Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
I grew up in India. During my childhood, it was still a protectionist country. It was poor then; more so than it is now - if that's even possible.
My grandfather owned a Fiat. It looked like a car from the 1940s. We had an Indian Car company - Ambassador - which made little replicas of Fiats from that era. No foreign car makers were allowed in those days in India. So Ambassador continued making Forties-looking cars well into the 1980s. There was no Coca Cola in India, there was just a local brand called "Thumbs Up!" (yes, with the exclamation). I could go into the details of the local chalky toothpaste and other products, but I will spare you the details.
Then came the 1980s, where India started opening up to foreign competition. Two icons made a huge impact on the country.
The first one was Mother Teresa. Selfless and merciful, she spent her entire life devoted to taking care of the poor and the sick. She personally helped thousands. She increased awareness of HIV/AIDS. She brought foreign aid to India. She was a truly noble woman who sacrificed her life helping other people.
The second is Bill Gates. Bill Gates could probably care less about India or Indians. But he revolutionized the world by pulling personal computer out of the hobby market and into every small business, and by making software profitable. How did he help the Indians? Well, for one, we discovered that, for some odd reason, we are good at IT. India could produce educated, English-speaking engineers by the thousands and help multinational companies run their business for much cheaper than the West.
Suddenly, the Indian standard of living rose. No one buys Ambassadors anymore. Coca Cola is readily available and every multinational company wants a piece of Indian consumer business. Tata is now manufacturing the cheapest car in the world - the Nano. Because every Indian deserves a car.
So the question I have is - who helped India more? Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
One was a deliberate, sacrificial, noble, intentional life spent in the service of fellow human beings. The other was a mostly selfish venture to increase value and self-worth, that ended up lifting the standards of not only Indians but the entire world; indeed, it ended up adding value and self-worth for most of the humans alive today.
- Comment (68)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (9)
Comments:
May '10
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
Mother Teresa.
No question.
Feb '12
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
It reminds me of an MCAT essay I had to write about (roughly) "Who accomplishes more good: good people without power or bad people with power." I took the example of MLK and LBJ. In the end, all of MLK's speeches and marches were not enough to get the Civil Rights Act passed -- it took LBJ knuckling down, threatening to exhume the closet skeletons, and using every dirty trick he could.
While Mother Teresa may have saved more souls directly, Bill Gates' work lifted Indians into good paying jobs and even helped increase exposure to the Christian message.
Jun '10
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
katievs: Mother Teresa.
No question.
I agree. because without love, wealth is just materialism, and materialism always leaves lots of collateral damage behind, much of it human. There's nothing evil about wealth. It's what you use it for. Speaking of Bill Gates, I applaud his philanthropy, but with no moral framework behind it, it's perishable. What Mother Teresa did in India is not perishable.
May '10
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
Amy, here's another angle to consider:
MLK: unmixed blessing for our nation.
LBJ: highly mixed, at best.
General principle:
Spiritual goods (I mean real spiritual goods) are pure. They are also much deeper, more lasting, and more fruitful.
The "goods" of power and prosperity are real, but mixed and ephemeral. (NB: The Gates Foundation is pouring billions into third world "population ontrol".)
Contrast, for example, the differences (in terms of benefits the indigenous peoples) between the Christian missionaries to the new world and the conquistadors.
The Emancipation Proclamation: a pure good. "Reconstruction", highly mixed.
Another example: The saints (such as Francis, Dominic) who reformed Europe by preaching and living the gospel, vs. the "Princes of the Church", who advanced her "interests" through power and money and political machinations.
To the extent that the free market is not firmly grounded in the deep truths about the human person, persons end up exploited by it, even if their material conditions improve.
Apr '12
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
I have had the privilege of volunteerring for a limited time at a missionary of charity in India. Just being exposed to their compassion and love still makes me emotional twenty years later. But India, like most third nations needs more of Bill Gates (and Ambanis) and a whole lot more of Hayak. India will never fulfill its potential without truly opening up and completing free-market reforms.
Jun '10
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
I will also cast my vote for Mother Teresa. Her service highlighted problems to be addressed as well as providing loving care for individuals.
When you influence others to do good and show love, you are far more powerful in an eternal setting. I choose to think the eternal is worth more than the temporal.
Jul '11
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
I want to clarify that the comparison is between "Pre-Gates-Foundation" Billy :-D.
But Amy has a point. Dead people don't have spiritual opportunities. Even if Mother Teresa worked with say 10,000 people, Gates allowed millions the opportunity to explore "spirituality".
Mar '12
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
Actually, as a practicing Catholic, I have an opinion which will run counter to what has been expressed.
Both the saint and the industrialist brought different benefits to India.
Teresa brought Christ-like service to the poorest of the poor. Her example cannot be understated.
Gates brought the opportunity for people to learn or capitalize on a skill set that brings them a livelihood and allows them to support themselves and their families.
Both of those are immense goods, real goods. India will benefit from both.
Jun '12
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
Great post. I can't say who helped India more. I think they both contributed differently. MT intentionally and BG by accident. Either way, Indians help themselves most. They didn't slaughter MT because of her different beliefs instead, they embrace her compassion. Indians went to school, worked hard and became engineers to fill those IT jobs.
Apr '11
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
Bill Gates.
No Question.
I've seen and experienced the good that the Free Market does in lifting all boats by raising their standard of living. I even worked for Microsoft and had many coworkers from India who either brought family here or sent money home to help their kin.
Some of the more successful employees became VCs or started even more companies that created goods and services both here and in India.
Bill Gates has leveraged his wealth to do real charity through his Foundation. I'm sure you're all familiar with that. He is able to make a difference in far more lives than he would be if he were acting directly with his own hands.
Free Trade and Capitalism making wealth from ideas, toil and self-interest does more good in this physical world than any other institution. It does it without really meaning to, either. That's probably why I trust it more than a sea of good-intentions. We all know where those lead!
Feb '12
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
katievs:
Contrast, for example, the differences (in terms of benefits the indigenous peoples) between the Christian missionaries to the new world and the conquistadors.
Actually, this is a great way to look at the issue. Americans missionaries in pre-Communist China were far more beloved than European ones. Why? European missionaries would first build a church and harangue potential converts into attending. American missionaries would first build a school and a hospital. When you show that you care for the people, those people would believe that you cared about their souls.
Taking care of people's physical needs does help satisfy their spiritual ones. Thus a question of who has done more for India has to consider the material side.
Suppose Mother Teresa brought every person who ever visited her missions to Christ -- call it 10 million people. (No one's that good at proselyting, but we want to be generous here.) But if Bill Gates' work through Microsoft brought every one of the 1.2 billion Indians just 1% closer to Christ, he still will have done more to advance the cause of Christianity without even trying to do so.
Dec '11
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
Life has to be lived in the balance. Society needs saints but also entrepreneurs that help people. To turn a verse around we not only need God's word but bread also. If there is not the moral with the monetary things devolve into corruption. Moral without the monetary leads to the monastery. Both extremes can hurt a society.
To answer your question. I would like to think that the prayers of Mother Teresa caused Bill Gates to come to India. Often people of faith see God work in mysterious ways. Whose to say that the prayers to help the poor is not answered by God through a geek from Seattle? Stranger thinks have happened.
Apr '11
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
Though I am sure that Mother Teresa ennobled, enriched, and richly blessed in her holy work the individual lives she touched, for India as a whole, I'd probably go with Bill Gates. Had there been a Mother Teresa and no Bill Gates (i.e. economic development, access to the international marketplace, advancements in education and opportunity) would India be a nation rising up today? That is, for all that Mother Teresa did for those souls to whom she ministered, did she really effect permanent, lasting change in all the things that burdened India and made it poor? I do believe that countries that operate dually under Christian ethics and free markets make a better land for their people. Was there ever a massive Christian spiritual revolution based on Mother Teresa's work in India? So far as I know, it remains pretty hostile to Christian influence. Not that that means at all that Mother Teresa's work was in vain -- she was a marvellous saint and her name, I'm sure, is on the angels' lips. And what Joan Greathouse said: Indians help themselves most. There are Christians and Microsoft in many lands, but only one miraculous India.
Jun '10
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
Amy Schley
katievs:
[...]
Suppose Mother Teresa brought every person who ever visited her missions to Christ -- call it 10 million people. (No one's that good at proselyting, but we want to be generous here.) But if Bill Gates' work through Microsoft brought every one of the 1.2 billion Indians just 1% closer to Christ, he still will have done more to advance the cause of Christianity without even trying to do so.
It doesn't have to be closer to Christ--just closer to charity. You do that by getting inside a person's head. Not by just adding to their bank account. In many cases, getting wealthy just isolates people from the suffering around them. People need someone like Mother Teresa to get inside their head, and remind them what's important in life.
Jun '12
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
Donald Todd: Actually, as a practicing Catholic, I have an opinion which will run counter to what has been expressed.
Both the saint and the industrialist brought different benefits to India.
Teresa brought Christ-like service to the poorest of the poor. Her example cannot be understated.
Gates brought the opportunity for people to learn or capitalize on a skill set that brings them a livelihood and allows them to support themselves and their families.
Both of those are immense goods, real goods. India will benefit from both. · 37 minutes ago
I concur. They are operating from different centers of gravity, but their contributions are comparable. Gates is probably more quantifiably measurable, but Mother Teresa's is infinite albeit it is in the realm of the spirit. I would say though that in 1,000 years, Mother will be remembered more than Bill.
Sep '10
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
This is a very Ayn Rand question but it is terribly interesting. I think it is a false choice though to pick out Mother Theresa and Bill Gates as wells as being too emotional.
I would prefer the question, which does more good, altruism or self-interest?
May '10
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
Barkha Herman
I want to clarify that the comparison is between "Pre-Gates-Foundation" Billy :-D.
But Amy has a point. Dead people don't have spiritual opportunities. Even if Mother Teresa worked with say 10,000 people, Gates allowed millions the opportunity to explore "spirituality". · 1 hour ago
As if you can separate Bill Gates' business effects from his "charitable" work.
And as if Mother Teresa's influence was limited to people now dead.
Edited on September 19, 2012 at 6:27pmFeb '11
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
The idea that anyone is 100% good is just ridiculous, especially someone as flawed as Martin Luther King. He was surrounded by communists. He actively worked for the passage of the Great Society programs. Unmixed blessing? Hardly. I don't know that much about Mother Teresa, but my natural inclination is to be highly skeptical of those people fawn over. And birth control is a good thing. It should not be a matter of government policy, but personal choice. But as far as I'm concerned, it is a good thing.
As for Bill Gates, I think Microsoft products are pretty shoddy. You have to use them because that's what's available.
Feb '12
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
katievs
Barkha Herman
But Amy has a point. Dead people don't have spiritual opportunities. ... · 1 hour ago
...
And as if Mother Teresa's influence was limited to people now dead. · 16 minutes ago
Edited 15 minutes ago
I believe the point is that allowing more people to live, which is what better economic prospects mean, enables more people to choose the right spiritual course. After all, unless the Mormons are right, you can't become a Christian after you're dead.
May '10
Re: Mother Teresa or Bill Gates?
Amy Schley
Suppose Mother Teresa brought every person who ever visited her missions to Christ -- call it 10 million people. (No one's that good at proselyting, but we want to be generous here.) But if Bill Gates' work through Microsoft brought every one of the 1.2 billion Indians just 1% closer to Christ, he still will have done more to advance the cause of Christianity without even trying to do so.
What in the world justifies the assumption that Microsoft is bringing everyone it "touches" closer to Christ?
Further, I can't understand the application of numbers to the question of human goods and values. It's bizarre.