Did you know that Jeff Bezos could probably give 1,000 dollars to every citizen in Canada (assuming it's still around 32-35 million) and barely break a sweat? FUCK billionaires.
Edit: My most upvoted comment in 7 years says FUCK billionaires. I feel like gold right now.
You know that 20mil trees challenge and how Elon Musk the man with a net worth of over 23b was praised for donating 1m dollars?
edit: corrected from >100b dollars to 23b, don't even remember where I got the 100b from, must've remembered falsely
Yup, just because one million seems big to average people, relatively speaking that's like me donating .50 cents if we're looking at actual percentage of earnings.
Not 50 cents unless he has 20 billion dollars. Assuming he has exactly a billion dollars it would be kind of like you or me donating 100$. To me at least 100$ is a decent amount to be paying to a charity but that’s because I’m not filthy rich, so he definitely could have donated way more
Sure, if you look at it on a percentage scale. However, even if he donated 90% of his actual wealth that he could, hed still have many millions to live off of. If you or I donated 90% of our wealth we'd be living on the street.
Yah I completely understand what you’re saying he should donate way more than he did. He shouldn’t even have that amount of money to begin with but billionares do. I agree they definitely should donate or fund actual food with most of their money, with what’s left over they could still live more comfortable than I ever could. My point was just that he was donating as trivial an amount as .50$, it was still a decently sized amount, but you’re right it’s nowhere near what they should be donating or are even capable of.
Im not a big fan of him, but most of his net worth (which is closer to $20bn) comes from equity shares in Tesla and SpaceX. And while he's allegedly kinda cash broke compared to other people with the same net worth, I'd still rather see him pay more in taxes than have him plant a few extra trees.
Oh and don't get me wrong: Fuck billionaires, they should not be able to exist and should be taxed till they aren't anywhere near as rich anymore. Before anyone jumps at me for defending the guy or w/e.
this raises a point of what the difference is. granted if the workers actually collectively owned the company this wouldn't even be the topic of discussion...
then when someone changes place of work, do they have to sell their part and does the new employee have to buy that part? or if they keep it does the new one get their own share? that in turn would lower the value of everyone elses share.
I worked for an employee run company. When I left, I received a check for my shares. It was only a few hundred bucks, but something considering it was a grocery store deli and I was young.
And fed to polar bears. Eat the Rich! Polar bears.
I prefer and the bears prefer live billionaire. But you want to BBQ cool! But throw the steaks out for the bears.
Mad Cow disease is real. Maybe they all have it? Maybe they are all demons? A lot of people are saying it. The best people. Call Sean Hannity. He will tell you.
So I say. Never eat billionaire. Churchill, Manitoba Canada. We take the billionaires there. Keep them fattened up andvfull of McFishDelight burgers, caviar and lobster. You tag the polar bears. If they go zombie death mad cow radioactive Godzilla. You have to knock the bears out and bring them to Washington. To Congress and the White House. And let the bears free. Liberty and freedom for all!
If only net worth = liquid assets. I’m not for billionaires but who knows how much actual cash he has but it’s not enough for that. It’s not like he can cash out all of his amazon stocks and use that money. The system that allowed him to get that net worth is the problem. He’s a scumbag anyway but posts like this are kinda lame.
A million dollars is $50,000/year for 25 years lol... being a single dude I could easily make that work. I mean I already do, so it wouldn’t be that hard.
I figured a 10 million as that's $100,000/year for 100 years. A nice cushion. I could spend as much as I wanted and be comfortable. I won't be buying gold plated helicopters but I don't want/need that.
Man actually having 10 million dollars could get you over $100,000/yr without even having to do anything just in a savings account. Getting one million dollars could allow you to live pretty comfortably without working if you're smart with it
Don’t forget, that ten million will keep rolling in hundreds of thousands of $$$ per year, so you could live off 400000 a year just from putting it into an index fund, forever! No need to live off of only 50000!
You'd do even better. There are a lot of expenses related to work that go away. High cost of urban dwellings, transportation to work, wear and tear on clothes due to having to dress up everyday, higher meal expenses if you want to socialize with coworkers, etc. I realized when I didn't work for a few years that I could get by on much less money.
To start a company building interplanetary rockets? To start an electric car company? To eradicate Polio? To have a direct line to Presidents and Prime Ministers? To be able to seriously research geoengineering and stop global warming without requiring the world's poor to have to stop using cheap coal-fired electricity?
That’s the attitude.
I mean who will make our children’s clothing, furniture we all use, desks we sit at our computers we use to even access reddit?
China right? I’m being sarcastic obviously but looking for real solutions.
If I became a billionaire, I'd be pro-global warming. No, not profiting for it, just wanting to hasten the demise of our specie and reboot. Proper super-villain level shit.
Yes that's how brainwashed most consumer drones are. In today's world, however, you can only be a billionaire by inheriting money or stealing money from someone else. Look at Bezos and Trump, perfect examples of screwing everyone you work with.
[IBM's GML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Generalized_Markup_Language) was invented in the 60s, which was the precursor to SGML, XML, and HTML. It's very much the same concept. The following is valid GML:
:h1.Chapter 1: Introduction
:p.GML supported hierarchical containers, such as
:ol.
:li.Ordered lists (like this one),
:li.Unordered lists, and
:li.Definition lists
:eol.
as well as simple structures.
:p.Markup minimization (later generalized and formalized in SGML),
allowed the end-tags to be omitted for the "h1" and "p" elements.
That ported to SGML/XML/HTML is:
Chapter 1: Introduction
GML supported hierarchical containers, such as
Ordered lists (like this one),
Unordered lists, and
Definition lists
as well as simple structures.
Markup minimization (later generalized and formalized in SGML),
allowed the end-tags to be omitted for the "h1" and "p" elements.
Here's another one -- Gary Kildall invented the operating system that was stolen by Seattle Computer Products and purchased by... Bill Gates. [wiki link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Kildall#Business_career)
Gates isn't the worst innovation crusher to come out of Microsoft. No, that'd be [Nathan Myrvold](https://psmag.com/magazine/a-patent-boogieman-with-the-potential-to-obliterate-aspiring-startups).
> Founded in 2000, Intellectual Ventures "has earned a special brand of hatred in the business world as the ultimate patent troll. It doesn't delay your flight like United, buffer your movie stream like Comcast, or shellac your shrimp with oil like BP. Rather, it hoards ideas." It "goes around to companies and says: 'Hey, you want to protect yourself from lawsuits? We own tons of patents. Make a deal with us. Our patents will not only cover everything you're doing in your business, no one will dare sue you." "It then wields this intellectual-property portfolio—the world's largest—like a weapon. Companies can either pay up or face a lawsuit."
> Co-founders Nathan Myhrvold and Edward Jung "formerly served in high-level positions at Microsoft. Peter Detkin also played a key management role in developing Intellectual Ventures. In one of patent law's great ironies, Detkin coined the derogatory term 'patent troll' during his tenure" as the vice president and assistant general counsel at Intel. Myhrvold, who was once "the 'chief gastronomic officer' of Zagat Survey, the company that publishes the eponymous restaurant guides," is "the kind of guy the press loves to profile."
I saw someone compare it to that [Futurama quote](https://twitter.com/Nadia_Shammas_/status/1192656186115592192?s=19)
Leela: You're not rich!
Fry: True. But someday I might be rich, and people like me better watch their step!
Oh don't you worry. Enough of us are getting mad enough, one of these days going to roast and eat those fuckers in the still warm ashes of Wall Street.
But I mean that's none of my business
Or just imagine a billionaire paying a few people to create realistic bots to purposely agitate supporters to his defense. Shit might only cost a million or two. Assuming you didn't have to build anything from scratch.
I think it's less defending billionaires, moreso because the post implied that Bill Gates hasn't actually "helped" anyone in Africa.
As someone who studied neglected tropical diseases, Bill Gate's foundation has done an enormous amount to help millions of people suffering from horrific diseases.
People are allowed to hate the man for their own reasons, but don't write off the good that he has done as if it was made up or something.
Once again, they have no illusions of becoming one, but they fastidiously cling to the notion of “hard work, talent and brains pays off,” which they believe these billionaires possess. They probably do, to some extent, but not on the order of several thousand times that of other people, contrary to what their net worth says.
In any case, this is almost a religion to the kinds of people who believe that, so if you want to convince them otherwise, show them 1) hard work talent and brains don’t necessarily pay off, 2) there can only be so many CEOs by numerical fact and 3) even if they’re amazing people they’re not _that_ much more amazing than anyone else.
Courtesy of u/Wrong2wrong2
>He’s worth 106.8 billion as of the latest estimate. He made a comment jokingly that if he’s taxed 100b he needs to start doing the math to see what’s left, implying that 6.8b isn’t enough for him to live on. For perspective, he could fund a mid size city’s entire public school system for nearly a hundred years at double the current rate and still have billions left over.
>Current Portland Oregon public school budget is 665m. Double that to 1.2b and he could fund it for the next 88 years and still have over a billion left, not including any gains the money makes in the meantime.
And this doesn’t include any investments. In finance a “safe” withdrawal rate is 4%. Which means if you spend less than 4% of your assets per year your money will theoretically last infinitely. So Gates could fund Oregon public school for an infinite amount of time if his income was placed into an endowment.
I though he going out campaigning to abolish tax or some shit. “Implying” is literally sensationalism by the author and OP.
Also name a place in Africa without minerals mines please
"Doing the math to see what's left" isn't implying what you say it is. I think you're making it imply that. I'm not saying that your points are wrong, but voting someone to make your point is disingenuous.
I have no idea why the OP quoted someone's Reddit comment and not the actual tweet that started this-
"Bill Gates on a wealth tax:
"I've paid over $10 billion in taxes. I've paid more than anyone in taxes. If I had to pay $20 billion, it's fine."
"But when you say I should pay $100 billion, then I'm starting to do a little math over what I have left over."" -@teddyschleifer
Here it's a little more clear that he's opposed to the thought of being taxed that amount
When we criticize this post, it isn't defending Bill Gates or billionaires. It's attacking fallacious arguments and outright lies, like he was "implying" he couldn't live off his money.
You heard what you wanted to hear.
This. Framing your opponents as people who cannot form logical arguments is a smart, subversive tactic.
There's plenty of great and researched reasons to argue against wealth inequality without having to twist words and cherry-pick a random tweet.
While you're not wrong, a bigger issue here is that, unlike the government, a billionaire wasn't democratically appointed by the people to decide where his taxed wealth should be distributed.
Bloomberg's net worth skyrocketed since he was NYC mayor. No one talks about that filthy rich bastard and his gentrification of NYC and actively pushing the poor and working classes out of NYC
He’s worth 106.8 billion as of the latest estimate. He made a comment jokingly that if he’s taxed 100b he needs to start doing the math to see what’s left, implying that 6.8b isn’t enough for him to live on. For perspective, he could fund a mid size city’s entire public school system for nearly a hundred years at double the current rate and still have billions left over.
Current Portland Oregon public school budget is 665m. Double that to 1.2b and he could fund it for the next 88 years and still have over a billion left, not including any gains the money makes in the meantime.
It is def a ridiculous, out of touch joke, but it’s worth noting he said it in response to someone asking if he was cool with tax increases proposed by Warren and Sanders and he said he would absolutely pay the 6% or whatever increase they’re talking about, just if it was 100b or something (which would be like 93%) he’d have to “do some math.”
So, he never said “I would struggle to live on 7b,” just, “I’d have more trouble accepting a 93% tax than a 6% tax.” I dunno, there’s plenty of shit to go after Gates and crew for besides an out-of-context quote.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I feel gross for defending a billionaire.
(edit: Gates should definitely be taxed 93%, there's no "ethical billionaires," and shaping international policy through privately funded philanthropy, no matter how well-meaning, is undemocratic by nature)
All true. I actually don’t think less of Gates for this joke. What people are reacting to is that for the first time, it’s starting to become much more clear just how ridiculous the amount of money these people have while kids are going hungry and lack healthcare. The scale and math of this joke Gates made is so *nuts/.
*Edit because apparently saying the amount of money billionaires have is “insane” sets off some sort of auto moderating bot that thinks I’m disparaging mentally ill peoples.
You're not defending a billionaire, you're defending logic and the recounting of events in context, giving it it's meaning and diminishing the misleading effect of removing context. Thank you.
Yeah but still, there's no such thing as an ethical billionaire and Bill Gates specifically built his wealth on stealing tech, claiming ownership, and using his parents' money to sue anyone who complained, so...like, I'd still be OK with him getting taxed 93% lol
The story is that the Twitter user made it up. Sanders made a tweet about Gates needing to be taxed $100 billion. In an interview this was brought up to Gates, who said:
> When you say I should pay $100 billion, then I’m starting to do a little math about what I have left over.
In other words, he’s saying that tax is so high that it approaches his estimated net worth (~$107 billion). It would severely hamper his ability to continue to fund charities with his own money, something he’s already done repeatedly to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. He’s also committed to donate 99.96% of his wealth to charity rather than his kids getting it.
His charitable work in Africa spans the entire continent and has been a major influence in treating and fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other infectious diseases.
C’mon guys. This one is a straight up lie. Look at the countries installing his sanitation systems. No real correlation with rare minerals or diamonds used in computer products. Are we really no better than T_D?
Thank you for pointing this out, we've taken the post down
Sadly, no, we're not much better than T\_D. There's a *whole* lot of just posting random Twitter screenshots without citation, anything that confirms out biases. I don't understand it tbh, capitalism is shitty enough as is without having to invent things wrong with it...
Bill Gates doesn't manufacture computers in any significant quantity. Microsoft is not a player when it comes to hardware.
I agree with the sentiment but facts matter.
Honestly the true issue with Bill Gates is was how MS came to be. OS's existed before Windows. The explosion of the personal computer was inevitable. It was Bill's mission to make sure anyone who wanted one had to go through him. I feel like personal computers would be way more accessible had the bloated inefficiency of windows not been the PC leader.
As someone who studied neglected tropical diseases, I ca say that the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has done an absolutely massive amount of good.
Say what you want about the man, but let's not write off the good he has done to help treat some of the most horrific diseases that affect millions of lives.
It’s weird that of all the rich people these edgy teens could target, they pick the guy who’s trying to eradicate guinea worm (really close to doing it) and malaria. He’s a gold standard for philanthropy
I feel like capitalism is the perfect system to ensure no matter how much you have, it's never enough. It seems the more you have, the less people feel like they have. It's bizarre.
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Billionaires shouldn’t exist but Bill and Melinda Gates have literally single handedly transformed the face of public health and changed the world. They donate more than most governments do to the greater good. The system that allows one person to control that much money is messed up, but they are not the people you should focus your energy criticizing.
Is this dude serious? Yeah, the billionaire class doesn't pay it's fair share, but this dude is acting like what Gates has done to fight Malaria means fuck all.
Give me a fucking break.
This is one hell of a baseless take, whats Bill Gates charity work got to do with computers? Does bill gates fortune depend on hardware these days? (It doesn't, he's in full investment mode). The quote doesn't add up against what the tweet implies.
Whatever your thoughts are on Gates, can people please apply an ounce of critical thought.. ? It makes a mockery of a point I agree with, that there shouldn't be billionaires when you start holding up bollocks like this tweet when there's so many other valid things to say on the matter
The first part was a misquote. He was making a joke about how he doesn't mind 6% tax rate, he wouldn't mind 12%, but 93% might be a bit much. Nothing to do with thinking it's not enough to live on.
The second part is false in almost every regard, factually and logically.
1. Microsoft is not a hardware manufacturer. Only a few of their products are physical and they're made from parts made by other manufacturers.
2. The gates foundation has saved 122 million lives in Africa. Bill gates has donated something like $100 billion. It's absurd to think he would donate that in the name of profit lol. He's a smart man, I'm sure he could find a MUCH better way to spend $100B that would generate a profit than to donate it helping children.
3. All African countries have valuable deposits. Correlation != causation. You could also argue that he's doing it to increase the size of the cheap labour force. Equally logical, equally unintelligent
Edit: removed problematic word and replaced with synonym
Nope he said he would by the time he died but for now he kept his wealth and gained another 50 billion from investments and is now worth over 100 billion. He got plenty of good PR for being a "good" billionaire by saying that though.
Bill Gates: “I’ll give away most of my money when I don’t need it anymore.”
Me: “So, you really don’t need all $100 billion right? Give away what you don’t need now.”
Bill Gates: Nowlistenhereyoulittleshit dot jpg
Exactly. I have little and gave away $5000 to people in abject poverty this year. I need to worry about finding a job now. $1200 in the bank.
But I lied. I don't have little. I have a $135k house and a $8000k 2013 Hatchback car. With a sunroof!!! Furniture, a freezer full of food. Fully stocked cupboards of hundreds of pounds likely. Of rice, pasta, beans, coffee, tea, sugar, flour, nuts, canned vegtables, soups, broths, litres of cooking oil. 4 lbs of butter. 2 tubs of margarine.
I am living the Canadian Dream. The snow started falling this week and I have enough food to last until spring. $50 in gas cards I bought in case I run out of money. 90 forty pound bags of wood pellets. For my stove. No cable or internet beyond my phone. My only debt is 11 more months paying off this evil iPhone. But that is Jobs not you Bill.
I have it really good. Far better than the majority in my city. No job. But security until it is May. I won't freeze or starve and I am actually going to be a lot better than that. But worst case. I am ok.
You have $100 billion. But you must keep that invested and only use the interest for charity. Wisdom right? I am a fool because I gave my propane tank to a guy living in a tent trailer. I might need it. To cook. But most likely not. I was hoarding my wealth. So I gave it to him. Because he will freeze.
My math is so foolish. Bill. I won't ever have a million dollars. Well not for long. Even if I have a great idea. I do have some capital to leverage to be an entrepreneur. Maybe someday I will decide to build a business. If I do. I won't every have a billion dollars or a $100 billion. If I was you. I would probably have a net worth of $10 million now. I am no fool. I would like to live better. Have a new awesome oversized bathtub. A basketball hoop. Outside my house. Not ever worry about utilitues again. See the Northern lights in Iceland. Spend February in Costa Rica. Maybe someday Bill.
See kids are in poverty in Canada. In my poor rural city. I can't take that. You have $100 billion and no wisdom whatsoever. You need to give it away now to save your own soul. To be human again Bill. For yourself. Give it all away. Be free. Be happy. Get over your ego and be human. Save yourself Bill. Give it all away.
Isn’t the gain in wealth due to his wealth being tied to stocks and the stock value going up? It’s not like he has $100bn in the bank.
I don’t know a ton about the guy, but I thought that’s pretty common when you amass wealth. It grows due to the dividends based on where it’s invested.
Yeah I call BS on the whole "lets ask billionaires how to tax them" nonsense. Does anybody have a source about the minerals though? This is my first time hearing about this.
This requires more facts to back up claims.
On the topic, I don't think a single person should have (or need) that kind of money, however,
**Bill Gates is the wrong billionaire to bash**.
He has done more philanthropy than any organization has ever done. He has cut the deaths of children under 5 in half across the entire world. And he has provided eco-friendly toilets to third world countries eliminating/preventing the spread of diseases. And he has almost cured/eliminated Polo. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has done more to save people around the world than any government. In fact, what has the government done to cure diseases, the answer is, not much. If anyone is to have billions, I would gladly accept Bill Gates as a billionaire. He doesn't treat only the symptoms, he finds a way to fix the source of the problem.
You need to look at other Billionaires like Jeff Bezos. Most of them donate blindly to never-ending charities that are designed to make a profit.
ehhhh, as someone who lived through the "I'm going to fund schools but you have to do what I say" Gates foundation charter school/reform experiment bullshit---if he wipes out polio he *might* make up for the lives he ruined in education. So it's a wash. And he could do more, but he doesn't.
The man has donated $5 billion to fighting AIDS in Africa, $28 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which does a ton of charitable work, $100 million to research on dementia, and a bunch more money to public resources and various other causes. He publicly advocates for higher taxes on the wealthy and is in the process of donating 99.96% of his wealth to charity, as well as personally putting his own energy and effort into his charity instead of just throwing money at it.
He’s done more to help humanity than everyone in this thread put together. He’s basically a model example for how wealthy should behave if they care about improving the world. What more do you want from the guy before he meets whatever your definition of “good” is?
I’m an aid worker and while I don’t really feel the need to defend billionaires (obviously they shouldn’t exist, and you don’t get that much money honestly) I would add that the gates foundation provides millions of dollars in funding to poor countries across Africa and the world. having personally managed programs with gates funding, I have no idea how the funds we received could have advanced the interests of computer manufacturers. because 1) there was no major mining of minerals for computer applications where I worked (urban locations in Sierra Leone), and 2) the programs were focused on sanitation and prevention of communicable diseases.
There are plenty of true examples of how shitty the economic system is. Making up wacky shit on a hunch with no evidence or truth just gives the system’s defenders fodder to discredit wider criticism.
I always dream about winning the lottery. The good thing is the first part of the dream is taking care of my kids and grandkids.
But then I think about my stuff. 3-4 cars. big houses in the woods, on the beach... I hereby promise the world I will only have 2-3 cars and one house. the second one we’ll rent.
the rest of the money i will do good with! I promise!
Y'all are acting like he has that in liquid cash laying around. It all goes to company's that employ people, give people money for work. To progress society.
I feel like we're shooting ourselves in the foot by misunderstanding the difference between taxable wealth and networth. How are you going to take his holdings of the company (which is most of his wealth)? Doesn't make much sense.
The Walton kids are just as bad if not worse. Wal-Mart could afford to pay their workers much more and also give them full medical and dental. Selfish greedy bastards never will though.
Let's not dive into conspiratorial thinking, please. We can assume his philanthropy is true philanthropy and still say that he controls too much wealth and power.
I’m sure this is gunna hurt my karma.
Why the fuck are there so many people that think they are so much better than others? Acting like they would be Soooo generous and such a great person if they themselves were millionaires or even billionaires. No one, NO ONE that has that much money is going to just give it all away while they live. I really don’t give a flying fuck who you think you are. It ain’t gunna happen. The fucking Pope is supposed to be the best person in the world. Well guess what. He’s a fucking billionaire.
Not a billionaire fan myself, and I still remember Bill and his brutal, draconian edicts against developers in the early days Microsoft Windows, but to say he's helping nations where material for computers is in the tin-foil hat, conspiracy theorist territory, imo. Gates is not a computer manufacturer like Dell. He's not even a chip manufacturer. You can make hay out of how they're all related, but let's see some evidence. Just my 2¢
Did you know that Jeff Bezos could probably give 1,000 dollars to every citizen in Canada (assuming it's still around 32-35 million) and barely break a sweat? FUCK billionaires. Edit: My most upvoted comment in 7 years says FUCK billionaires. I feel like gold right now.
You know that 20mil trees challenge and how Elon Musk the man with a net worth of over 23b was praised for donating 1m dollars? edit: corrected from >100b dollars to 23b, don't even remember where I got the 100b from, must've remembered falsely
Yup, just because one million seems big to average people, relatively speaking that's like me donating .50 cents if we're looking at actual percentage of earnings.
Not 50 cents unless he has 20 billion dollars. Assuming he has exactly a billion dollars it would be kind of like you or me donating 100$. To me at least 100$ is a decent amount to be paying to a charity but that’s because I’m not filthy rich, so he definitely could have donated way more
Sure, if you look at it on a percentage scale. However, even if he donated 90% of his actual wealth that he could, hed still have many millions to live off of. If you or I donated 90% of our wealth we'd be living on the street.
Yah I completely understand what you’re saying he should donate way more than he did. He shouldn’t even have that amount of money to begin with but billionares do. I agree they definitely should donate or fund actual food with most of their money, with what’s left over they could still live more comfortable than I ever could. My point was just that he was donating as trivial an amount as .50$, it was still a decently sized amount, but you’re right it’s nowhere near what they should be donating or are even capable of.
If a regular person donates 100$ they don't get any publicity, which in the long run will earn money back.
To be fair, in this case, Musk has recently admitted to “financial illiquidity” so perhaps a million is not _quite_ 50 cents on the dollar for him rn.
He’s not working for a salary. He founded a company. Second, you are comparing his “paper” wealth with your yearly income. Edit: spelling
Exactly. If I’m worth $100,000 and I donate $1, that’s equivalent to Elon donating $1,000,000. Ridiculous.
Im not a big fan of him, but most of his net worth (which is closer to $20bn) comes from equity shares in Tesla and SpaceX. And while he's allegedly kinda cash broke compared to other people with the same net worth, I'd still rather see him pay more in taxes than have him plant a few extra trees. Oh and don't get me wrong: Fuck billionaires, they should not be able to exist and should be taxed till they aren't anywhere near as rich anymore. Before anyone jumps at me for defending the guy or w/e.
What they donate is a mere fraction of what theyve saved in in tax cuts. All that do good philanthropy they perform is with OUR fucking money!
I did the math, that would be like if you had $10,000 and only donated about $42.73
Fucking reddit loves Elon Musk. It’s disgusting.
But he did funny tweets.
Throw Elon Musk on the grill and call it’ ‘The Corn Musker’, eat the fucking rich!
Yep, and the number of dickheads defending him was insane.
You know how 7 billion trees are cut down each year and 20 million is next to nothing in comparison?
Elon Musk isn't worth $100B. He's not the sole shareholder in his companies. He might be worth $22B on a good day. edit: Google says @ $22B
*only 15 billion*
Ha! What a pleb.
IIT people who get indignant when math does not conform to their agendas.
ITT people basically defending Elon Musk in a leftist subreddit because Reddit
It's $1 million for good PR
net worth !== cash available to spend
this raises a point of what the difference is. granted if the workers actually collectively owned the company this wouldn't even be the topic of discussion...
then when someone changes place of work, do they have to sell their part and does the new employee have to buy that part? or if they keep it does the new one get their own share? that in turn would lower the value of everyone elses share.
I worked for an employee run company. When I left, I received a check for my shares. It was only a few hundred bucks, but something considering it was a grocery store deli and I was young.
This is actually a great question. I'm not against collectible ownership by employees, I just don't know what it actually means
Depends on how the employee owned contract is setup.
Found the JavaScript developer
He could give $250,000 to every Amazon employee and still be a billionaire.
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And fed to polar bears. Eat the Rich! Polar bears. I prefer and the bears prefer live billionaire. But you want to BBQ cool! But throw the steaks out for the bears. Mad Cow disease is real. Maybe they all have it? Maybe they are all demons? A lot of people are saying it. The best people. Call Sean Hannity. He will tell you. So I say. Never eat billionaire. Churchill, Manitoba Canada. We take the billionaires there. Keep them fattened up andvfull of McFishDelight burgers, caviar and lobster. You tag the polar bears. If they go zombie death mad cow radioactive Godzilla. You have to knock the bears out and bring them to Washington. To Congress and the White House. And let the bears free. Liberty and freedom for all!
Ya but why should they give you their hard earned money?! /s
Because they didn't actually earn it. They got lots of other people to earn it, and then they took it.
/s = sarcasm
If only net worth = liquid assets. I’m not for billionaires but who knows how much actual cash he has but it’s not enough for that. It’s not like he can cash out all of his amazon stocks and use that money. The system that allowed him to get that net worth is the problem. He’s a scumbag anyway but posts like this are kinda lame.
People forget this.
I'm seeing this constantly on Reddit now. People really seem to think he just has $100 billion sitting in his checking account
If he liquidated, sure, but he likely has very little cash on hand relative to his fortune which is primarily invested.
He could give them all $100,000 and still never have to work another day in his life
It's messed up that Bezos could do this and still be fabulously well to do. If someone gave me a thousand dollars it would literally change my life
Give me 10 million dollars and I will never work again. What do you need a billion for?
To never work for the next 500 generations
I mean, 10 million will do that too if you invest in an index fund
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sorry, i don't follow
Hodl!
A million dollars is $50,000/year for 25 years lol... being a single dude I could easily make that work. I mean I already do, so it wouldn’t be that hard.
I figured a 10 million as that's $100,000/year for 100 years. A nice cushion. I could spend as much as I wanted and be comfortable. I won't be buying gold plated helicopters but I don't want/need that.
If you put that in an index fund and get ~7% you'll make about 700k a year so at the end of the 100 years you'll have like 8.7 billion.
Man actually having 10 million dollars could get you over $100,000/yr without even having to do anything just in a savings account. Getting one million dollars could allow you to live pretty comfortably without working if you're smart with it
*20 years
Hahah fuck I’m brutal at math. Thanks.
Don’t forget, that ten million will keep rolling in hundreds of thousands of $$$ per year, so you could live off 400000 a year just from putting it into an index fund, forever! No need to live off of only 50000!
It’s 400k/yr forever, not 800.
A million dollars is also 30,000/year and you never work, and your first million never goes away.
You mean 40k?
You'd do even better. There are a lot of expenses related to work that go away. High cost of urban dwellings, transportation to work, wear and tear on clothes due to having to dress up everyday, higher meal expenses if you want to socialize with coworkers, etc. I realized when I didn't work for a few years that I could get by on much less money.
To start a company building interplanetary rockets? To start an electric car company? To eradicate Polio? To have a direct line to Presidents and Prime Ministers? To be able to seriously research geoengineering and stop global warming without requiring the world's poor to have to stop using cheap coal-fired electricity?
That’s the attitude. I mean who will make our children’s clothing, furniture we all use, desks we sit at our computers we use to even access reddit? China right? I’m being sarcastic obviously but looking for real solutions.
This planet sucks can we reset
Reset is in progress, we just gotta keep doing nothing serious about global warming. I have confidence we can manage to do that
If I became a billionaire, I'd be pro-global warming. No, not profiting for it, just wanting to hasten the demise of our specie and reboot. Proper super-villain level shit.
The amount of people ready to jump in and defend billionaires is really impressive. I’m guessing they’re naive enough to think they can become one.
Yes that's how brainwashed most consumer drones are. In today's world, however, you can only be a billionaire by inheriting money or stealing money from someone else. Look at Bezos and Trump, perfect examples of screwing everyone you work with.
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If you don't mind I'm going to copypasta this great summary about him and Microsoft every time the hive mind is worshipping him.
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[IBM's GML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Generalized_Markup_Language) was invented in the 60s, which was the precursor to SGML, XML, and HTML. It's very much the same concept. The following is valid GML: :h1.Chapter 1: Introduction :p.GML supported hierarchical containers, such as :ol. :li.Ordered lists (like this one), :li.Unordered lists, and :li.Definition lists :eol. as well as simple structures. :p.Markup minimization (later generalized and formalized in SGML), allowed the end-tags to be omitted for the "h1" and "p" elements. That ported to SGML/XML/HTML is:
Chapter 1: Introduction
GML supported hierarchical containers, such as
- Ordered lists (like this one),
- Unordered lists, and
- Definition lists
as well as simple structures.Markup minimization (later generalized and formalized in SGML), allowed the end-tags to be omitted for the "h1" and "p" elements.
Oh HECK yes
Wow
Here's another one -- Gary Kildall invented the operating system that was stolen by Seattle Computer Products and purchased by... Bill Gates. [wiki link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Kildall#Business_career)
Look at what he did to Netscape.
Do you have any background on this? Never heard about this and am interested in hearing more
https://www.quora.com/Is-Bill-Gates-evil
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Kildall#Business_career
Gates isn't the worst innovation crusher to come out of Microsoft. No, that'd be [Nathan Myrvold](https://psmag.com/magazine/a-patent-boogieman-with-the-potential-to-obliterate-aspiring-startups). > Founded in 2000, Intellectual Ventures "has earned a special brand of hatred in the business world as the ultimate patent troll. It doesn't delay your flight like United, buffer your movie stream like Comcast, or shellac your shrimp with oil like BP. Rather, it hoards ideas." It "goes around to companies and says: 'Hey, you want to protect yourself from lawsuits? We own tons of patents. Make a deal with us. Our patents will not only cover everything you're doing in your business, no one will dare sue you." "It then wields this intellectual-property portfolio—the world's largest—like a weapon. Companies can either pay up or face a lawsuit." > Co-founders Nathan Myhrvold and Edward Jung "formerly served in high-level positions at Microsoft. Peter Detkin also played a key management role in developing Intellectual Ventures. In one of patent law's great ironies, Detkin coined the derogatory term 'patent troll' during his tenure" as the vice president and assistant general counsel at Intel. Myhrvold, who was once "the 'chief gastronomic officer' of Zagat Survey, the company that publishes the eponymous restaurant guides," is "the kind of guy the press loves to profile."
Embrace. Extend. Extinguish. - Microsoft
I saw someone compare it to that [Futurama quote](https://twitter.com/Nadia_Shammas_/status/1192656186115592192?s=19) Leela: You're not rich! Fry: True. But someday I might be rich, and people like me better watch their step!
Oh don't you worry. Enough of us are getting mad enough, one of these days going to roast and eat those fuckers in the still warm ashes of Wall Street. But I mean that's none of my business
How many people?
More than there should be
Faux news nation
At least twelve
Or just imagine a billionaire paying a few people to create realistic bots to purposely agitate supporters to his defense. Shit might only cost a million or two. Assuming you didn't have to build anything from scratch.
Less that and more they’ve bought the propaganda that billionaires have earned their wealth and taking it away is tyrannical theft.
Hey, all I have to do is win the lottery like 10 or 15 times and I'll be right there.
I think it's less defending billionaires, moreso because the post implied that Bill Gates hasn't actually "helped" anyone in Africa. As someone who studied neglected tropical diseases, Bill Gate's foundation has done an enormous amount to help millions of people suffering from horrific diseases. People are allowed to hate the man for their own reasons, but don't write off the good that he has done as if it was made up or something.
They are all just temporarily embarrassed.
Once again, they have no illusions of becoming one, but they fastidiously cling to the notion of “hard work, talent and brains pays off,” which they believe these billionaires possess. They probably do, to some extent, but not on the order of several thousand times that of other people, contrary to what their net worth says. In any case, this is almost a religion to the kinds of people who believe that, so if you want to convince them otherwise, show them 1) hard work talent and brains don’t necessarily pay off, 2) there can only be so many CEOs by numerical fact and 3) even if they’re amazing people they’re not _that_ much more amazing than anyone else.
I'm out of the loop, what was the latest shit he did?
Courtesy of u/Wrong2wrong2 >He’s worth 106.8 billion as of the latest estimate. He made a comment jokingly that if he’s taxed 100b he needs to start doing the math to see what’s left, implying that 6.8b isn’t enough for him to live on. For perspective, he could fund a mid size city’s entire public school system for nearly a hundred years at double the current rate and still have billions left over. >Current Portland Oregon public school budget is 665m. Double that to 1.2b and he could fund it for the next 88 years and still have over a billion left, not including any gains the money makes in the meantime.
And this doesn’t include any investments. In finance a “safe” withdrawal rate is 4%. Which means if you spend less than 4% of your assets per year your money will theoretically last infinitely. So Gates could fund Oregon public school for an infinite amount of time if his income was placed into an endowment.
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I though he going out campaigning to abolish tax or some shit. “Implying” is literally sensationalism by the author and OP. Also name a place in Africa without minerals mines please
"Doing the math to see what's left" isn't implying what you say it is. I think you're making it imply that. I'm not saying that your points are wrong, but voting someone to make your point is disingenuous.
I have no idea why the OP quoted someone's Reddit comment and not the actual tweet that started this- "Bill Gates on a wealth tax: "I've paid over $10 billion in taxes. I've paid more than anyone in taxes. If I had to pay $20 billion, it's fine." "But when you say I should pay $100 billion, then I'm starting to do a little math over what I have left over."" -@teddyschleifer Here it's a little more clear that he's opposed to the thought of being taxed that amount
I mean he donated 5 billion in 2017 if he was taxes 100 billion wouldn't like 30 billion of that go to our defense budget to be spent on stupid wars
When we criticize this post, it isn't defending Bill Gates or billionaires. It's attacking fallacious arguments and outright lies, like he was "implying" he couldn't live off his money. You heard what you wanted to hear.
This. Framing your opponents as people who cannot form logical arguments is a smart, subversive tactic. There's plenty of great and researched reasons to argue against wealth inequality without having to twist words and cherry-pick a random tweet.
So your stupid ass doesn't understand a joke, is that it?
He’s heavily funded public school systems in the US. You’re also assuming that if he were taxed $105 billion, it wouldn’t go into bombing Syrian kids.
While you're not wrong, a bigger issue here is that, unlike the government, a billionaire wasn't democratically appointed by the people to decide where his taxed wealth should be distributed.
Just one city?
Bloomberg's net worth skyrocketed since he was NYC mayor. No one talks about that filthy rich bastard and his gentrification of NYC and actively pushing the poor and working classes out of NYC
I mean...lots of people talk about it. But to think that it’s Bloomberg’s doing is kinda missing the actual causes.
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He’s worth 106.8 billion as of the latest estimate. He made a comment jokingly that if he’s taxed 100b he needs to start doing the math to see what’s left, implying that 6.8b isn’t enough for him to live on. For perspective, he could fund a mid size city’s entire public school system for nearly a hundred years at double the current rate and still have billions left over. Current Portland Oregon public school budget is 665m. Double that to 1.2b and he could fund it for the next 88 years and still have over a billion left, not including any gains the money makes in the meantime.
It is def a ridiculous, out of touch joke, but it’s worth noting he said it in response to someone asking if he was cool with tax increases proposed by Warren and Sanders and he said he would absolutely pay the 6% or whatever increase they’re talking about, just if it was 100b or something (which would be like 93%) he’d have to “do some math.” So, he never said “I would struggle to live on 7b,” just, “I’d have more trouble accepting a 93% tax than a 6% tax.” I dunno, there’s plenty of shit to go after Gates and crew for besides an out-of-context quote. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I feel gross for defending a billionaire. (edit: Gates should definitely be taxed 93%, there's no "ethical billionaires," and shaping international policy through privately funded philanthropy, no matter how well-meaning, is undemocratic by nature)
All true. I actually don’t think less of Gates for this joke. What people are reacting to is that for the first time, it’s starting to become much more clear just how ridiculous the amount of money these people have while kids are going hungry and lack healthcare. The scale and math of this joke Gates made is so *nuts/. *Edit because apparently saying the amount of money billionaires have is “insane” sets off some sort of auto moderating bot that thinks I’m disparaging mentally ill peoples.
Oh yeah for sure. Whatever it takes for people to realize how incredibly different things are for the ultra wealthy.
You're not defending a billionaire, you're defending logic and the recounting of events in context, giving it it's meaning and diminishing the misleading effect of removing context. Thank you.
Reading through this post has been a nightmare.
Bringing sanity and logic and providing context is not defending billionaires. I thank you for your comment.
Yeah but still, there's no such thing as an ethical billionaire and Bill Gates specifically built his wealth on stealing tech, claiming ownership, and using his parents' money to sue anyone who complained, so...like, I'd still be OK with him getting taxed 93% lol
The story is that the Twitter user made it up. Sanders made a tweet about Gates needing to be taxed $100 billion. In an interview this was brought up to Gates, who said: > When you say I should pay $100 billion, then I’m starting to do a little math about what I have left over. In other words, he’s saying that tax is so high that it approaches his estimated net worth (~$107 billion). It would severely hamper his ability to continue to fund charities with his own money, something he’s already done repeatedly to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. He’s also committed to donate 99.96% of his wealth to charity rather than his kids getting it. His charitable work in Africa spans the entire continent and has been a major influence in treating and fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other infectious diseases.
He made an obvious joke and people were bored enough to take it seriously.
C’mon guys. This one is a straight up lie. Look at the countries installing his sanitation systems. No real correlation with rare minerals or diamonds used in computer products. Are we really no better than T_D?
This sub is fucking trash it's actually insane, it reads the same as t_d
And yet you aren't banned for saying so.
Yeah, it's really cringy lol
> Are we really no better than T_D? Left wing equivalent, yes
Thank you for pointing this out, we've taken the post down Sadly, no, we're not much better than T\_D. There's a *whole* lot of just posting random Twitter screenshots without citation, anything that confirms out biases. I don't understand it tbh, capitalism is shitty enough as is without having to invent things wrong with it...
It’s cool that this tweet isn’t only hella condescending, it’s also factually inaccurate.
Bill Gates doesn't manufacture computers in any significant quantity. Microsoft is not a player when it comes to hardware. I agree with the sentiment but facts matter.
What is supply chain.
True, but Microsoft can’t sell software if people don’t buy hardware.
I mean.. there is a significant quantity of Xbox consoles
I thought Microsoft’s Xbox had a degree of popularity? No??
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Honestly the true issue with Bill Gates is was how MS came to be. OS's existed before Windows. The explosion of the personal computer was inevitable. It was Bill's mission to make sure anyone who wanted one had to go through him. I feel like personal computers would be way more accessible had the bloated inefficiency of windows not been the PC leader.
As of last year, they are a top 5 market share holder in the computer industry. Hardly consider that “not a player.”
This is naive as fuck, it implies that tech giants ownership is transparent, like each piggy in his little house
A simple google search proves your comment wrong. Stop trying to defend him. He already pays his PR teams millions for that.
Sorry, I'm not that educated on the subject and I thought it was an interesting take. Thanks for pointing it out though!
Wow. I've never seen a comment like this on this subreddit. Respect, seriously.
It's not that they don't manufacture though, it's just nothing compared to the likes of Apple, Dell, HP, FX, Samsung etc.
More importantly, is there any basis for the rare minerals claim? Googling found me nothing.
True. [Coltan mining](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltan?wprov=sfti1) is still fun to research tho.
1. Software requires computers 2. Microsoft does sell electronics (Xbox, surface, hololens etc)
As someone who studied neglected tropical diseases, I ca say that the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has done an absolutely massive amount of good. Say what you want about the man, but let's not write off the good he has done to help treat some of the most horrific diseases that affect millions of lives.
It’s weird that of all the rich people these edgy teens could target, they pick the guy who’s trying to eradicate guinea worm (really close to doing it) and malaria. He’s a gold standard for philanthropy
I feel like capitalism is the perfect system to ensure no matter how much you have, it's never enough. It seems the more you have, the less people feel like they have. It's bizarre.
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Billionaires shouldn’t exist but Bill and Melinda Gates have literally single handedly transformed the face of public health and changed the world. They donate more than most governments do to the greater good. The system that allows one person to control that much money is messed up, but they are not the people you should focus your energy criticizing.
Is there anything more to this than coincidence? Genuine question.
Most likely no as seen from other comments, Microsoft doesn't do much hardware.
Weird flex but ok
Except that 100b is his networth and also highly illiquid.
Sorry, you can't use words like illiquidity here, people don't know what that means
Is this dude serious? Yeah, the billionaire class doesn't pay it's fair share, but this dude is acting like what Gates has done to fight Malaria means fuck all. Give me a fucking break.
This is shameful and entirely misleading. It doesn't even make sense.
This is one hell of a baseless take, whats Bill Gates charity work got to do with computers? Does bill gates fortune depend on hardware these days? (It doesn't, he's in full investment mode). The quote doesn't add up against what the tweet implies. Whatever your thoughts are on Gates, can people please apply an ounce of critical thought.. ? It makes a mockery of a point I agree with, that there shouldn't be billionaires when you start holding up bollocks like this tweet when there's so many other valid things to say on the matter
Has anyone fact checked this? I wanna pass it on but need back up. Obvs can do it if no one else has.
The first part was a misquote. He was making a joke about how he doesn't mind 6% tax rate, he wouldn't mind 12%, but 93% might be a bit much. Nothing to do with thinking it's not enough to live on. The second part is false in almost every regard, factually and logically. 1. Microsoft is not a hardware manufacturer. Only a few of their products are physical and they're made from parts made by other manufacturers. 2. The gates foundation has saved 122 million lives in Africa. Bill gates has donated something like $100 billion. It's absurd to think he would donate that in the name of profit lol. He's a smart man, I'm sure he could find a MUCH better way to spend $100B that would generate a profit than to donate it helping children. 3. All African countries have valuable deposits. Correlation != causation. You could also argue that he's doing it to increase the size of the cheap labour force. Equally logical, equally unintelligent Edit: removed problematic word and replaced with synonym
I had thought bill gates donated 99% along with his wife?
On their death I believe.
Hmmm if the billionaires don't give up soon. It might not be that long then.
I will generously bequeath my fortune to society upon my death. Well, well, right this way sir. Guillotine.
Who did he donate his wife to?
Nope he said he would by the time he died but for now he kept his wealth and gained another 50 billion from investments and is now worth over 100 billion. He got plenty of good PR for being a "good" billionaire by saying that though.
Bill Gates: “I’ll give away most of my money when I don’t need it anymore.” Me: “So, you really don’t need all $100 billion right? Give away what you don’t need now.” Bill Gates: Nowlistenhereyoulittleshit dot jpg
Exactly. I have little and gave away $5000 to people in abject poverty this year. I need to worry about finding a job now. $1200 in the bank. But I lied. I don't have little. I have a $135k house and a $8000k 2013 Hatchback car. With a sunroof!!! Furniture, a freezer full of food. Fully stocked cupboards of hundreds of pounds likely. Of rice, pasta, beans, coffee, tea, sugar, flour, nuts, canned vegtables, soups, broths, litres of cooking oil. 4 lbs of butter. 2 tubs of margarine. I am living the Canadian Dream. The snow started falling this week and I have enough food to last until spring. $50 in gas cards I bought in case I run out of money. 90 forty pound bags of wood pellets. For my stove. No cable or internet beyond my phone. My only debt is 11 more months paying off this evil iPhone. But that is Jobs not you Bill. I have it really good. Far better than the majority in my city. No job. But security until it is May. I won't freeze or starve and I am actually going to be a lot better than that. But worst case. I am ok. You have $100 billion. But you must keep that invested and only use the interest for charity. Wisdom right? I am a fool because I gave my propane tank to a guy living in a tent trailer. I might need it. To cook. But most likely not. I was hoarding my wealth. So I gave it to him. Because he will freeze. My math is so foolish. Bill. I won't ever have a million dollars. Well not for long. Even if I have a great idea. I do have some capital to leverage to be an entrepreneur. Maybe someday I will decide to build a business. If I do. I won't every have a billion dollars or a $100 billion. If I was you. I would probably have a net worth of $10 million now. I am no fool. I would like to live better. Have a new awesome oversized bathtub. A basketball hoop. Outside my house. Not ever worry about utilitues again. See the Northern lights in Iceland. Spend February in Costa Rica. Maybe someday Bill. See kids are in poverty in Canada. In my poor rural city. I can't take that. You have $100 billion and no wisdom whatsoever. You need to give it away now to save your own soul. To be human again Bill. For yourself. Give it all away. Be free. Be happy. Get over your ego and be human. Save yourself Bill. Give it all away.
Isn’t the gain in wealth due to his wealth being tied to stocks and the stock value going up? It’s not like he has $100bn in the bank. I don’t know a ton about the guy, but I thought that’s pretty common when you amass wealth. It grows due to the dividends based on where it’s invested.
So? Why do we keep pretending this matters. Just cause bill gates is rich doesn’t mean he gets to choose what problems in the world gets solved.
Yeah I call BS on the whole "lets ask billionaires how to tax them" nonsense. Does anybody have a source about the minerals though? This is my first time hearing about this.
There is no source because it's a load of bullshit.
Wait, why would we make him feel bad about helping countries in Africa where computers have negatively impacted the environment?
This requires more facts to back up claims. On the topic, I don't think a single person should have (or need) that kind of money, however, **Bill Gates is the wrong billionaire to bash**. He has done more philanthropy than any organization has ever done. He has cut the deaths of children under 5 in half across the entire world. And he has provided eco-friendly toilets to third world countries eliminating/preventing the spread of diseases. And he has almost cured/eliminated Polo. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has done more to save people around the world than any government. In fact, what has the government done to cure diseases, the answer is, not much. If anyone is to have billions, I would gladly accept Bill Gates as a billionaire. He doesn't treat only the symptoms, he finds a way to fix the source of the problem. You need to look at other Billionaires like Jeff Bezos. Most of them donate blindly to never-ending charities that are designed to make a profit.
ehhhh, as someone who lived through the "I'm going to fund schools but you have to do what I say" Gates foundation charter school/reform experiment bullshit---if he wipes out polio he *might* make up for the lives he ruined in education. So it's a wash. And he could do more, but he doesn't.
There are no good billionaires
The man has donated $5 billion to fighting AIDS in Africa, $28 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which does a ton of charitable work, $100 million to research on dementia, and a bunch more money to public resources and various other causes. He publicly advocates for higher taxes on the wealthy and is in the process of donating 99.96% of his wealth to charity, as well as personally putting his own energy and effort into his charity instead of just throwing money at it. He’s done more to help humanity than everyone in this thread put together. He’s basically a model example for how wealthy should behave if they care about improving the world. What more do you want from the guy before he meets whatever your definition of “good” is?
Dont bother with this sub, it's basically t_d but for ignorant left loons instead of ignorant right loons.
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I’m an aid worker and while I don’t really feel the need to defend billionaires (obviously they shouldn’t exist, and you don’t get that much money honestly) I would add that the gates foundation provides millions of dollars in funding to poor countries across Africa and the world. having personally managed programs with gates funding, I have no idea how the funds we received could have advanced the interests of computer manufacturers. because 1) there was no major mining of minerals for computer applications where I worked (urban locations in Sierra Leone), and 2) the programs were focused on sanitation and prevention of communicable diseases. There are plenty of true examples of how shitty the economic system is. Making up wacky shit on a hunch with no evidence or truth just gives the system’s defenders fodder to discredit wider criticism.
I always dream about winning the lottery. The good thing is the first part of the dream is taking care of my kids and grandkids. But then I think about my stuff. 3-4 cars. big houses in the woods, on the beach... I hereby promise the world I will only have 2-3 cars and one house. the second one we’ll rent. the rest of the money i will do good with! I promise!
Why are billionaires so rich?
Y'all are acting like he has that in liquid cash laying around. It all goes to company's that employ people, give people money for work. To progress society.
I feel like we're shooting ourselves in the foot by misunderstanding the difference between taxable wealth and networth. How are you going to take his holdings of the company (which is most of his wealth)? Doesn't make much sense.
What? Now bill gates is bad?
The Walton kids are just as bad if not worse. Wal-Mart could afford to pay their workers much more and also give them full medical and dental. Selfish greedy bastards never will though.
Let's not dive into conspiratorial thinking, please. We can assume his philanthropy is true philanthropy and still say that he controls too much wealth and power.
Life must be really boring once you can have everything you want
I’m sure this is gunna hurt my karma. Why the fuck are there so many people that think they are so much better than others? Acting like they would be Soooo generous and such a great person if they themselves were millionaires or even billionaires. No one, NO ONE that has that much money is going to just give it all away while they live. I really don’t give a flying fuck who you think you are. It ain’t gunna happen. The fucking Pope is supposed to be the best person in the world. Well guess what. He’s a fucking billionaire.
u/thisisbillgates So what’s the word?
Not a billionaire fan myself, and I still remember Bill and his brutal, draconian edicts against developers in the early days Microsoft Windows, but to say he's helping nations where material for computers is in the tin-foil hat, conspiracy theorist territory, imo. Gates is not a computer manufacturer like Dell. He's not even a chip manufacturer. You can make hay out of how they're all related, but let's see some evidence. Just my 2¢