In an editorial for the Huffington Post, Bill Gates laments that 1.3 billion people have no electricity. On the bright side, they don’t have to deal with Windows 10.

It’s hard to believe in the 21st Century, a large portion of the world’s population has no electricity. They still have to collect firewood, handwash their clothes in the river, and carry a jug of it back for drinking. Which means globally, almost one in five people envy the residents of Flint Michigan.

In a recent editorial, Bill Gates claims that the problem is access to electricity. From his editorial:

“The more than 1 billion people without energy spend a significant portion of their time collecting wood and water for the basics of life: heating and cleaning their homes and cooking their food.”

So many of us take for granted that we have robots in our basements to take care of washing clothes, and when we’re hungry we simply turn the knob to boil a hot dog that we just took out of the refrigerator. This gives us so much free time, we get to spend hours in front of the TV, enjoying more electricity.

So what is Bill’s grand plan for bringing 18% of the world into the 21st Century? Is he going to take some of his billions and build power plants around the world? No. He’s telling them to be patient.

” So if we really want to help the world’s poorest families, we need to find a way to get them access to energy they can afford. And we need to do it in a way that doesn’t make climate change worse, because the poor are more vulnerable to extreme weather and other climate impacts than anyone else…. we’re betting that within 15 years, scientists and engineers will develop big breakthroughs that will put us on a path to zero carbon emissions and make energy more affordable for everyone.”

So rather than giving poor people electricity today, he’s shoveling out more money to researchers. He’s helping his silicon valley buddies afford new Teslas.

You would think that after the billions the US government has already spent on boondoggles like Solyndra, Evergreen, and 112 other bankrupt solar companies; that someone as smart as Mr. Gates would realize he’s just wasting money. If Solar and Wind technologies aren’t economically viable here, they’re certainly not going to help the economies of the Third World. Just burning the money in wood stoves would probably produce more energy. Many disadvantaged people of the world don’t have another fifteen years. They’re more likely to die from dysentery, than CO2.

He’s like a medieval King, whose Alchemists tell him they’re on the verge of turning manure into gold. And from their perspective, they’re absolutely correct.