Bill Gates: 'By 2035, there will be almost no poor countries left in the world'

[JDPriestly]

40. I'm hoping he is right. And I'm hoping that ordinary Americans and poor Americans can be lifted

up too. I see people sinking around me here in the US. I'm happy to hear that the living standards and health of people in the third world are improving. But what I see is that the improvement while not caused by the higher living standards in the third world seems to correlate with the decline here. I think that is because jobs have been shipped to the third world and removed from the US. The profits from development in the third world have accrued almost entirely to the most wealthy people in the world. A small portion is raising the living standards of the middle and upper classes of the third world. And almost none of it goes to those who would have had good-paying factory jobs in the US in earlier times.

So the gains are not all around. And it is wonderful to see people's situations improve. But it is very depressing and frightening to see people's situations deteriorate, to see people gain hope and feel optimistic about life is positive, but when it is done so as to cause others to lose hope and feel pessimistic and angry, it is not just negative, it creates a dangerous situation in the communities of those who are losing out. Many in the US are losing out, and charter schools are not helping things.