All things being equal, who would you ask for money: the insanely rich or the average citizen? Most people would go to the first group, and in doing so, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has knocked at Google’s door.
Figuratively speaking, anyway – Brown’s still in the UK, as far as we know. Also, Google wasn’t the sole recipient of his request; Vodafone, Wal-Mart, Goldman Sachs, and about 15 other companies were named, as well, according to Larry Elliott and Sarah Boseley.
With those details out of the way, we can move on to one last clarification: Brown was asking for aid on behalf of the world’s poor, not himself or his government. In 2000, the U.N. set seven development goals that it intended to have met by 2015, and things aren’t going too well.
If anything could repair the timeline, it’s probably that group of major corporations. Still, Google has always had rather strict rules about unsolicited proposals, and shareholders everywhere would probably get upset if too much money got diverted from for-profit purposes.
On the other hand, it would be interesting to see Google add the British Prime Minister to its list of allies. With a hat tip to Sean P. Aune, we’ll be sure to watch for future developments.
