Someone asked him in his recent IAMA. I forgot what his reason was. Part of it was he was saying his investment team handles it and absolving himself.
Tbh I hate Gates but I do kinda buy this. My first job out of school was at an investment firm. No one there with anything close to Gates money, but plenty of really rich folks. Once you have more than a few million those people really get into esoteric investments. Farmland - from a capitalist pov mind you - is a pretty good investment. Generates steady income and holds it’s value. I don’t think there’s anything really nefarious about him owning all that land other than he’s a capitalist ghoul and all his wealth should be appropriated anyway.
As an aside, please for the love of god don’t get an econ or business degree people, I’m begging you. Took me 15 years to find a job that didn’t make me feel like shit.
Farmland - from a capitalist pov mind you - is a pretty good investment. Generates steady income and holds it’s value.
This is because the externalities are forced onto the farmers. When you take away the capitalist overlay and measure all the costs, our dominant mode of agriculture is not profitable. If all the costs were properly accounted for, it wouldn’t make sense to farm a single acre of field corn or soybeans.
He likes to plow.
