DOING WELL BY DOING GOOD.

DOING WELL BY DOING GOOD. The caption comes from Tom Lehrer’s song THE OLD DOPE PEDDLER. Professor Robert Barro had an article in the Wall Street Journal for June 19, 2007 arguing that Bill Gates has done more through his for-profit activities at Microsoft than he can possibly do through his extraordinary charitable activities. This is a variant of the argument, which I associate with Thomas Sowell, that a person does the most good for society by choosing the highest paying job. If you can make the most money being a dry cleaner, that is what society values the most. You might prefer a more interesting job or you might decide that it is worth more to you to do work which you consider more valuable to society, but society has expressed its preference by offering you a greater return as a dry cleaner. Of course, the caveat should be repeated: all other things being equal.