 You can see this in the world out there, right Steve Bill Gates take Bill Gates a different Technology entrepreneur Bill Gates builds Microsoft. He makes 70 billion dollars for himself building Microsoft How many people does he help in the world? By building Microsoft how many people's lives does he change for the better? I would argue pretty much everybody on the planet We're all better off from Microsoft. I mean I'm an Apple guy I've been an Apple consumer since 1989, but I know that without Microsoft without standardization We might not have the internet we you know our lives are so much easier Computing would be much more primitive So much easier because of what Microsoft did he has literally raised the standard of living of almost every person on the planet Billions of people are benefited from him making 70 billion dollars By the way, the only way to make money in a free market is by providing a service or value to somebody else Who values it? More than what you're selling it for otherwise they wouldn't buy it so when I buy a Microsoft product for a hundred bucks It's worth more than a hundred bucks to me And if you do the calculation, it's worth hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions of dollars over the lifetime So here's Bill Gates building a business creating jobs creating an industry Creating wealth Changing everybody's lives making everybody's lives better and how much more credit does he get for that activity? Zero I Mean we think of him as a good businessman, but how many people think oh Bill Gates Yeah, he was a wow that was a moral thing. He did by starting Microsoft and making lots of money I mean we laugh because that's not even that's not even in the framework of morality the way we think about it, right? So at best he's kind of morally neutral, but mostly we kind of say particularly in In the world in which today where inequality is deemed this evil thing We say oh no he must be a bad guy because he's so rich So he gets negative moral credit for all this good. He's done the world He gets negative moral credit now when does Bill Gates become a good guy? That's slightly good guy. He's not a saint yet, but a good guy kind of more positive He leaves Microsoft God forbid he should continue to create wealth and create products and sell them to us, right? Now he goes and starts a philanthropy And now he starts giving his money away. That's good. Now. He's a good guy now. We like him We like philanthropists. We love charity. Those are good things Now how many people is he gonna help in his charity? Quite a few hundreds of thousands maybe Not billions It doesn't matter. It's not how many people you help. It's what you get out of it Why do we view Bill Gates as a good guy now that he's a philanthropist? Because he's not making any money Because he's not benefiting it because he's not being self-interested He's being perceived as caring about others. That's good caring about others. That's a positive caring about yourself negative How would Bill Gates attain sainthood? How do we make him a? Great historical figure that people talk about for generations. What would he have to do? Yeah, we'd have to give it all away move into a tent and if he could bleed a little bit That would make him heroic. I mean then we'd really you know sainthood. I haven't talked to Pope But I think sainthood would be forthcoming now. I I Consider that a Perversion a perversion of morality a perversion of justice a perversion to build something to create Wealth jobs Flourishing for your own life Improve the people's well-being all over the world that we consider insignificant But to give it to give the wealth that you had to create by the way It didn't just appear out of nowhere. You had to build it. You had to create it to give it now Oh, that's virtuous and noble and wonderful and heroic, but that's the moral system we have and this idea of giving this idea of selflessness as being virtuous is can completely inconsistent with capitalism Because capitalism is not about giving it's about trading. It's about selling. It's about buying It's not about sacrifice because capitalism is not about sacrifice It's a capitalism by definition in the moral system that we live in today is not virtuous. It can't be virtuous Because the people in it are motivated by self-interest and they are there's no doubt about that and the two things that happen politically because of this because of this conflict this conflict between the ethical system that we have and between the way markets work What happens to these businessmen and generally to people in the world when when they in generally on day-to-day basis They are pursuing your own self-interest. So imagine put yourself in their place You're pursuing your self-interest, but you've been taught that self-interest is bad and you've been taught that you should be You know be self-less. You should be suck. He should be Mother Teresa That's what you should be But nobody wants to be Mother Teresa. So we all live a different life What do you think that happens inside of you when you live one life and your moral ideal is a different life? What emotion does that generate? Shame or guilt I would say guilt Guilt I feel guilty and most wealthy people today feel guilty for the wealth they've made Bill Gates Certainly is an example of that they feel guilty about it and Much of their charity is not motivated by benevolence and love of their fellow man most of their charity is motivated by Trying to buy themselves into heaven whether they're religious or not the equivalent of heaven the equivalent of virtue They're trying to buy themselves into virtue by giving them money away Because that's what they've taught is virtuous making it again is not giving it is