Our secret weapon, which should not be secret at all, is the incredible generosity of Warren Buffett. We will allocate the other half in future reviews so we can stay flexible, directing the additional money to the areas of greatest need over the next couple of years. We know we will keep the same priorities, and in our recent strategy reviews, we allocated about half of the increase. To help make this spending increase possible, I transferred $20 billion to the foundation’s endowment. In July we announced that we intend to increase our spending by half, from nearly $6 billion per year before COVID to $9 billion per year by 2026. Getting more support for this is a key goal.įor its part, the Gates Foundation is putting much more money into the areas where we work. Through the foundation and my personal work, I am trying to make sure that, even with everything else going on, the world continues to do more to help the poorest. I’m stubborn in my belief that with the right innovations, we can continue to reduce inequity in spite of the headwinds. The people who were already worst off are bearing most of the pain of these setbacks, and the worst thing we could do is retreat from supporting them. Russia’s war on Ukraine has caused suffering throughout Eastern Europe and even sub-Saharan Africa. Since 2000, when the foundation began, the childhood death rate has been cut by half. The world has been doing more-and it shows. More than two decades ago, Melinda and I were shocked to learn how little money and effort were put into saving the lives of children in poor countries, and we thought the world should do more. Global health is a major focus for the foundation because it’s the worst inequity on the planet and it’s a solvable problem. I do almost all of my work through the Gates Foundation, though most of my efforts on climate and clean energy are housed at Breakthrough Energy and I fund research on Alzheimer’s disease separately. As I get older, though, I see how wrong I was. When I was in my twenties, I didn’t think that anyone my grandparents’ age had anything useful to offer the world at large. Maybe age makes it easier to understand this. This is a long-term project that requires patience in the effort to make the world more equitable, success is measured in years and decades. When I think about the world my grandchild will be born into, I’m more inspired than ever to help everyone’s children and grandchildren have a chance to survive and thrive. And the thought gives a new dimension to my work. Simply typing that phrase, “I’ll become a grandfather next year,” makes me emotional. But I started looking at the world through a new lens recently-when my older daughter gave me the incredible news that I’ll become a grandfather next year. I also feel a responsibility to give my wealth back to society in ways that do the most good for the most people. I’ve always viewed my philanthropy as a way to help reduce the awful inequities I see around the world. Although I don’t care where I rank on the list of the world’s richest people, I do know that as I succeed in giving, I will drop down and eventually off the list altogether. I’m still going full speed on the project I began more than two decades ago, which is to give the vast majority of my resources back to society. It’s hard to believe I’m that old-in America, most people my age are retired!īut I won’t be slowing down anytime soon. I wish Mark Twain came back to life and wrote Tequila Mockingbird 2.I turned 67 in October. I wish everyone BUT royalty wore crowns, because I want to wear one and I’m not a queen. I wish scary movies weren’t so damn scary, because then I could actually watch them. I wish lemons and oranges tasted like each other. I wish it was still 2013, because I liked that year. I wish there was an American Idol for tone-deaf people, because I’d come in about fourth. I wish there were more colors, because that would make Microsoft Paint more thrilling. I wish I had the power to shrink to the size of a four-year-old so I could pretend to be a four-year-old without the other four-year-olds knowing that I’m actually a grownup. I wish I liked heavy metal music, because if I did, I would have much more music to choose from. I wish I could employ myself as a job coach if I ever find myself unemployed. I wish Australia was closer to me, because then Australia wouldn’t feel so far away. I wish I could speak Finnish, then I could go to Finland and speak with Finnish people. I wish iPhone 6 cost less money, like $57, then I’d be able to afford it. I wish ISIS would stop chopping off British people’s heads, because it looks like it hurts. I wish Ebola wasn’t a deadly disease because it’d make a great name for my unborn daughter. They rarely come true, but it’s good to have hope. The world is a harsh and unforgiving place.
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