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~~Tax~~ Eat the rich!
Here's the thing. Even if he lives up to this promise, it's still him deciding where that money should go, and it won't be towards long term support of social safety nets for the commoners. He should just have been paying his fair share of taxes all along and into the future.
Based on current spending, it will most likely be spent getting drinkable water to the majority of the world’s population.
I don’t like how he got his money, but he’s been reasonably responsible with it since his divorce.
That said, he has over $113b dollars. If he gives away 99% of it, he’ll still have over a billion dollars.
Behind the bastards has a good two parter on him. I wouldn't say he's been responsible with it.
He's been buying up huge swathes of farm land in the middle of the country. Not everything he's doing has been philanthropy
There are books on him exposing how half of his charities are frauds. Given his past records humanity should be wary of putting this man anywhere near anything drinkable or useful
...or paying his employees more.
Funny how we don't have a popular term for the portion of an employee's deserved wage that turns into "record shareholder profit."
Imagine if all corporations were required to put a line item on check stubs showing how much you made them.
I've been sending his chain emails along since the 90s so he owes me some serious interest.
Bullshit, he's "transferring" his wealth to his own charity for tax reasons...
It's a trick to protect his money for his children.
Not according to the opening sentence?
The Gates Foundation plans to give away $US200 billion ($313 billion) over the next 20 years before shutting down entirely in 2045
Sure. The Gates Foundation gives the money to the Totally Not A Tax Dodge foundation which quietly pays the Gates kids as much as they want. I'm sure it will be more elegant than that, but that's the basic grift.
Meanwhile, Gates uses his reputation as a philanthropist, and all the soft power from controlling billions to further his own interests and cement his personal philosophy as the only option.
The charity means that the American people have no control at all over how the money is spent, so the plebians have to beg at their door for money to be used in the way that Gates says it must be used.
He has been making this kind of promise since the early 2000s, but never follows through. Just the goal post keeps moving to the right.
While the goal post keeps moving, it's the opposite of your statement. As explained in the article:
That target would represent a doubling in spending for the nonprofit, which has disbursed more than $US100 billion since it was co-founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates in 2000. Originally, the foundation was set to close 20 years after the Microsoft co-founder’s death.
“I have decided to give my money back to society much faster than I had originally planned,” Gates, 69, wrote in a statement. “I will give away virtually all my wealth through the Gates Foundation over the next 20 years to the cause of saving and improving lives around the world.”
Supposedly he's already given away half, why is it unthinkable that he's planning to give away the other half?
Doesn't that leave him still with something like $2 billion? I'm not knocking the philanthropy, but also, his safety net is going to remain about $2 billion dollars larger than ~~mine~~ most every other human being on this entire planet. And it will continue to accrue value at a higher rate than inflation as long as the good ol' American engine keeps on chugging along as normal.
From his vantage point, this sacrifice will likely impact neither his daily lifestyle nor his long-term comfort one iota.
It's a great thing he's doing, and I want to be clear about that. He's giving a boatload of money to charity. And I also don't know what else he might be doing with the remainder. I might be being an asshole. I haven't even read the article. I just saw that fuckin guy and the shining headline and had a strong reaction.
(Edited)
I wouldn't for a second think or hope that he endures the distress of poverty or feeling needy given where he started - he has tried to do good with his fortune and that is good enough for me...he is doing what he can for the world around him and should be comfortable as he does so. I hope to find my own (much less extravagant) comfort some day.
and thats the thing there are some who could realistically give away 99% of thier wealth and still individually be rich beyond belief. I hope it spawns some Rockefeller thing where the rich realize they can eat thier cake and have it to, they can be unbelievably rich and donate unbelievable ammounts of wealth, leaving a huge, arguably postive mark on history.
Get fucked with a rusty rake bill, you helped stop the COVID vaccines from being patent exempt, among plenty of other awful shit, all for more money.
Don't give it away.
If you really want to help people, buy media, buy politicans and get REAL change that will actually last.
You giving money to random charities does fuck all, except give you tax breaks.
We need change in the political system so that we don't need fucking charities for basic needs.
Why wait, just do it already.
Individuals hoarding wealth is bad for society.
Can we quit running billionaire's PR campaigns for them? These people are not our friends, and giving back a portion of what they stole (always in the most public way) doesn't change that
Sorry Bill but it’s too late and not enough. I still want to eat the rich and that includes you.
Although I‘ll admit if all billionaires did this instead of - oh you know - investing in fascism and actively dismembering democracy globally I might feel different about this. But as things stand I am done with billionaires. We cannot coexist. Simple as that.
Give it away now instead you piece of shit. If he actually gave a shit he would have donated it all to charities already. It's just a billionaire farse, fuck him and the rest of em.
he actually gave a shit he would have donated it all to charities already. It's just a billionaire farse,
Just not his own goddamned ~~tax avoidance scheme~~ charity
he has been milking that good will cow for decades
And it's working. His charity is extremely visible, while the public doesn't understand how much he took and deadweight lost with his monopoly.
It's like a burglar breaking your window, stealing your TV...
...
Years pass...
...
Here have a free TV! I am so generous!
To his kids and their charities? Reminder that Bill gates is every bit as exploitative and evil, he didn’t become a billionaire by paying fair wages. This is all PR to try and save his reputation as everyone turns on billionaires. Like buffet, he just shuffles his money to his kids and calls it charity
Maybe pay some fucking taxes first, Bill.
I'm fairly certain he pays every last cent he government asks of him.
The problem is that the government has been unwilling to ask for more, and the current one certainly won't.
He has been advocating for higher taxes for while though, like backing the Washington Income Tax initiative with his father:
Bill Gates Sr., father of the Microsoft Corp. co-founder, and about two dozen other supporters of Initiative 1098 turned in 350,000 petition signatures Thursday in Olympia, many more than the roughly 241,000 required to get on the ballot. The campaign says it will turn in an additional 20,000 Friday. Gates said that it was time “to make our tax code fair for the middle class and small businesses.”
Bill Gates deserves a lot of shit for creating the original big tech monopoly. But I'll say this about him: At least he's not hoarding his money to build a secretive compound to hold hundreds of kids he spawned with right wing crazy women for the purpose of creating a future master race.
Using all his money and influence to advocate taxing the super rich significantly would be helpful.
He does actually. https://observer.com/2024/09/bill-gates-bernie-sanders-tax-wealthy/
He and warren are some of the smarter billionaires, they realize having infinite money is not actually very useful.
Not to say there's any thing good about there being billionaires in the first place, but there is a spectrum.
I'll give him credit for it when it fucking happens
I'll take whatever win I can get at this point. I just hope that it's actually going to good causes that will actually help people and not just bullshit money laundering "charity" shell games.
He should open low cost private schools and libraries. We’re going to need them.
Sure, I'll do it after I'm dead.
Or maybe not. Guess you'll have to outlive him to find out if he's just a scummy billionaire like the rest.
Someone's public relations department is working overtime so Billy boy doesn't get eaten.
? This isn't the giving pledge, which is ALSO still active. The Gates Foundation is massively increasing its budget so it won't survive in perpetuity, trying to fill a portion of the gap created by the death of USAID.
There are many things to be mad about. This is not one of them.
The sad thing is that even if he gives away 99% of his wealth he will still be obscenely rich. Multitudes richer than the average man.
Don't advertise scum. This guys is trying to literally spend 99% of his fortune to wipe off all the shit he has done.
enters the lottory
What? Is that not how this works?
Though it’s better than hoarding, a billionaire can’t even give away their money without wielding a dangerous amount of influence on all of our lives.
Good guy bill, saw him also giving shit to Musk as well recently
Bill Gates accused Elon Musk of killing poor children as he announced Thursday that he would donate his remaining fortune to his charity
What a turn around from the 90's
Why not hate on the billionaires who aren't giving away billions of dollars?
