This Billionaire Thinks You Are Being Selfish

Bill-Gates

Bill Gates, the richest man on the planet, thinks you’re selfish if you’re against socialism and the resulting massive tax hikes.

The controversial claims, from someone worth $79.2 billion, came during an interview with The Atlantic, where he said that the private sector was “in general inept” when it came to dealing with global warming.

He admitted that, while the government will also be “somewhat inept,” only socialism could save the planet. Because people are too selfish otherwise.

Gates said:

“There’s no fortune to be made [with climate change technology]. Even if you have a new energy source that costs the same as today’s and emits no CO2, it will be uncertain compared with what’s tried-and-true and already operating at unbelievable scale and has gotten through all the regulatory problems.

Without a substantial carbon tax, there’s no incentive for innovators or plant buyers to switch.

Since World War II, US-government R&D has defined the state of the art in almost every area. The private sector is in general inept.

The climate problem has to be solved in the rich countries. China and the US and Europe have to solve CO2 emissions, and when they do, hopefully they’ll make it cheap enough for everyone else.”

Gates represents a paradox of the liberal Left: someone who’s rich enough to pay, essentially, whatever tax the government can levy. And unleash a cadre of accountants to get his tax rate down.

Someone with more money than they could ever spend in several lifetimes has the luxury of calling for higher taxes to fight a liberal pet issue like climate change.

But it’s troubling that Gates doesn’t seem to have any faith in the private sector to fix the world’s problems, considering his own history of innovation. Microsoft’s computers revolutionized the way the world does business—largely because of free market competition. There’s a reason why computers were invented in the United States, where Gates could be motivated by profit, rather than in Soviet Russia, where there was little incentive to improve or innovate technology.

But now that Gates is retired, and worth more than any other person on the planet, it’s clear that he’s slamming the door on free market capitalism—and slamming Americans’ for being “selfish” by not wanting to pay sky-high taxes.

Adam Campbell is a former military brat, who grew up all over the world--but considers Milwaukee, WI, where he and his wife currently live, to be his home. He enjoys reporting the real news, without bias.