More accurately, he’s aiming to eradicate the poverty, not the countries. Every year for the past five years, Bill and Melinda Gates have published an annual letter in which they tally the success or failures of their foundations, and set the philanthropic agenda for the next year.

This year’s annual letter, which was released today, goes down a slightly different path. Rather than a letter, it’s more of a manifesto.

Instead of focusing on what we need to do to end extreme global poverty, this year’s letter focuses on three myths that impede progress: that the poor are doomed to stay poor, that foreign aid is a waste of money and that saving third-world lives just creates more hungry mouths to feed.

Firstly, he says, countries can only succeed if governments buy-in to (or at least don’t sabotage) the aid project. At a point not too far away in the future, Gates says, “you’ll almost have to give a reason why a country is poor.” And that reason, Gates claims, will inevitably be government policy.

Countries who offer market-based incentives, invest in healthcare and education will eventually pull themselves out of the cycle of poverty. Just take a look at China and India – both are massively populous, but China is by far the superior society.

Secondly, foreign aid is not a waste of money. Because of his “capitalistic freedom”, he may use his resources as he pleases. Gates claims that his foundation serves as a de facto due diligence that this is money well spent.

And finally, Gates debunks the notion that helping people only creates more hungry mouths. The change in the world, Gates says, from when he was born until this point has been very dramatic. There were far more hungry mouths around when he was born. He’s so confident in the continuation of this change, he predicted that by 2035 there will be almost no more poor countries.

The year 2035 also happens to coincide with Gates’ 80th birthday, something he brings up in his final point in the letter:

It’s easier to think about the years where you expect to be around. It’s kind of nice, people can either tell me ‘Well, you really messed that up’ or ‘You got that right’.

One can deduce that Gates fully expects to be around by 2035, and that, in a way, the 2035 health equity goal gives Gates “a finite problem” for him to solve.

[Source : Forbes]