Philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates are optimistic about the future of the world’s poor and say three myths are hampering the progressive efforts to fight disease and poverty. In the sixth annual letter published by their foundation, Bill Gates writes that the first myth floated by some is that poor countries are doomed to stay poor. He says that’s not true and predicts that by 2035, there will be almost no poor countries left in the world. In an interview in New York City, Gates says the second myth is that foreign aid is wasteful. Melinda Gates writes the case against the third myth that saving lives leads to overpopulation. "All three reflect a dim view of the future, one that says the world isn't improving but staying poor and sick, and getting overcrowded," Bill Gates writes in the 16-page letter. "We're going to make the opposite case, that the world is getting better, and that in two decades it will be better still." Gates says GDP per capita figures, adjusted for inflation to 2005 dollars, show that many countries such as China, India, Brazil and even Botswana that were once considered poor now have growing economies. 

 

And in Africa, a place the Microsoft co-founder says is all too often dismissed as hopeless, life expectancy has risen since the 1960s despite the HIV epidemic. Also, more children are going to school and fewer people are hungry. Gates also argues against claims that foreign aid is wasteful because it is too expensive, because it is stolen by corrupt officials receiving it or because countries who receive it become dependent on it. He says that in Norway, the world's most generous donor of foreign aid, the amount of its budget that goes to foreign aid is only 3 percent. In the US, it's less than 1 percent, or about USD 30 billion per year, of which USD 11 billion goes to vaccines, bed nets and other health causes.  His wife, Melinda, wrote a section of the letter dispelling the myth that saving lives worldwide will lead to overpopulation. She points to countries such as Brazil where both child mortality and birth rates have declined. When more children survive, she says, parents have smaller families. 

 

In the interview, Gates expanded on the letter and its optimistic tone, saying the traditional headlines associated with poor countries — that they're plagued by natural disasters, political instability and corruption — have prevented people from understanding how much progress has been made.