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A New Approach to Capitalism in the 21st Century

Bill GatesBy Bill Gates

We have to find a way to make the aspects of capitalism that serve wealthier people serve poorer people as well.

Thirty years, twenty years, ten years ago, my focus was totally on how the magic of software could change the world. I believed that breakthroughs in technology could solve key problems. And they do, increasingly, for billions of people. But breakthroughs change lives primarily where people can afford to buy them, only where there is economic demand, and economic demand is not the same as economic need.

There are billions of people who need the great inventions of the computer age, and many more basic needs as well, but they have no way of expressing their needs in ways that matter to the market, so they go without.

If we are going to have a chance of changing their lives, we will need another level of innovation. Not just technology innovation, we need system innovation.