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The will of capital?
I've recently run into someone on another political chat board who claims that Bill Gates insults his money by giving big chunks of it to charity.
His argument is not that charity is a bad thing, but rather capital has its own will, like human beings, and that using it for any other purpose than financial investment is an insult to capital itself.
Just one of the more possibly lunatic justifications for the 'free' market I've ever heard. Anyone ready to defend this concept?
3 Answers
- AllanLv 61 decade agoFavorite Answer
Your chatline buddy is not really justifying free markets. He's saying something more profound, whether we agree with him or not. He's saying that investing capital in public projects (charity) is not important as investing private projects.
Economics, however, tells us that sometimes society is more important than the individual. Speed limits, welfare spending, public education, etc. are all examples of public projects that would under-financed if left to the wills of individuals.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
Bill Gates is doing a right thing.
Since it's his money, he will use them much more efficiently than a government ever will.
Abundance of private charities is major difference between US and Europe. Just as an example, the best of US universities were set up and are financed by private donors.
- RayMLv 41 decade ago
That is why there are people like me that invest and people like bill that divest. It can be reasoned that he could do more if he were to put some of his money to work in new investments-start a venture capital group which gives away some of its earnings to charity.
