Opinion: Profit Motive Trumps Creative Capitalism

Bill Gates is naive to call for “creative capitalism” and corporate philanthropy as a solution to meet the needs of the world’s poor, says an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal.

“The dossier of historical evidence to suggest this would work is as thin as Kate Moss on a diet,” writes William R. Easterly, author of The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good.

What is a more effective method to respond to global poverty? “History has shown that profit-motivated capitalism is still the best hope for the poor,” Mr. Easterly says.

Rather than have “philanthropists choose just which product is going to be the growth engine of a country,” Mr. Easterly suggests that “the parts of the world that are still poor are suffering from too little capitalism.”

The United States and others should focus on making developing countries less hostile to private business and realize that “a New Age blend of market incentives and feel-good recognition will not end poverty.”