Billionaire computer baron turned philanthropy gangster Bill Gates has made a bold prediction that there will be almost no poor countries left by 2035.
The prediction was made in the sixth annual letter published by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. A foundation which, amongst other things, hands out millions of dollars a year to try and make the world a better place.
Gates points to countries such as China, India, Brazil, Mexico and Kenya that were once considered poor and now have growing economies as the shining example. Human rights abuses aside, people are “living longer, healthier lives. Many nations that were aid recipients are now self-sufficient”. In Africa, despite dozens of internal conflicts and an HIV epidemic, the life expectancy rate has actually risen since the 1960s.
The letter addresses three myths which are apparently blocking progress. The first is that poor countries are doomed to stay poor, countered eloquently by Bill – “They aren’t staying poor”. The second is that foreign aid is a big waste (Tony Abbott seems to agree) even though foreign aid has enabled the Polio Eradication Initiative to immunise 2.5 billion children and reduce the polio-endemic countries from 125 to 3. Finally, that saving lives leads to overpopulation, which is an anxiety that “has a dangerous tendency to override concern for the human beings who make up that population”.
Even with his prediction, there are still 1 billion people who live in extreme poverty, so it’s no time to throw a party just yet. Unless you’re one of the 85 richest people in the world (including Gates) who have more money than half the world combined.
They might as well make it rain…
Photo: Jim Watson via Getty
Via ABC
