What Goldman Sachs Can Learn From Bill Gates and the World Food Prize

Yesterday, Bill Gates was here in Des Moines to give the keynote address at the World Food Prize. It's a very prestigious prize, given annually to the person who meets these criteria:

The World Food Prize is awarded for a specific, exceptionally significant, individual achievement at any point along the full range of the food production and distribution chain.

This exceptionally significant achievement must be shown to have resulted in a demonstrable increase in the quantity, quality or availability of, or access to, food for a substantial number of people.

This year's honoree is Dr. Ebisa Gejeta, of Ethiopia, whose sorghum hybrids resistant to drought and the devastating Striga weed have dramatically increased the production and availability of one of the world’s five principal grains and enhanced the food supply of hundreds of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa.

Bill and Melinda Gates, through their foundation, have committed to helping end world hunger and poverty and improve the lives of billions of people. They've donated millions to many causes that support the foundation's mission. The World Food Prize qualifies for Gates' time and money because it recognizes and rewards altruistic behavior and it "Thinks Big."

Compare that noble mission to the unofficial slogan of Goldman Sachs: "Greedy, but long-term greedy." The phrase, coined by Goldman Sachs director Gus Levy, is a conspicuous symbol of the excesses of Wall Street. Goldman has become the poster child for the bonus culture that got us into trouble earlier this year.

Goldman is mulling over giving $100 million dollars to its own charitable foundation. Here's where Goldman's leaders could borrow from Gates' playbook. Instead of handing out little dinky awards to its favorite charities, Goldman should set its sights on one protracted problem on Earth and use its considerable resources to solving it.

Here are some problems that still need solving. Goldman, take your pick:

1. Educational achievement gaps between rich and poor children
2. Lack of math and science achievement in the U.S.
3. Financial literacy in the curriculum of U.S. high schools
4. Violence in the inner cities of our largest cities
5. Opportunity to attend college for all who want to go
6. Chronic homelessness
7. Affordable daycare
8. Easing dependence on foreign oil
9. Affordable parking in Manhattan (kidding)
10. And of course...WORLD PEACE