Bill Gates & President Bill Clinton: The Global Economy and the End of American Exceptionalism-Exclusive Interview
For more from Bill Gates and President Clinton, check out the December 2013 issue of WIRED.
Released on 11/11/2013
(light instrumental music)
Both of you contended benefits
from investments in infrastructure
and basic research are really important,
yet we're really not making the pace we should.
And can they question really whether this era
of American exceptionalism is coming to end,
particularly as we see our lead in technology perhaps erode?
Nation-state competition is not zero-sum competition.
That is, the fact the US was so far ahead,
that's not good for the world.
If everybody could have had our levels
of science and health, that would be a fantastic thing.
It's OK for China to invent cancer drugs
that cure patients in the United States.
So, the fact that 5% of the world's population
or 30% of the economic activity,
60% of the scientific R and D,
it wasn't natural that that would continue
to be the case.
So, we want them to catch up.
Now, we want to, as the leader, keep setting
a very, very high standard.
We don't want them to catch up
because we're slowing down or even worse,
going into reverse.
We should never want to hold anybody else back.
Then, we should be trying to build a future
of shared success and shared responsibility.
So, what I think we need to do in America
is to stop majoring in the minors.
That is, we need to look more at
what other countries are now doing better than we are.
And instead of being in denial about it,
learn from it.
Well, we have laboratories of innovation
all over the world.
Laboratories of the future all over the world.
What are the Chinese really good at?
Answer, aggregating capital and investing
in technology and infrastructure.
What are the Indians really good at?
They're good at technology and entrepreneurialism,
but not good at aggregating capital.
Is there some way we can help each to the other.
The Chinese, what's their weakness?
They tend to see big engineering solutions
for every problem.
In trying to run water from the Yangtze River
down to the Yellow River, they may dry them both up.
They need to be working on these things together.
(dramatic instrumental music)
Starring: Bill Gates, President Bill Clinton
Photography and video courtesy of:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Prashant Panjiar
Frederic Courbet
Michael Hanson
Kepler
Clinton Foundation/Max W. Orenstein
www.clintonfoundation.org
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