and themselves. It is sad, very sad.
2
Most of these problems started with UNESCO & PEACE CORPS in the 60's. Soon after there was a population explosion and more aid to feed the growing numbers with nothing to do except produce more mouths to feed, house and give out free medical care.
Example: Drill a well to water crops that had never been grown in the area. Result more kids. Need more wells, more crops. Hence more kids. Now, never rinse and repeat until you have to import food to help those starving. Both agencies continue to engauge in this unseemly and unhealthy tinkering with human lives as a grand experiment that repeatedly fails, costing billions. Only in the past few years has birth control been used along with education to stop the stupid policy.
And Gates is down there enabling even more people to survive who can’t be supported by the economy and culture. Does that guy have a brain in his head?
7
Hi Lee, I think it’s important to be share the evidence that modern medicine and education for women has dramatically reduced the growth rate of world population - watch Hans Rowling’s talk on Global Population on YouTube to see the stats brilliantly visualized. The Gates Foundation has a good reputation in this regard, understanding the data from the last 100 years that shows if more younger children under 5 years old survive, subsequent generations have less children. The deeper argument I think you’re making is that aid can perpetuate government corruption and dysfunction if incorrectly delivered and/or designed. Would be good to get some more insights on that so we can support more of the strategies that do work, like those of Bill and Melinda.
4
I take it you just blew right by the descriptions of population growth decline and extraordinary progress in India, China and elsewhere?
1
An excellent article and reminder that what happens overseas happens to us. Sooner or later, it happens to us, and it happens in terms of wars and refugees and terrorism and violent nut groups and lost opportunities, if the sheer moral problem don’t float your boat.
It’s a pity that our current President is a—well, he’s worthless—because the Gates’ about the shrinkage and concentration of poverty means that we could do something about it more easily than India and China changed.
And by the way, if you’re going to howl at “Third World,” countries over overpopulation, and demand that we just stay home...Twin Towers much? What is that you think fuels the violent and the crazy?
And if you’re really all that het up about overpop, why’re you voting for Republicans? Pretty much every time they get control, they start hacking at pop control programs, UNESCO, and all the other orgs that do some good.
5
During 21 years living in Africa, Asia, and Latin America as a development professional on a mission to end global poverty, I gradually became aware of the great development deception perpetrated by taking a tiny income ($1.90 a day as the defining indicator of development success. In most "poor" countries, people had much better lives when they lived off the land in strong communities with zero money income. "Development" stripped them of access to the land and their ability to grow, hunt, and forage their own food with the help and support of other members of their community.
They were thus forced into a daily struggle to earn and survive on a pittance income so that their lands and waters could be taken over by transnational corporations to generate global profits. Apologists for this travesty point to improved health benefits--mostly from immunizations against diseases inflicted on them in the first place by their colonizers. Beneficial technologies, such as immunizations and birth control, could easily have been introduced without stripping the people assisted of control of the essential resources that had sustained their ancestors for thousands of years.
Population growth is a serious problem. In the 1960's, I worked as a Ford Foundation adviser to the world's major population programs. Making birth control readily and freely available to the women who desperately want to control their fertility can make a significant difference.
168
@David Korten: people had much better lives when they lived off the land in strong communities with zero money income.
This fundamental truth can only dawn on hands on people like you,
most definitely will never be realized by people living in ivory tower.
Your opinion needs to read and appreciated by everyone aspiring to be field social worker.
Thanks you!
The irony of one of the richest people in the world harping about how "we" can fix poverty is a bit much.
The Gates foundation is great, but involves zero sacrifice on the Gates' part. It is nice to say we all need to do something, but it is hypocritical to say "I'm going to live a lavish and disgustingly rich lifestyle, but really we need to fix this poverty thing."
Maybe the problem really is a system that allows one individual to monopolize so much wealth.
If you get something for nothing, then someone else had to get nothing for something; that's just how it works.
4
@TJ - he doesn't seem to be living a particularly lavish lifestyle. The sacrifice he makes is in dedicating his life to working for the Gates Foundation.
Never underestimate the power of corruption and income inequality to destroy the lives of the majority.
4
Kudos to Melinda Gates for turning Bill into the man he is today.
6
Sorry, I just can't applaud at rich people planing the end of poverty.
2
How dare Bill and Melinda not solve every problem in the world, or at least the problem that is most important to YOU!
I'm just shaking my head. The comments are full of resentment that their philanthropy doesn't do enough.
These are the good guys. They help to immunize and feed children, educate women, but it's not enough for so many of you commenting here.
First-world griping.
10
Regarding David Andrew Henry's request for help with micro-irrigation: Upon further contemplation, I believe I can be of assistance. Unable to find a way to contact him directly, so, NYT, if you would be so kind please give him my email and relay this message. If he contacts me and we agree that my idea will work, I will donate at least the first 12 volt solar compatible irrigation pump. If it works in the field, I will then assist in acquiring more as needed. Thanks!
Climate changes will devour recent progress against global poverty.
Gates has abandoned his hope that there could be technical (and profitable) fix for global warming. But not factoring it into the poverty equation is the worst kind of denial. Especially when analyses show that, more than overpopulation, runaway consumerism and unregulated capitalism is what poisons the planet.
Thats a reality billionaires like Gates will never face.
3
Before too long, Nigeria will become the most populous English speaking country in the world, overtaking the US. It's a fascinating place - half muslim, half christian. And it's a place where modest investments by rich countries in health, education, culture, an environmental stewardship would pay huge dividends in coming decades if we cared enough to give it our attention.
2
War is the worst generator of severe poverty. If only we could fix that problem. Perhaps, in time, us humans will grow up enough to give war the dishonorable label it deserves.
In the mean time, thank you Bill and Melinda for all you are doing.
While I certainly admire the Gates' work in global poverty, I wish they would pay attention to the third-world conditions we have here in the US.
Millions of women, children, and elderly live in poverty right here---please consider helping those in your own country, too.
1
@SLBvt - Gates donates a million dollars a day to help people in the US.
This article emphasizes the need to feed all these poor people. That's only a small part of the problem. They need birth control. They need government. They need schools. Just putting food in their mouths only increases the birth rate without addressing the myriad other challenges to a healthy, productive life.
11
It's ironic that we Americans are quick to lay blame on other governments for dire poverty, hunger, lack of access to birth control, and lack of educational opportunities and yet our own government is opposed to these very same programs in our country.
The Gates understands that trying to encourage these behaviors within the US and with our government is a non-starter.
1
Most important thing I’ve read all day. May I suggest all read Peter Singer’s book The Life You Can Save, or watch his TED talk.
2
This country needs to realize that poverty around the world affects Americans. We complain about illegals here, but we don't focus and work on nearly enough on why they're coming. They're coming out of desperate survival. Escaping violence is one reason, but being able to support their families is primary. Poverty has always been the number one reason people come hence the expression "...for a better life". THE best way to cut illegal entry isn't to build a wall. It's to defeat poverty. Thank you for all you're doing.
2
The United States made you what you are, Mr. Gates. Your first responsibility is to the people of this country.
The standard of living for workers in this, your home country, should not have stagnated as you built your fortune and, instead of paying taxes, created a foundation to help "the world." Yes, the world needs help, but you have sacrificed this country to play god elsewhere. You have abandoned and diminished us.
No person in this country should be living under a bridge. No person should be bankrupted by illness. No person should get a second-rate education because people like you don’t like to pay any taxes.
This editorial is a self-aggrandizing piece: “See all the good we’ve done!” Yes, you have done good work. You ought not to have abandoned us to do it.
The correct way to have moved forward with globalization was to maintain our leadership position as the nation with the best education, the best health care, the best infrastructure, and a living wage for every worker. We are no longer an example to the world in any of these areas, Mr. Gates, largely because of people like you.
Take a long, hard look at what’s going on in our government right now. Look at the people running this country into the ground so you can get yet another tax cut. I'm happy that you choose to help others rather than hoard all your money in the Caymans, but I don't think you understand how America's decline will eventually damage the very world you want to help.
87
Tell ya what...look up what the Gates Foundation does in this country. There’s rather a long list, not to mention little details like, oh, I dunno, founding wossname, Microsoft.
And when you’re done, maybe take a moment and think about why your isolationism is the same as Trump’s.
5
@CF I attentively read and accept the spirit of your point. However directing it to Bill and Melinda Gates (and their foundation) I believe misses the real point. They (Bill and Melinda) are two individuals who have made tremendous personal achievements and are now trying to share their wealth with the world in the best way they know how. They are not the US government. We are. And if WE want to change the course of our country to improve the lives of all of our citizens WE have to participate in our governance. At a certain point the only answer to problems of inequity is Democracy. If WE don't advocate for the change we want, if WE don't organize the voices of the disenfranchised, if WE don't VOTE, we lose. How the Gates Foundation chooses to spend its money is never going to change that fundamental truth. And, P.S. the Gates Foundation spends billions in the US on pre-K through college education initiatives.
4
@CF
The above commentary is too harsh. Condemning someone for helping people in other nations before the home country is downright mean and judgmental, unnecessarily so. I doubt, also, that Bill Gates is one of the "people like you" to whom America's decline can be attributed.
I went to Puerto Rico last year to document the aftermath of Hurricane Maria and to see if I could find ways to be of some assistance, no matter how small. Was that wrong? Should I have instead gone into Washington, DC's poorest neighborhoods and asked, "Is there anything I can do to help?"
There are only so many hours in a day and even Bill and Melinda Gates have only so many billions to spend. They have chosen to do so on the world stage where the problems are deepest and the solutions probably the most difficult. They should not be condemned for making that choice.
Another American who chose that way is former president Jimmy Carter. One result of the Carter Foundation's work is the virtual elimination of the Guinea worm in Africa, the largest human tissue parasite in the world. Bravo.
Perhaps you should have said that the Gates Foundation should consider spreading a wider net, looking deeply at the causes of poverty and extreme poverty in this country. It is my belief that poverty in America is no accident, it is created by many existing and on-going forces that can be changed, if we have the will.
2
I concur with comment number 6. All of our international problems are the result of too many people, including Climate Change, which has the greatest impact on poor people. Even in the US, certain religious groups encourage large families, with no thought for their impact on fossil fuel emissions. Education is great, but an international summit on family planning with very short-term goals is needed to really reserve climate disaster.
4
First, lets identify the problems honestly. Poverty is another name for income inequality. Income inequality is another name for the rich and powerful to manipulate politics to increase their incomes and reduce their taxes at the expense of the poor and underrepresented, through voter suppression and gerrymandering.
The Melinda and Gate's Foundation is succeeding because they are not blind charitable donations which directly go to the corrupt, cruel despots and warlords. It is a success because it gives the poor in those countries tools to pull them out of poverty. And this Foundation runs like Microsoft. Fact, figures, projections and returns are basic consideration like any other Corporation. But the returns and profits' metric is totally different. The metric is how many peoples can get out of the poverty cycle. A mosquito net, inoculations, an opportunity to earn an income and making people self-sufficient gives more for a buck. A cascade of benefits follow. The vicious cycle of poverty is stopped. There is no religion, no army, no middle men despots involved. Only people, individual societies and their needs matter. Bill and Melinda Gates are hands on and their billions are invested to make sure that their Foundation will always have funds for the future. And they have a dedicated honest team to select, execute and decide how to achieve the goal of their Foundation - eliminate global poverty village after village. More philanthropists like Warren
Buffet and Mark Zuckerberg should follow this simple framework and then the world would be a better place. The Foundation's assessments and projections are more realistic unlike the abstractions of Ph.D economists.
1
Dear Gates.
THANK YOU! I love the idea that we buck the trend of misery, in what Lincoln described as "the short and simple annuls of the poor". Keep going. Don't stop. You are in line with the best of America, public school teachers, social workers, medical providers, builders, creators, and speak the language of humanity, not the monetization and commoditization of everything.
6
News Flash: We are in trouble. We might as well be a third world country because of the lopsided distribution of wealth and power. Our list of social problems is endless. It would be wonderful if members of the philanthropic plutocracy cast their eyes toward their homeland.
5
Newer news flash from actual planet: we’re nothing like a third world country (well, except for our remarkably-poor choice of President), and what happens overseas happens to us.
Have you ever wondered why we have soldiers and sailors and airmen in some of these places? Or where terrorism and wacko groups like ISIL come from?
An injury to one is an injury to all. Time to learn it.
3
The entire focus should be on birth control and empowering women so that they understand that they do not have to have endless children. (Empowering women also coincidentally would uplift the community in all other ways, since they tend to be more industrious, honest with money, and as leaders are more conciliatory as opposed to warmongering.)
There is no up side to overpopulation, and sadly many of these children have developmental disabilities due to malnutrition. (One source, since I know other commenters will demand it:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1071909114000047 )
The Gates write: "It will be up to them [these children] to lead the innovation their societies need: to transform subsistence farms into profitable small businesses, to provide a bank account for every adult on their mobile phones, to eradicate malaria and other neglected diseases."
Sadly, because of their malnourished and neglected upbringing from birth (even with well-intentioned parents), there will be few future scientists and saviors among the young of this population, only people in dire need of more care from the outside.
25
Thank you Melinda and Bill : Congratulations for your committment. Your informations are on target. I can't share your optimism for several reasons : Bad governance, ecological destruction, disrespect of human rights are presently increasing worldwide. China alone has a huge impact on statistics. But they are about to abandon the one-child-policy. China is about to colonize Asia, Africa and parts of Europe in a lasting and harmful way. If China takes over the role of western countries, the third world will be worse off than ever. Ecological damage is done mainly in rich and delicate environments ( tropical forests) and is irreversible. Agricultural surfaces are gained at the expense of nature and are dwindling. Economical progress is being nullified by demographic explosion ( eg muslim ideology). Western countries are exploiting subsaharan countries for their resources. World trade blocks development of healthy local economies. Negative momentum is building up due to antidemocratic regimes, lack of education and family planning. We have no lever on that. Our assistance should be structured in coherent concepts and under strict conditions, not in isolated interventions.
6
as China get richer and people are better educated, without the one child policy, it still won't affect birth rate, Hong Kong birth rate is 1.2 child, lower than Japan.
@Rudi
What direction is implied by "Negative momentum"? The determinants of it, relative though they may be are most certainly subject to levers: foreign aid, arms proliferation, the aforementioned demographic explosion, the nuclear waste problem. All of them point to grim futures for some, the ineluctable fact that belief in democracy is only at best illusory. The corrective for that would be egalitarianism, if it was achievable. What assistance there can be should be as you indicate, except that the strictness referred to should be aligned with egalitarianism. Whose assistance and how, on the basis of the answer, to achieve a more desirable result should not, I agree, be isolated.
The biggest cause of poverty in the near and far future is and will be global warming. Gates should redirect some of his money back home, to support election of a government that will lead the world forward rather than moving backward as Trump is doing (leaving Paris agreement, appointing people like Pruitt to tear down EPA, generally denying scientific reality). He would end up with much greater leverage of his investment. Our government could do so much more than Gates can by himself.
18
Bill and Melinda Gates have done so much more than most of their peers to fix some of the economic shortcomings caused by the free market framework that helped companies like Microsoft become so dominant.
Birth control, land reform and access to education are important pieces of any grand plan to reduce poverty in the world. But let's not forget that allowing individuals to own and control something as abstract as information may be inherently immoral.
1
First, kudos to the Gates' Foundation for tackling incredibly difficult problems - and achieving phenomenal results.
The issue of population growth and how to curb it is probably one of the most intractable problems we face. Medical advances came at far faster rate than human culture can change. Dramatic drop in childhood mortality made having too many children unnecessary. Significant increase in average life span contributed to population growth. Educating women has been a strong factor in reducing number of children they will have. BUT - religion - all religions - can and does get in the way.
Engaging religious organizations - all religions - to change their dogma that children are gift of god and that family planning is against god needs to change.
This is probably the most difficult problem of all. But without solving it, we won't be able to reduce human population to a sustainable level.
I hope that Gates' Foundation and similar NGO's across the globe and work on this problem. Without solving this, we can not solve the problem of unsustainable levels of human population.
32
@SJ - "The issue of population growth and how to curb it is probably one of the most intractable problems we face."
It's fallen to below replacement level in almost all countries in the world. The global birthrate is now just slightly above 2. Even in countries like Bangladesh where 10 children families were once the norm, the birth rate now stands at 2.14. We actually have a very good idea of what works to reduce the birth rate because we've seen it happen all over the world.
People tend to think it is the rich who are hard to get to know, and it is easy to get to know the poor. The rich think, mistakenly, "The poor would love to know those of us who are richer." That is not my experience at all.
So while I have nothing to say about the data, I would say that it is highly unlikely people much richer than the poor have any friends who are very very poor. Without such friends it is hard to see how such people would know anything about the world in which they live, just like it is hard for people like me to know what it is like to live with great wealth.
That being said, I think it is good to try to engage in charity and I support those who try to do it.
1
The great challenge though is to decrease population growth as this editorial implicitly acknowledges. From a numbers perspective when the population is ballooning it would be incredibly difficult and expensive to build new schools and hospitals and educate the populace fast enough to make a dent relative to the population's growth.
Second, the faster the population grows and the more said population enjoys a modern standard of living with electricity, vehicles, etc the more the crisis of climate change is exacerbated. Climate change in turn creates poverty through extreme natural disasters, the destruction of crop growing ecosystems, etc.
The explosive, unchecked population growth of the 3rd world is the first thing we must rein in to reduce poverty.
23
The Gates are right to point to the value of education as the real change agent that lasts for a generation and beyond. But the need for health workers cannot wait for enough people to be trained in healthcare. The WHO estimates that the world needs 7.2 million more health workers today. That shortfall will grow to 15 million by mid-century.
The challenges begin with basic literacy, a prerequisite to healthcare education and training. But there are not enough schools of nursing, midwifery, pharmacy, and medicine *in the world* to meet this demand. Finally, pre-service education is only the beginning of lifelong training as new methods and medicines evolve.
Yes, we can celebrate the lifting of a billion from the bottom of the economic pyramid. But those people need and want family planning services, methods to promote maternal health, and nutrition and immunization programs for their children—all ingredients to build the foundation of even hoping for lifelong health.
There is much work still to do. It’s good that the Gates are committed to help, but the world needs more—much more. Governments in high-income countries must increase their investments to lift everyone out of poverty and promote universal healthcare. Then, the real change can emerge as we empower and liberate the human genius that resides in every village and on every street corner. If young people have the tools, they can find a way.
6
@David Potenziani
The Gates have done a wonderful job thru the decades of how wonderful their programs are.
Knowing first hand from people working in these programs that do not listen to the population they are helping show once again the power of money,
The gates may have good intention however when you are the plantation owner with the white sense of superiority it is difficult to achieve real lasting change,
Rich people who only care about their headlines don’t really care about people around the world or poor people in general
One only needs to look at the Seattle School District in the 1990s
First of all, applause for Bill and Melinda for their courage and commitment to a great cause, especially when our government is turning its back on global issues. And their expert analysis seems to be right on the mark. The danger (though not of their efforts) is that climate change, conflicts, and disease -- the great shapers of civilization through history -- can throw all progress to the winds. Even then, they are right to keep pushing for progress, because progress, too, can be infectious.
9
If I understand the definition of extreme poverty correctly, it is the level at which it notably increases mortality rates - that is poverty that is so bad that it kills you.
We need to also consider less extreme poverty, which is MUCH more common and is an obvious contributed to blighted lives.
As many others have commented, we need to respect the “carrying capacity” for human consumption of our one and only planet, and shrink our population until we can implement technology to support more without damaging the environment suitable for human life.
To do this, we will need to better understand the human mind and how to make humans around the globe “play nice” with each other. Not a simple short term project.
10
A very thought provoking contribution from the Gates.
They say a picture, though, is worth a thousand words.
If the portrait of the grandmother (BTW, where are the men?) with some of her 100 or so grandchildren is even close to a representative situation, then the sheer force of the exponential expansion of poverty stricken people will continue to be a formidable barrier to overcoming the burdens of extreme poverty.
The land behind the family in the refugee camp looks so arid that it's hard to imagine anything edible being cultivated without significant irrigation and enrichment of the soil.
Nonetheless, I am grateful for the support that some wealthy philanthropists extend to the world's most needy.
5
All poverty and hunger are tragic.
Hunger, the generational poverty, the poverty of the young and old, and the poverty of the sick and disabled in America are extensive with much suffering.
Why doesn't the Gates foundation and others with whom the Gates' are associated address and help with the poverty in America?
They could do so much to help.
7
Microsoft does a lot of work in the educational sphere in our country that impacts the opportunities children born into poverty here have. The Gates seem to have chosen to focus on extreme poverty. Others may focus on animal welfare. Each person gets to decide where to put there philanthropy. But in addition to the moral and philosophical arguments as to why they are entitled to choose to do so, I would also add the practical: extreme poverty adds to the instability of the global economy, perpetuates armed as well as unarmed conflict and destroys the potential human capital that could continue to better this world and solve its many problems. Working to eliminate it makes the world better for us all, particularly in this increasingly connected age.
7
@P You might ask, why our government is not addressing the needs of poverty in our country; America.
1
No good deed goes unpunished? Bill and Melinda Gates have been forces for good, both remarkable and admirable. One reason they haven’t addressed poverty in the US is that the kind of extreme poverty their foundation addresses doesn’t exist here.
But I can think of some other Americans who could usefully use their extreme wealth to address US poverty, persons who use their money instead to help ensure that poverty continues - the Koch brothers for example or the despicably greedy Sheldon Adelsohn.
And then, of course, there’s you and me. How are we helping?
2
The measure of poverty is not limited to dollars and cents. Anyone and everyone deprived of a comfortable home, good and plenty food, love and the time to engage in meaningful relationships and clarity-of-mind is the poorer. We will not resolve human poverty without attending to all four.
6
We often hear that capitalism has caused this trend toward lowering the numbers of people living in poverty. This piece doesn't mention that as a factor, but it seems to be true that investing for profit helps improve opportunity.
At least it's true up to a point. Increasing inequality is also a global trend and that happens when pursuing profit overwhelms other motives.
At this time, it's hard to regulate international capitalism. The institutions that might do that are pretty weak and ineffective. Private philanthropy like that of the Gates Foundation is a good thing, but I doubt that it is enough to address all the issues. How do we "work together" to insure that the future is better than the past when it comes to economic security and economy?
5
globally more effort must be made in population control by providing easier access to birth control pills,IUD etc.,and the information and instructions that is necessary.
In these days of internet/social media dispersing these information could easily achieved.
Certainly better and thoughtful control on population growth could have a positive effect on improving productivity(plus health) of an individual/family and helps in elimination of poverty.
2
@hlk
This is one of those fallacies that keeps being repeated.
Poor people *choose* to have higher birthrates *because* they are poor. If you are a subsistence farmer, more births improves the chance that enough will survive and be healthy to provide the parents with some "social security" through their labor. This motivation exists even in more urban settings in many cases.
There was a recent times article about how China-- remember, the place with the government one-child policy?-- is now taking steps to encourage women to have more children. Why? Because prosperity means you don't need children to support you, and if you have any, one or two makes more sense, because you can educate them and they can become more prosperous.
You need to change the economics, and the social and political structures, that deny women independence and choice, to constrain population growth.
And the USA sets such a great example these days...oh wait...
6
Humanity needs to look more closely at how we define poverty and wealth. Overcoming poverty at the price of killing our environmental future is not sustainable. Unfortunately, the economic model we are working with defines affluence as consumption. It should be more than that.
18
I applaud the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates, but there’s some disengenuousness in a titan of industry lamenting the poverty largely brought by the rapaciousness of global industrialists. They’ve stolen the natural resources of under developed countries, particularly Africa, paid slave wages, polluted the land, and corrupted the politicians. Mr Gates fails to mention the spreading poverty and decline of the middle class now in this country. Unions are busted, climate denial rules, the Citizens United donor class dictates the political agenda of no taxes and deregulation. Yes, I think poverty will be on the increase.
41
@Maggie
In addition to the points you make above, one of the gravest errors of capitalism/consumerism is that global resources and labor produce huge volumes of "things" that must be disposed of when they break, and there is no understanding of if, how, or when all that mass-produced garbage will be returned to the earth to keep life going for future generations. Bill and Melinda, what are we supposed to do with all the computers, printers, phones, USB chords, adapters, and other tech gadgets when they have to be replaced? What is your sustainability plan as you work to make us all ever-more dependent on these gadgets and the "tech" way of thinking and being?
"now Indian farmers get almost four times the amount of wheat from the same piece of land as they got 50 years ago."
According to what I've seen, Indian farmers have to borrow money to get the tools, fertilizers, and seeds to maintain this increase, and as soon as a crop fails, they lose their land. Also, I haven't heard yet whether the techniques used in India deplete the land, or are sustainable. How do they compare to the traditional way of farming that Indian farmers have used for centuries?
Perhaps Mr. Gates and his foundation could figure out a way to maintain this increase without displacing the farmers, and without driving them into debt.
It might be inevitable that we get all our food from huge corporate farms that own and control all the arable land, but I hope not.
11
I've been quietly wondering if someday the accomplishments of Bill Gates, in the realm of business, and of ridding the world of diseases and poverty, his rational approaches to addressing problems, through a respect for science and facts, would somehow pull him into the world of government. Maybe a "Draft Gates" movement will someday emerge to drain the swamp once and for all. 2020 would be a propitious moment, indeed.
6
@Tom
If a Gates should be considered, let it be Melinda.
3
Clearly the means to changing the devastating poverty that afflicts Sub-Saharan Africa and a few other regions includes lack of secular education and lack of birth control.
Mentioned, but understated, is the culpability of the local "governments" and despots who are a combination of incompetent, cynical and rapacious in their treatment of their people and resources. Unless the local rulers are dealt with, nothing much is going to change.
Which of course is a huge dilemma. Should the civilized world impose secular, humane and competent governance on these afflicted regions?
The Europeans tried that with colonialism and look how that turned out.
The United Nations is incompetent at nearly everything, so without major revisions to its operational competence and integrity, that's a dead end.
On the surface, the Chinese "Belts and Roads" projects are billed by the Chinese as a means of addressing some of the world's poverty, but even a cursory look exposes the debt shifting and strategic resource capture that is the real objective of the projects. Not to mention their intent to have third world countries employ Chinese people soas to lessen the economic burden back home.
Real change will only come in those regions when indigenous people create the change. We should properly recognize the efforts of such people as the Gates, but not hold our breaths as to when the tide truly turns.
2
Melinda and Bill Gates should absolutely be commended for their drive, interest and investment in the improving of the lives of others.
However, they may need a better set of researchers and writers. (Start with whoever felt it was necessary to put that tagline under Melinda and Bill Gate's name. Also, fire whoever suggested to start this article like a sophomore (HS) essay with a "we know more than you" question to the reader. Hint: the reader that you may know more than is not reading this article.)
A very close look at India will demonstrate that there is an order to development (human and economic). It is not simply everything at once, certainly not health before education. The world came a long way before medicine was even a science and "health" was an all consuming topic.
Education undoubtedly comes first before health. Not just ubiquitous elementary education, but the investment in some portion of the population going all the way through university. It takes that for a country to have the human capital to attach successfully to the global economy Mr. Gates's technology helped create.
Also, counter intuitively, the world may be more at risk for having an increase in poverty due people in developed countries having too few children than women in poor countries having too many. Hire some researchers who understand how productivity, consumption and growth relate to population.
7
Interestingly, this article and the comments section epitomize the behavior of the “better off” world today. A really tiny fraction sincerely works to improve things in general for the disadvantages and the rest have some or other criticism for it.
They have failed to recognize that Socio-economical upliftment is a complex process and rarely perfect. Worse, they have failed to recognize the immense contributions the Gates and the Buffets are making to betterment of the world.
14
Profound gratitude to Bill Gates and Melinda Gates for their outstanding contribution to alleviate dismal poverty round the world.
Invest in people, to improve their health and education undoubtedly miraculous upward movement of prosperity will indeed flow.
Having realized this fundamental, Indian PM Modi is rolling out an ambitious scheme to provide healthcare facilities to millions of families covering urban and rural poor.
"The launch of universal health coverage is credit positive for the country's insurers because it will help grow health premiums and provide insurers with cross-selling and servicing opportunities". Credit rating agency Moody.
Long lasting impact on poverty level is possible only with upgraded skill level of educated. Education will further the impact of Farmer Jugaad (native) Technology similar to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77ZSd7kj4t4
"Many Indians have serious academic degrees but cannot find a job, and sadly their degrees are so limited that they cannot even think about how to create a job for themselves".
India is one of the youngest nations in the world, 250 million young people will be joining the workforce over the next decade. The requirement of new skills and the level of competition in the future will be so high that they will have no choice but to re-skill themselves multiple times over to survive in their field.
At the pace at which industry is changing, people need to educate themselves to efficiently for the jobs.
2
Keeping girls in school is also a key. Girls who have an education have less children. Providing girls with menstruation products is key. Otherwise they stay home from school and miss a week every month. Sew Powerful mission in Zambia is another group that is working to change this.
48
If Gates wants to fight poverty, why do his companies routinely fire US employees over 50 and make it financially impossible for them to get retrained for employment elsewhere? Why is he blind to the poverty in the US, especially among veterans and seniors? Why don't American lives matter?
37
Interesting. What is your authoritative source for your assertion that Microsoft “routinely fires” employees over 50? I doubt there is one. It’s this kind of Trumpian confusion of personal animus with actual facts that has gotten us in the horrible socio-political mess we’re mired in today. As has been said, you have a right to your own opinion, but not your own facts (or “alternative reality”).
Lest you conclude this is another attack by the young on the elderly, I’ll point out that I’m 83.
@Patrick Gleeson So you think there's no age discrimination in the tech industry???
As per this article extreme level of poverty is decreased, which is difficult to believe. The basic necessities are food, clothes and shelter in addition to education and healthcare, which majority of poor don’t have. As long as global population is not controlled and corruption of all kind is not eliminated, it is extremely difficult to drastically reduce poverty leave alone getting it eliminated.
Cost of living varies from country to country. It again varies based on the place where you are located within the country. In America a person earning $ 1000 per month is considered as poor. In Hyderabad it’s a reasonably a good amount for a couple with two children.
The article says low quality healthcare and low quality education are the main reasons for poverty. That’s very much true. America is also facing the same problem in spite of very good investment in education. As far as healthcare is considered Americans themselves say it’s pretty bad since the present Government is bent on repealing Obamacare.
America being the richest country in the world the quality of life should have been many times better than rest of the world but for politicians.
64
@Sivaram Pochiraju
The last sentence is very true. You blame politicians but they have been bought by the very rich. I contend that Bill Gates and all the other billionaires have increased poverty by acquiring an unfair share of the wealth produced by workers. Gates is one who is redistributing a fraction of the gains but the majority of the wealthy have only one objective -- to become wealthier still.
1
There's a bit of disingenuousness in this clever Gates piece. Although poverty in Bangladesh has decreased dramatically over the past decade - - it has increased in Seattle and the Silicon Valley.
The people who clean the offices of Microsoft or Google cannot begin to afford an apartment near where they work - $2000/month in Redmond, $3500/month in Palo Alto. What's more, many of the lower-paid service workers in the tech empire work for contractors and lack basic benefits including health insurance.
It goes without saying the tech has added immeasurably to the world's wealth, but in their own back yards tech giants have also contributed to a dramatic increase in disparity of income.
169
@John Egan Actually, disparity of income isn't the issue. Adequacy is. Areas like Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, through restrictive zoning and building codes, are choosing to wall themselves off from people whose incomes would be more than adequate to meet their needs almost anywhere else in the country.
The historic solution for this have long been geographic mobility. If income opportunities and costs of living are more amenable elsewhere--Texas and North Carolina, for example--simply move there. This used to be normal behavior. But mobility has declined in recent decades for reasons that may make sense to sociologists, but not economists.
Thus, with the mobility solution ready at hand for the first-world Silicon Valley workers, I find the sub-$1.90 per day incomes in the Sub-Sahara to be much more concerning third-world problems.
1
@Steve Hyde Both are problems - and both are serious.
Unless you can find some way to eliminate the need for people to prepare food, maintain streets, care for elderly people, teach children - then there will always be those in Seattle and the Bay Area whose incomes fail to cover the basic cost of living. To suggest that they simply move ignores economic reality and carries a strong whiff of "Let them eat cake."
2
@John Egan
True but let's consider the numbers for the entire world.
A small number of people are not doing as well as before.
It's a small price to pay for the overall progress of humanity.
:)
1
I’m glad that Bill and Melinda Gates are belatedly acknowledging that a handful of African countries aren’t participating in the sweeping Global Progress narrative that their foundation has peddled for much of the past decade.
But recognizing that a problem exists and understanding its causes are different things. The Gates list the usual suspects: Everything from climate change to broken education systems. And they propose with more rhetorical than evidentiary support that what’s needed is more investment in STEM and entrepreneurship. (It’s worked in India, they say, without explaining why it hasn’t worked in Africa.)
The problem is that there are already millions of highly educated Congolese and Nigerians who have no jobs or prospects, because the economies that receive them are deeply broken. “Investing in young people”—whatever that means—without taking on that broken system, is only going to create millions more frustrated and angry youth.
It’s past time to recognize that what characterizes most of the global laggards today is terrible, predatory government. Why the Gates—like most of policy makers in the aid industry—refuse to acknowledge the deeply political causes of severe poverty is something of a mystery. It’s a shame, though, because there are innumerable young people of intelligence and commitment starved of the resources they need to bring the fight to their governments. You want to end poverty? Give them the tools to fight.
111
@David
Certainly, governmental corruption and incompetence play important roles is creating/sustaining national poverty in many of the African countries.
And speaking of corruption, why are so many Americans cheering: Make American corruption great again? Under Trump, we are losing not only health care, family planning, and concern for the environment, but also moral standards in the progression towards poverty for most Americans since he assumed office.
In November, VOTE as though your life and your childrens' lives depended on it (they do)!
2
Two very important factors were left out of this essay.
One was climate change. The heating of the earth will cause widespread famine and drought. It will make huge sections of the earth uninhabitable. It will destroy fisheries and the oceans feed much of the world. Glacial meltwater provides drinking water for about one billion people. The glaciers are rapidly disappearing.
All of the wonderful progress made in the last 25 years is in jeopardy because of climate change and we are causing much of the changing.
The second factor is population control. Without widespread, affordable birth control, climate change will force population reductions in its own brutal way.
The world is at the tipping point. Add in ultra nationalism and the restrictions of the flow of ideas and goods and services that it causes, and all these problems just accelerate.
So Bill and Melinda Gates, all of your good work stands to be wiped out if CO2 emissions are not severely curtailed and fast.
208
@Bruce Rozenblit
While I also share your belief climate change holds manifold perils to humankind, the likelihood is the extreme predictions are as likely to come true as those made in The Population Bomb, or Future Shock, both of which failed miserably as predictors of future state of humankind.
That said, inaction is not an option, so thanks Bruce for your observations.
Bruce,
Population growth and poverty rates are inversely correlated. In other words, elimination of poverty is a form of population control.
4
@Bruce Rozenblit
Re point 1: see paragraph six, "Poverty is especially stubborn in a group of about a dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa marked by violent conflict, severe climate change, weak governance and broken health and education systems."
Re point 2: I don't know if the Gates still do but historically they have been supporters of Planned Parenthood, so much so that at one time ardent Pro Life folks encouraged people to boycott Microsoft.
The Gates' could dump all their billions into an attempt to fix climate change and not make a dent, they have wisely chosen to put their money where it can have the most impact.
Easy solution. Stop having so many children. It worked in China.
Continued philanthropy won’t work. It will only encourage reliance on aid
20
@Marika
Obviously. But that would involve letting women have control of their bodies--and that is no longer American policy, at home or abroad.
2
Increasing access to family planning services (yes, that includes contraception and abortion) would help a lot too.
11
The World Bulletin News this Friday last where Reuters brought to our attention:
"Some think the disease is a plot to kill off opposition voters. Others believe it is a money-making scheme by foreign groups. These are among the rumours that have caused people to refuse Ebola vaccines and throw stones at health workers in eastern DR Congo. By analysing hundreds of household surveys, the aid agency found three main theories about Ebola: that it is a political strategy, that it is a business, and that it is a curse. Humanitarian workers hope a better understanding of these beliefs will help them gain trust. Reuters
1
The efforts of Bill and Melinda Gates are a testament to at least one very positive aspect of American capitalism- sometimes the obscene wealth it generates can do more good for humanity that the obscene money governments accumulate- and I'm no right wing, Koch loving, Anyn Randian libertarian. Quite the opposite.
If every plutocrat shared Bill and Melinda's desire to "heal the world" instead of using most of their money to attempt to establish permanent birth-based aristocracy in a pathetic effort to establish a feeble version of immortality, unfettered capitalism could actually work.
As far as the role of governments in reducing extreme poverty, how about they distribute birth control and finance family planning instead of distributing arms. Wouldn't that be a kinder and more effective way to establish reasonable population growth in the parts of the world struggling with extreme poverty. Oh, right, that would offend some people's religious sensibilities much more than the guns.
44
@alan haigh - of course it's all very well when it's somebody like Bill Gates who feels guilty about his obscene wealth and wants to do something worthwhile with it all before he dies.
But then, like you say you also have the Koch brothers who use their obscene wealth to actively inflict harm upon the world.
The Gates' message that things are much better for most of the people in the world is amplified at length in "Factfulness" by Hans Rosling. Great news! I'm not so sure about the "...very specific blueprint on how we can work together to create it [continued progress toward eradicating poverty where it persists]." Something not addressed, perhaps because of a desire not to offend, is the existence of incompetent and rapacious local governments (mentioned by David in one of the earlier comments). Then, there's the "resource curse", which probably correlates to corrupt government. Both Congo and Nigeria sit on immense mineral and hydrocarbon wealth. They also are famous for corruption. Leaders in those countries, as well as outsiders who deal with them, need to search for, find, and implement ways to translate this natural wealth into local societal well being.
3
I’m wondering how “ordinary people” can be involved in helping?
6
Global poverty?
I live in Eugene Oregon. It is, in fact, on the globe. I see it on my globe. I also see, in greater and greater numbers, many people living under our bridges or along our rivers, living in tents, or during warmer weather, simply under a tarp. The local police just made a jihad, sweeping up all the poor and arresting or fining any who had the temerity to live on public property, when they had no other place to go.
I call it a jihad because it is the very wealthy who have made it a religion to culturally define poverty as coming from the sinful nature of the poor, rather than from the evil intent of corporate capitalism, and are on the march, cutting down housing programs or even food stamps.
No, the world's richest are acquiring deadly amounts of wealth at the expense of the poor, and rather than helping the poor in America, they, in city after city, are lording it over us from their Teslas and mansions, stealing our country and blaming the poor for their suffering.
Some may be fooled by you Mr. Gates, but many of us see you for what you are, just another addict, living at the top of the investment class 1% pyramid, delighting in the terror and helplessness of American poor.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
34
Is Melinda gates the person we're looking for to be the Democratic candidate and next president of the United States? Right age, right sex, excellent instincts and superb thinker and knows how to accomplish what's needed.
9
@MBH
Unfortunately, "excellent instincts and superb thinker" are killers in today's political climate. Unfortunately.
Two words: birth control. Free and available to all. Mandatory one child only worked for China. But without any government in African countries able or willing to implement this...
5
We need to be breaking away from the belief that endless growth is good. Not just in Nigeria but in the western world we need to be developing new models which encourage community, cooperative use of resources, not constantly buying new things. Take a look at Kate Raworth´s donut model here: https://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/is-the-future-of-the-economy-a-doughnut...
11
@EKB
Thanks for sharing what to me is an excellent way to encapsulate the twin goals of social health and ecological health while at the same time pursuing economic opportunity! Hopefully the video will help articulate and motivate groups to participate in our political system in order to reach and maintain those goals.
4
Love my Windows...but the Gates foundation should spend a little of Bill's 100 billion net worth here at home. Takes over K-12 in Chicago , work with Jeff Bezos to help the homeless, or spearhead prison reform, maybe set up a free healthcare system in Mississippi.
14
On the education in the US front, who do you think developed the new "core curriculum" for K-12? Many oppose it and it certainly has some problems. However, at least it is based on verifiable facts, not on myths - such as: the universe is only 6000 years old; man is a special creation not a result of evolution; women need religious sex police to restrict their access to contraception; and much more.
Btw, the real solution to better K-12 education is well known to the upper crust who send their children to high priced private schools. No more that 15 students per class period and well-paid competent teachers. Check the web sites for top private schools and you will find this is true. Low student/faculty ratio is a major selling point.
Alas, public education is mostly paid for by local property taxes. That fact means that poor communities, which need better schools the most, have the least amount of revenue to pay for them. Republican thugs have just reduced the deductibility of state and local taxes from federal income tax thereby adding to the burden of local funding.
1
The Gates portray the situation that can be interpreted as "problem solved" by some. Here is the reality: Many Americans view everyone else in the world as a threat to them and their way of life. Americans want to be able to enjoy life and if others suffer as a result, so be it. Our own President and his cronies want to do absolutely nothing about global warming. This will make certain more droughts occur, more famine happens, more people die, and more migration for survival happens. the thought that many Americans have is: "Why don't these people just stay where they are and not try to migrate?" These Americans can't put themselves in any one else's shoes. And they will not do anything like convert to a non fossil fuel energy system to help the crisis that is happening. And we also cannot allow the providing of any method to lower the birth rate. How many of those 7 children reach adulthood? And if you are starving and your government is corrupt and it's getting warmer and warmer, where would you turn for help? Either go to other places who have what you need: jobs, food, and safety. Or you turn to options that are far more dangerous like terrorism that at least provide for survival. Especially when the rest of the world turns it's back on you. Two ways the Gates could use their fortune better: provide adequate birth control and put lots of money into renewables. Fix the problem before it starts, not after.
12
Birth control. Mandatory one child only worked well for China.
5
Wonderful.
Speaking of impossible circumstances, please visit the Mississippi Delta, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Appalachia, West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, east Tennessee.
Charity begins at home.
37
@DFS: Add in San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, and other places up and down California. Tent cities have sprouted like mushrooms. A person of ordinary means can barely afford to house themselves here any more.
While many of the homeless are dysfunctional addicts, many more are not. You just see the dysfunctional ones more because the others don't want you to see them.
1
The conceptual essence of your commentary is the one of a 19th century colonialist.
5
This was not a commentary on the Gates article but a reader’s response. Just to clarify
In the 1600,s Rembrandt had 4 children ,3 died at a young age.I am guessing there is bad poverty in the US.but it should be manageable.Yesterday on the BBC it showed Yemen and children skin and bone dying from hunger while war rages on.At the end of the day Bill and Melinda can say I had a life well lived.
3
According to the Census dept, the poverty rate in the U.S. has barely changed in 30 years. I believe that is why, if you ask about poverty, Americans generally do not believe things are getting better. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2018/income-poverty.html
7
The Gates’ have mentioned two critical factors in this article in the toolbar of anti-poverty programs - education and average births per mother. Past efforts have pointed out that education of women regarding birth control and small business practices simultaneously lower the birth rate and the poverty rate. If the Gates Foundation steered a good chunk of its anti-poverty budget towards empowering women think of the transformation they could bring about.
3
I have the utmost respect for Mr and Mrs Gates, and the Foundation they have created for helping make the Earth a better place to live.
They will have their challenges in Africa, due primarily to one issue - widespread and massive corruption. Corruption on a scale we can't envision -corruption which has infiltrated every corner and precipice of the Continent.
Leaders and regimes which plunder their countries and watch their people starve. Reports reflect there will be an estimated 90,000 children starving to death in Nigeria this year - an oil rich nation with one of the highest levels of corruption in Africa.
However, we have 3-5 million children in the US who live below the poverty line in substandard housing, have no medical coverage and are nutritionally deficient.
While I have compassion for the children in Africa, and realize the poverty there exceeds any poverty we have here in America, we must take care of our own first.
US taxpayer funds must stop flowing overseas and begin fixing our cities and improving the lives of US citizens.
Private funds can continue going to underdeveloped countries around the world.
Let's take care of our own.
11
@JMS - Only 1.3% of the federal budget goes to foreign aid; it's not the reason we're failing to address the very real problems you mentioned.
22
@JMS, We can do both, but we don't. Don't forget Republicans are fighting single payer healthcare that would dramatically improve the lives of "our own" immediately.
The hypocrisy is stunning to me that people who are happy to have their taxes raised $100.00 a year for a wall to keep people out, cry poor when their taxes are raised $5.00 a year to help feed children, and then have the nerve to show up at church on Sunday, toss a ten dollar bill into the collection plate for a new car for the preacher.
These are overwhelmingly American values - do whatever you can for yourself, to feel good about yourself and let the rest struggle, or die of disease or starvation - everywhere.
2
Let's just make the rich pay their taxes, and poverty in the US will disappear. I'm happy to help people overseas, but sick of subsidizing Waltons, Bezos, Buffett & Co.
1
Collectively humans don't value humans.
Migration from economic and environmental destruction should be allowed, however must be countered with education.
Educated people tend to have smaller families, embrace science and reject relegion all needed for the survival of the species.
12
"Our foundation’s mission is to help all people lead a healthy, productive life." The irony here is that in helping to reduce poverty in the third world, Gates and his fellow billionaires have indirectly been responsible for much of the outsourcing of good jobs from America and Europe. It's nice that factory workers in China and India now have a better life, but if it comes at the expense of former U.S. factory workers, it's a mixed blessing. Globalization is also a factor in the growth of angry populist movements in the U.S. and Europe. Maybe Mr. Gates and other billionaires around the world can use some of their expertise and money to do something about this problem they helped create.
23
I'm more concerned about the tech pollution, toxic chemicals from discarded computers which are making children sick and destroying the planet.
Mr. Gates, you need to realize we live on a finite planet. Every year, the planet adds more people, drains aquifers, loses millions of tons of soil to erosion and acres of arable land to human expansion, acidifies our oceans, warms up our planet, and send thousands of species to their extinction.
Yes, China reduced its poverty, but it was on the shoulders of an incredible increase in the use of coal to develop its economy and manufacturing base. China is steadily buying up land in Africa for farms to feed its people.
You also omit that our 'green revolution' is built on fossil fuel fertilizer and heavily mechanized, energy intensive farming. It takes over 10 calories of fossil fuel to make one calorie of food. India quadrupled its farm output, but how much additional fossil fuels were required? India is a also huge user of coal.
We are way past sustainability in terms of Earth's population. Sadly, there are not enough resources in the world to develop every country's economy, education, and resultant consumer spending in order to drive down birth rates. Technology will not save us, it sometimes makes things worse. Birth control and zero population growth in every country is needed.
95
@John Dyer
In country after country, the birth rate drops dramatically as soon as living standards rise. This has been the case all over the world, including in the more successful sub-Saharan African countries.
6
@John Dyer Excellent post! Unfortunately, human over-population of the planet is still a subject to be avoided by politicians of all stripes - even as it threatens the very survival of the species. On the right, we have the view that couples have the right to as many children as they like - irrespective of any practical considerations. On the left, we have the view that any talk of zero population growth hints at threatening people of color with genocide. In the middle, we just throw up our hands and think about something else. Meanwhile, just as with any other animal species population that overwhelms its habitat, if we humans do not manage to stop our run-away population growth we will suffer an inevitable die-back that won't be pretty. We are so very far from a sustainable population size now that all of this should be obvious. It is the herd of elephants in the room.
2
@John Dyer Almost all of this--once the basis for the-sky-is-falling books "The Population Bomb," and "The Limits to Growth" a half-century ago"-- has been disproven, perhaps best by the late economist Julian Simon in his book, "The Ultimate Resource II." His two key revelations: 1. The average human, relatively free of corrupt and repressive government, produces slightly more during his lifetime than he consumes, thus leaving the world with a greater store of wealth. 2. The world's supply of resources is functionally unlimited, as amusingly demonstrated by the outcome of Dr. Simon's once-famous bet with population bomber Paul Ehrlich over the price of commodities ten years in their future. Against the certain expectations of Dr. Ehrlich and his disciples, Dr. Simon won. Decisively.
1
One issue that is essential to understand the implications of this article is the fact that across cultures, across religions, in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, as people move out of extreme poverty, have access to health care and education, the birth rate decreases dramatically, and population growth slows. Outside of highly controlled societies like China, contraception alone is much less powerful at slowing birthrate.
41
Yes indeed. As noted by French demographer Emmanuel Todd, birth rate falls dramatically (usually by half) when the literacy rate of women in a country exceeds 50%. The higher the average educational level among women, the lower the birth rate. Obviously, access to political power, good health care, and economic opportunities are also relevant and important, but it is education of women which is the most important, as it usually leads to improvement in the other factors (even where male religious zealots are in control - check historical education levels and birth rates in Iran).
1
"Transform subsistence farms into profitable small businesses" - Wow! what a challenge! Successful poverty reduction programs usually involve rural to urban migration and development of off-farm employment. Guatemala had the benefit of subsistence corn and bean farmers engaging in snow pea and French bean for export. Profits went up and I believe birth rates may have gone down. Yet poverty persists.
3
There is a higher incidence of cut feet in those places with a lot of broken glass on the ground and people wandering about barefooted?
I … suppose I’d have to agree.
If Nigeria and Congo were to invest with the help of others in the health and education of their people, and in the innovation they practice, would the Hadjo Harunas of fifty years hence still have 100 grandchildren each … or 300? To what extent does entrenched culture dictate destructive impulses that make poverty inevitable? Can investments in people and innovation truly overcome profound cultural failings to minimize extreme poverty -- in less than multi-generational initiatives that essentially swap out one culture for another? What human society on Earth has ever done that? How long do Bill and Melinda Gates plan to live?
There can be few decent people who don’t want to see extreme poverty disappear from the Earth. But only some of those people accept that there are cultural winners and cultural losers, and to eliminate extreme poverty the losers first must transform themselves into winners. Transforming a culture requires far more effort than building a cottage hospital or putting up a village school – it may not even be possible by the indigenous people so immured in the existing culture.
Take-away: if we truly want to see extreme poverty eliminated globally, we may need to accept that the cultures that create and maintain it must be discarded by external agencies, and more wholesome cultures imposed.
6
@Richard Luettgen
I don’t believe any outside force has successfully changed culture by force.
But recent history suggests it’s hardly necessary. As Gates points out, the world has reduced poverty in every region of the world, which encompass a vast variety of cultures.
The ones that have resisted progress do not have different cultures than the others but are the ones riven by civil conflict and climate issues.
Not saying societal change is unimportant. Probably the most significant societal change reducing poverty has been the transition from communism to capitalism where it existed.
That is not a cultural change, of course, but rather a political one.
@Richard Luettgen That apparently is your take-away, but it does not seem that you even read the editorial. Calling some cultures winners and others losers because they don't currently have the same access to education and health that you did is dismissive, at best.
3
To My Responders:
One of the more frequent questions responders ask of my comments is whether I read the op-ed. I'm sure we all read it -- I certainly did; but responders often fail to detect the buried assumptions that it offers, while my comment seeks to ignore the apparent thrust while examining precisely those assumptions that underpin an author's arguments.
In this case, the buried assumption that I address is that all societies are capable of eliminating extreme poverty if they only take certain self-evident actions that are offered as eminently achievable. I suggest that some societies simply cannot because the extent of cultural transformation required to do so is so extensive as to be basically impossible by the indigenous people.
The Gates Foundation does superb work throughout the world, and mitigates a lot of human misery. Where cultures are basically viable, it might even contribute to strategic solutions that make those dramatic material improvements self-perpetuating.
But where the cultures themselves underpinning the societies are not self-sustaining and not open to the change required to sustain material improvement, extreme poverty will not be eliminated. In such instances, we either accept the persistent concentration of extreme poverty there -- or we replace the cultures with something else.
It's not a politically correct suggestion; but true solutions to entrenched problems often aren't.
1
If one defines "poverty" as the most extreme case, it is decreasing, in the limited sense that fewer people are living on less than $1.90 per day. But this is a peculiar metric, in that it would show "improvement" even if all these individuals now had only $2.00 per day. By including a wider range of highly diminished circumstances, one might get a different story -- the familiar one of wealth concentrating in a few hands, middle class shrinking, the working class becoming impoverished, and the poor having even less. The folks who work for Gates have to find a way to show that the foundation's efforts have done significant good, so they choose a metric that makes donors happy.
Even a brilliant person like Bill Gates is unable to avoid the effects of the smart people he hires -- keeping their positions -- by figuring out what he wants to hear and telling this to him. Congratulations on progress made are always much more welcome than reality.
25
@seattle expat
A wide array of metrics show reduction in poverty - like childhood survival rates and adult life expectancy.
This is an OpEd but it would take a book - in fact, they are out there - showing the myriad ways human health and progress has improved since the 90s.
5
I agree, measuring poverty and its reduction in Dollar amounts is a rather crude method, a very rough surrogate marker. We need to look at true outcomes that unfortunately are harder to measure, such as education, health, life span, disease burden, food security...
I money would be the issue and solution, we could just envision a program that gives every family living under the poverty mark two dollars a day.
1
Birth control, birth control, birth control. Hopefully part of the "health and education" investments from Gates involves putting the Microsoft billions toward family planning. French Prime Minister Macron mentioned a year or two ago that high birth rates in these areas does not help economic, environmental or political stability. And instead of being celebrated, he was roundly condemned by many, including some in the media. This was somehow considered "racist" for Macron to say that. So long as politicians, environmental groups and some members of media prefer to stick their heads in the sand and treat global population growth as a third rail, it seems likely the more negative of the scenarios laid out here will prevail.
178
@GRH
As many point out, in every region, nothing has reduced birth rates like advances in living standards. Access to birth control, even, does not have the effect that rising living standards do. In fact, birth rates have gone down dramatically in the last several decades in every continent.
3
@GRH
Why put “health and education” in quotes? Hopefully it’s not cynicism, as we’re talking about two of a very few superrich who’ve publicly dedicated themselves to helping people other than themselves and their descendants. If you have ideas about how to help them, great. The finger-wagging has no place here.
3
I will say that rich white people in Montclair are having way too many babies. If that sounds racist, so be it.
This is great news. It is due to the hard work followinng the well understood policies of educatioin, nutrition and infra structure development in many countries after decolonization. We must now work through the last mile and make sure with international cooperation, philonthrapy and understanding as epitomized by the authors to end extreme poverty in the world by 2040. Three cheers for humanity!
13
Sorry to bust your balloon, but with the horrors of factory farming and the harm they do to animals and the environment, I have to say two boos to humanity.