TIME Magazine: Richard Stengel- Bill Gates: 'How To Fix Capitalism'

Source:TIME Magazine- talking to Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

"Microsoft founder and philanthropist, Bill Gates, talks to TIME Magazine editor Richard Stengel about creative capitalism & much more. Subscribe to:TIME."

From TIME Magazine

America isn't in the bad economic shape that it is in today because of capitalism or American capitalism. All developed nations in the world and some developing nations in the world, have their own version of capitalism or their own aspects. 

What they all have in common at least the developed nations, is they all have large private sectors. But the American economy isn't failing because of American capitalism, but our economy is failing right now with a lack of economic and job growth and massing debt and deficit, because we've moved away from American capitalism and aren't doing the things that we used to be great at, if not the best in the world. The institutions in our economy that made our economy the largest in the world, are no longer working. 

What made our economy great, was our people and our institutions and are people being able to use those institutions successfully, but those institutions are currently failing. What made our economy strong, was a package of vast economic freedom that was well regulated. Not over regulated or under regulated but well -regulated to prevent people from abusing each other unfairly in the economy and punish them when they do. 

Low taxes to encourage people to get a good education, get a good job and be productive and successful. But where everyone pays their fair share of taxes, with the wealthy paying more than everyone else. But not at such a high rate that they aren't encouraged to be productive and earn a good living. 

A good education system both public and private so our future workers could get the skills that they need to get a good job. Write now our public education system is failing to the point where we are no longer producing enough high-skilled workers and we now have to import high-skilled to fill these good jobs. We used to have one of the best public education Systems in the world if not the best and now we are ranked like 39th in the World. 

And a safety net that caught people who fell through the cracks and helped them back up on their feet. Instead of keeping them on public assistance indefinitely. 

 The last ten years or so we've been in a period of what's been described as Cowboy Economics where the wealthy no longer are required to pay their fair share of taxes. Where companies are encouraged to send jobs out of America, where regulations aren't enforced, where government borrows money instead of paying for their operations. 

Hopefully we are moving away from Cowboy Economics, but we won't get there over night. Even if we returned back to American capitalism tomorrow, it would be ten years before our economy is as strong as it was in 2007 before the Great Recession, because we've piled up so much debt, our living standards have fallen so far and we've lost so many jobs. Several million and now have an unemployment rate at 9.2% which is twice as high as it was in 2007. But we'll get there if we just get back to what we do best and start making things in America again.