Billionaires against humanity

I have belatedly stumbled across an article from the Times (London) published on 24 May on how prominent billionaires fear global overpopulation. It describes a meeting at the home of Sir Paul Nurse, a British Nobel prize biochemist and president of the private Rockefeller University, in Manhattan on May 5 involving Bill Gates among others:

“Described as the Good Club by one insider it included David Rockefeller Jr, the patriarch of America’s wealthiest dynasty, Warren Buffett and George Soros, the financiers, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, and the media moguls Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey.”

It goes on to say:

“The issues debated included reforming the supervision of overseas aid spending to setting up rural schools and water systems in developing countries. Taking their cue from Gates they agreed that overpopulation was a priority.”

This is interesting for two reasons:

* At least some of these billionaires, most notably Bill Gates, have a reputation for supporting development causes.

* The billionaires sound extremely coy about expressing their ideas of overpopulation openly. This is despite the fact such views are increasingly seen as respectable.

Perhaps they are concerened that they could come across as trying to defend their own wealth and privelege against the teeming masses.