Bill Gates returned to Reddit Tuesday for his sixth Ask Me Anything (AMA), and as always the questions for the Microsoft co-founder ranged from the philanthropic work he and his wife are doing at their foundation to whether he gets up in the night to make himself a sandwich (no, but he does make tomato soup sometimes).

What do you feel/know that is one very solvable problem that society (or most likely, government) is ignoring? "I think that health care costs, education and poverty/mobility deserve a lot more thinking and innovation than they get today. The benefit of getting these things right would be amazing. With all the talk about inequity it is interesting that we still work on vertical areas like health, education, housing, food, etc. as separate things rather than having a full view of the challenges someone faces."

What are your top 3 goals currently? "For the Foundation reducing childhood death and malnutrition and ending polio would be the biggest 3 things. For innovation it would be an energy breakthrough and improving the way we educate kids. For my family it is making sure the kids are ready to go to college and have a great experience there. That is more than 3 and I didn’t mention my tennis goals yet."

Is it possible to make the world economy grow without destroying our planet’s resources? "Yes — essentially most resources don’t get 'destroyed.' The elements that were here to begin with are still here. Of course it takes energy to recycle things but I am optimistic we will figure out how to avoid destroying the planet. The number of babies born has already peaked which will help limit the maximum population size."

Is a cure for Alzheimer’s a real possibility in the near future, and will it be accessible to people on medicare medicaid? "There have been a lot of failed Alzheimer’s drug trials. The good news is that the new tools we have are helping us understand the disease far better — for example the role of the glial cells. I am optimistic that in the next 20 years we will have drugs to help if we stay focused on it including pooling data and helping start ups get funded. I am involved in a number of these areas."

Read the full recap of the Bill Gates Reddit AMA by Kurt Schlosser at geekwire.com.