Bill Gates and Creative Capitalism

"Bill Gates graduated from Harvard," my mom told me the other day. "Who cares," is what I first thought. I assumed it was just another article publicizing the lives of famous people. But then she read me some of the quotes that were printed in the article. I found it pretty interesting and thought "Wow, that is pretty cool."

In TIME Magazine, these were the quotes pulled out from Bill Gates graduation speech from Harvard:

ON HIS TIME AT THE COLLEGE
" I do have one big regret. I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world-- the appalling disparities of health and wealth and opportunity that condemn millions to lives of despair."

ON POVERTY AND ECONOMY
"We can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative capitalism-- if we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can profit...serving people who are suffering..."

ON FINALLY GRADUATING
"I've been waiting more than 30 years to say this: Dad, I always told you I'd come back and get my degree."

The article certainly gave me a lot more respect for Bill Gates. And it also made me wonder: Can capitalism be restructured in a way to help the people who usually get trampled by it?

You can find the full article here: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1630188,00.html