How would you spend $10B to solve world problems?

[bik0]

FEBRUARY 28, 2010, 8:51 P.M. ET
Maximum Impact
Top philanthropists and charity executives explain how they would spend $10 billion to best alleviate the world's problems

By BEN WRIGHT and YASMINE CHINWALA

At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft Corp., committed $10 billion over the next decade to help develop vaccines and distribute them to children in the developing world. By anyone's estimation, this is a lot of money and a worthy cause.

But could it be spent even more wisely?

It is now easier than ever before to try and answer this kind of question. A new breed of philanthropists—of whom Mr. Gates is one—have emerged from the worlds of business and finance looking to apply the same zeal to donating money as to making it. They have brought with them concepts like due diligence, transparency and accountability—ideas that thrive on quantifiable data.

At the very forefront of this movement are those—variously called philanthrocapitalists, impact investors or social entrepreneurs—who argue the best way to solve the enormous problems the world faces is to harness not just business practices but also market forces. Traditional charities balk at the inferred superiority of market economics over human generosity and worry that profit-seeking might obscure the primary aims of philanthropy.

But even the traditionalists concede that more giving does not necessarily equate to better giving. Greater analysis than ever goes into assessing and tackling not just problems but, more importantly, their root causes. A dollar spent addressing these can be worth ten, a hundred or even a thousand times as much as when spent on dealing with the resulting humanitarian crisis.

This understanding has sparked tremendous innovation and creativity in the social sector. The Wall Street Journal Europe asked prominent philanthropists and charity executives how they would spend $10 billion to achieve the biggest and longest-lasting impact on the world's problems.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703787304575075350668982866.html

[HeresyLives]

1. Education via computer.

[ananda]

2. I would do away with all forms of money.

nt

[customerserviceguy]

10. Well, there went your ten billion dollars!

As they say, be careful of what you wish for!

[Canuckistanian]

3. Education

Without a doubt. And especially women and girls in the poorest countries.

[alfredo]

4. I'm the source of the world's troubles. Give me the money

and I will go away.

[NYC_SKP]

5. I'd direct it toward the goal of reversing world population growth.

Whether through protecting womens' reproductive rights, providing birth control, education, or any combination of these and more, most of the world's problems are now or will soon be attributable to the number of humans outweighing the planet's carrying capacity.

[Bobbieo]

7. I agree with you, NYC_

[customerserviceguy]

11. You know what would really do that, and might be accomplished

for ten billion dollars? Come up with a pill that virtually guarantees the conception of a male child, and make sure it gets distributed on the black market throughout the world.

The most sexist, backwards societies on the face of the earth would either breed themselves out of existence in two generations, or they would start to value the women within them, which would lead to keeping them from being baby machines.

[Fumesucker]

12. Excess young male population without females is a disaster waiting to happen..

A lot of unattached young males in a population with no hope of ever getting married is going to either have to be put in prison in vast numbers or put to war in order to kill a mighty shitload of them off.

In the long run the only thing that reliably brings down the overall birthrate in a society is education, of both males and females.

[customerserviceguy]

14. Education is a great thing

And it generally only happens with industrialized societies that can afford it.

I guess we'll see what happens with a lot of unattached males with China. The one-child policy is the next best thing to my idea.

[Fumesucker]

6. The writer has apparently never heard of Andrew Carnegie..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie

Carnegie gave away most of his money to establish many libraries, schools, and universities in America, the United Kingdom and other countries, as well as a pension fund for former employees.

[Thor_MN]

8. Place bountys on Corporate Hides?

Probably not very practical, but likely effective... Comeon, we are spitballing here, there are no bad answers!!!

[Oregone]

9. Zero-interest loans to co-op businesses

Destroying capitalism and empowering workers can dramatically change the world in a variety of ways

[Better Believe It]

13. Use the 10 billion to round up the Wall Street sharks and banksters and put them on a fantasy island

The 10 billion should cover their wants and needs for the remainder of their lives.

If you let them govern themselves and give them guns that might not be very long.

That would pretty much solve most of our problems.

:)

[crikkett]

15. I'd give it to some guy who said he knew what he was doing.

:sarcasm: