Bill Gates thinks the super-wealthy should pay more tax – and plenty of rich people agree
businessinsider.com
Bill Gates wants ultra-wealthy individuals to pay more tax — and now a growing chorus of billionaires agree.
In his annual "Ask Me Anything" forum on Reddit last year, the Microsoft cofounder said he was "surprised" that taxes for the rich haven't been increased more.
Gates doubled down on his calls to tax the rich in a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. He said the wealthiest nations should donate more money to developing countries to help redress inequality.
"Those who have the most — whether it's countries, companies, or individuals — should be pushed to be more generous," he said.
It seems others agree, as more than 250 ultra-wealthy people signed an open letter calling for global leaders to impose a wealth tax.
How about backing up that letter with some lobbyists?
Ads. We need these folks taking out issues ads, raising the profile of taxing the ultra-rich.
Yep, who cares what these billionaires say.
Other billionaires are spending tens or hundreds of millions on lobbyists to prevent tax.
If they want it to change, they need to pay some lobbyists too.
This is the correct answer
"I'm surprised the thing me and my ilk have been actively working against hasn't magically happened despite our massive efforts to the opposite effect."
Bet you Bill thinks these kinds of publicity stunts will exclude him from being eaten, when we go to eat the rich.
Just curious, how has he worked against it?
Irrelevant to this tax thing but Bill Gates still helping known patent trolls obtain more patents
Bill Gates is widely known for massive hypocrisy. And funneling his "Charity" money into vaccine companies he owns himself. And buying up an insane amount of farm land during Covid.
If Bill Gates says something you can bet that he's doing the exact opposite. There's a reason that this "charity man" somehow keeps getting richer.
Is he funding lobbyists to affect this kind of change? No.
Is he employing top tier accountants to make sure he doesn't pay his fair share like the poors? Betcha.
Does he funnel his wealth into charitable foundations that are a tax write off leading to him getting money rather than having to pay it, while it stays in an eco system he has full control over? Betcha.
Is he buying expensive art, property, etc. to incur expenses that are tax write offs? Betcha.
Since I'm not a Billionaire, I won't be able to tell you all the ways that cunt is 100% pushing for a status quo while putting out fluff pieces like these that make him look good while doing literally nothing to affect the change he supposedly wants.
Wouldn't even be surprised if this was something to get out ahead of some revelations about tax evasion, so if you ever search up Bill Gates taxes, all you get is this curated nonsense of what a stand up good lad he is, trying oh so hard to pay his fair share. Why won't anyone take his money? Poor Bill. Must be hard not getting taxed and being utterly powerless to do anything about that. Shucks. Now he has to go another decade without ever coming close to paying his fair share.
Oh, also garbage takes like these, where he publicly opposed new tax plans - but it's fine, it was all cute and the audience laughed and he payed soooo much, sooo many taxes. https://youtu.be/dXxP4S\_WwS0
By being part of the billionaire owner class for decades and saying nothing about it until there's very real threats of working class solidarity.
Being part of the billionaire class prevents taxes being levied against you?
Yes. It's what they've actually lobbied for.
If I’m asking this, I’m looking for specifics
Aaah, sealioning then. That's like asking for specifics about this sun rising in the east thing. If you haven't been observant enough at this point to have noticed. Then someone taking good time out of their lives to gather, organize and set. The evidence in your lap isn't going to change things.
The whole system from the start was designed by, and to favor the wealthy. And it's never really changed.
Dude, I just need something I can actually search for or, even better, a link. I've scoured the Wikipedia pages about Gates and they have no mention. I've searched the search results and as expected, there was nothing. I've just asked politely once, or maybe twice, and get nothing I want in response but an accusation of sealioning? If it's the "polite" part that sets you off: fuck shit mom damn darn.
It's got nothing to do with politeness. And everything to do with perceived disingenuousness. If you're asking someone to point you to evidence of a wealthy person who maintains fleets of lawyers and assistants. To do things for them. Doing something personally, especially something incriminating. Can you admit to seeing how that might be seen as disingenuous and not wanting to actually find the truth? Nothing is almost ever as simple as that.
Sure, but you've also got to admit that I can also see you as lazy and being very irritable at the second reply. https://kbin.social/m/news@lemmy.world/t/780024/-/comment/4723316 is all I know right now, and it would only be all the more incriminating if he actually took a lobbying stance on this.
Logically you couldn't. Because that would be seen by most as projection on your part.
Regardless Gates and Buffet could do a lot more than almost anyone else to make this happen if they really cared. But they don't. Warren Buffett is a cold cruel man. He didn't get rich at Berkshire Hathaway by being Mr. Nice Guy. I think he likes pointing out The glaring double standards and contradictions. Watching people all huddle around him telling him what a great guy he is after he's bankrupted so many people, etc. All while he has to do nothing other than meaningless platitudes. And Bill Gates. He's so much worse. The head of and owner of the only company to successfully be charged with antitrust offenses in the last century. Who swindled and stole in some way large chunks of nearly every major product they ever had. It's Rich to see him even mention this BS.
Collectively I could set my watch for the last 20 plus years for every time these guys have spoken out like this and then done nothing. Empty words from empty men.
He feels really safe saying these things while letting the wealthy elite in power do all the law-writing.
I've come to the right place if bill gates isn't cheered on by leftwingers.. Dude has such a sketchy past especially regarding intellectual property and market manipulation.
But "at least he doesn't support trump"
He probably is through some back-ass-channel. These kinds of assholes always play all colors, all cards and have backup plans. He still wants to cling to his little riches even if the political winds change again. Gotta be able to show receipts when that happens.
I'll never support a single Billionaire ever for any reason whatsoever. They're leeches and parasites to society, our species and planet.
Buy a few Republicans and let's make it happen, Billy Boy.
They're surprisingly cheap too
I wouldn't say "surprisingly."
Yup, the ruble doesn't go as far as it used to. In 1990, you could buy cheap helicopters because the russians were in dire need of cash infusion. In 2024 you can buy cheap politicians.
It should be noted that hardware from the cold war is cheap for a reason. And the helicopters aren't very good either.
He could do that with his pocket lint, and it’s what needs to happen
I'll be a Republican for this purpose. Buy me daddy Gates! Licks boot Make me your little Democrat!
People are right to point out that he should not simply cut a check to the government, instead he should lobby for higher wealth taxes like he lobbies for patents or voucher schools. Anything less is just free PR.
And cut a check.
QED: bringing MacKenzie Scott's total reported giving to more than $16 billion since 2019
I am a bag of meat and shit yet I can still recognize that is cutting a check.
I think people often lob unfair criticism at Gates, but this is more than fair.
Gates has done enough evil during his lifetime to earn all the shit talk.
K
Yeah I'm all for some much needed tax reform but on the flipside can you imagine what the current form of government would do with all the money from tax revenue? They would fuckin blow it and we'd be fucked all over again.
Our current government is all too happy to build weapons with borrowed money. What taxation does is it causes deflation, and a wealth tax has the benefit of deflating the power of the ultra-wealthy.
I was in no way disagreeing with reform. Just had one of those flashes of the current regime scrooge mcducking it in a sea of money and shuddered.
Says the guy that fought tooth and nail for MRNA vaccination patents to remain private. Yeah pay taxes but maybe don't make the money to begin with.
actions > words
I can't find anything on Google that says anything about this. Can you sauce please?
https://www.google.com/search?q=bill%20gates%20mRNA%20private
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/ideas/media-center/press-releases/2023/10/mrna-vaccine-manufacturing-africa
TRIPS agreement waiver.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIPS_Agreement_waiver
https://observer.com/2021/04/bill-gates-oppose-lifting-covid-vaccine-patent-interview/
I believe this is what they're referring to.
Says the guy who funnels his entire wealth through a foundation to avoid paying any taxes. Just like he told Epstein to do. Love you Bill
But you see, he deserves it for stealing all that work and ideas from other people
I mean, isn't that the definition of owning a company? You profit off of the work your employees do
Even when we pretend that's ok, and pretend that his policy of "embrace, extend, exterminate" is also fine, he personally stole other people's work. He straight up admited stealing from Xerox (along with Steve Jobs), and stole MS-DOS from Gary Kildall.
Didn't he buy it?
Bought it under false pretences and massively profited off of it, but bought it nonetheless. That makes it seem more similar to typical capitalist exploitation than direct theft.
It's extinguish, not exterminate.
Much subtler, see =)
Wikipedia says both are right 🤓
¯_(ツ)_/¯ At least bill is probably the most generous billionaire that has existed so far
If there was ever a generous billionaire, they'd no longer be a billionaire.
It's really fucking hard to spend that much money in a smart way.
Yea, you could just throw it out of a plane, but when you've got multiple billions it's actually hard. There was even a documentary about it: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088850/
This is what slaves actually believe
It's all relative. The "most generous so far" can still be a really low bar.
I think Elon is most generous billionaire, for spending 44b to free us from Twitter
Most of his charity is a smoke screen that allows him to hide billions in tax shelters.
Dear Bill,
Would you be up for taxing charities owned by billionaires?
Sincerely yours
Charities are such an obvious money laundering scheme. "Philanthropy" my ass, it's always tax evasion, all of this is just for the gallery.
Source: https://ips-dc.org/report-true-cost-of-billionaire-philanthropy/?mc_cid=bfa8894a28
Billionaire philanthropy is also frequently a PR thing-- image rehabilitation.
That's in the "Oh and to sweeten the deal we'll also throw in these flashy sunglasses for ya, how about that" part of the contract.
It's about money laundering, everything else is negotiable.
Here's one of a thousand sources btw, https://ips-dc.org/report-true-cost-of-billionaire-philanthropy/?mc_cid=bfa8894a28
The point of a charity is the wealth is no longer owned by the donor, and it has to be used for one of a few purposes in the public interest. Depending on how the charity is incorporated, I believe some have minimums they must pay out.
Regardless, really?
It's really not that simple, and depends on such a ridiculous amount of variables. If you think these multibillionaires are giving away their money out of the kindness of their hearts you're deluded.
Where there are many variables, one can always find ways to nudge things in the right ways so that you can get from point A to any other point B despite many other constraints put on your movements.
Ok.
subriemannian geometry
Transliterative or transcendent?
transversal
yes really, instances of abuse of charities by b/millionaires for tax evasion and money laundering are far too common (including transfer of donations back to the donor by indirect ways) https://www.oecd.org/tax/exchange-of-tax-information/42232037.pdf
Where there is a way to abuse something for tax evasion billionaires will find a way
"i know you guys are upset at us fucking over all of you, but i assure you if you let us continue being petty tyrants with vast fortunes, we might give a marginally bigger sum of it back to the government, which will still spend it on whatever we tell it to anyway. win win!"
i don't want you to be more generous, i want you to be gone. if anyone proposed a plan that would actually affect them i doubt they would still support a wealth tax.
“Generous” is the noteworthy takeaway. Either ‘currency’ belongs to society and some people hoard it instead of circulating it, or ‘the world’ ‘belongs’ to a very select few people.
Imagine if a wealthy individual, who believes that the wealthy should be taxed more, actually used their wealth to take out TV commercials in all states/provinces advocating for the increase in taxes for the wealthy, actually trying to sway the political mindset in a big way with the power they have via their wealth.
Easier to just release a statement. That way you can be the "good guy billionaire" without actually having to pay up.
the problem is they don't want to sink their relative power.
I don't believe shit they say, if they say "go ahead and tax me" it's because they've got a way out so they won't have to, somehow.
That "somehow" is called using credit to buy everything then setting your stocks as collateral, and since debt can't be taxed well...
As it sits, yes, but ideally the wealth tax is based on asset valuation, not liquidity, which means that they would still be screwed. They are wealthy even if they carry enough debt to make it look like they are not on paper.
TL/DR; The super wealthy own the politicians so much they can tell them to do something that they will never do. Democracy is a fool's word.
What's the other word? There's a lot of details that are missed where we could have a better functioning democracy, not that it'll happen. But other words tend to be authoritarian, could be a bias. Anarchism will never count imo :)
We live in a perpetual state of anarchy. Nobody is beholden to the law or state, they're just imaginary rules that we all adhere to like kids in a playground. Everyone does what they do based on the everyday needs of life, we put food on the table simply because we need to put food on the table, we keep the lights on because we want them on. Even within so-called "states" are a messy web of allegiances and alliances, where nobody knows what anyone's doing and are also doing what they do based on their everyday needs. Realizing that everyone is an individual with their own needs, that cooperative projects are agreed upon works by the needs of the many, and that the "state" has nothing to do with that process, is proof that we live in a perpetual state of anarchy, society can be whatever WE want it to be, and the notion of a "state" in opposition to "anarchy" is just copium.
Anarchism is a lack of hierarchy where nobody has power over another. If you get a job, you need to tell the state. You need to pay taxes to the state. If you buy something, the seller must have a bill to register the transaction with the state. If you want to give your property (like a house) to someone, you must tell the state. Every significant transaction between two induviduals needs to go through the state, otherwise that very state will use force (police) to punish you. We don't live in a state of anarchy as thought of by political anarchism.
Even if the "state" is a cooperative project, it still lies above you in the hierarchy and has power over you, that's why we don't live in a state of anarchy.
Using your example, if say a village or town wants to build a well to supply water to their inhabitants, they'll have to jump through hoops and abide by rules of the state and pitch to them the viability and cost of building the well, permits, etc. etc. Anarchism is when the town builds the well anyway and dares the state to stop them.
Worth noting I'm a communist, not an anarchist, so I'm not the best representative of "anarchy".
After he has already used a "charity" he created to tax shelter most of his money...
He has more money now than when he started giving “virtually all” of it away to (his) charity. This doesn’t stop rubes from using his fauxlanthropy as some kind of proof that not all billionaires are evil.
Dear Bill,
the german government has a banking account where you can send them money, no questions asked. Feel free to send over your fair share of taxes you are avoiding by routing the Microsoft profits from Germany via Luxembourg and other tax havens.
They can flap their lips all they want, I won't believe them til they lobby for it and it gets changed.
It'd be really cool if Gates and other not-so-evil megarich would just openly give a bag of money to every congressman to vote for more taxes to multimillionaires :)
He can say stuff like above, because he's already hidden most of his money inside a "charity" he conveniently controls...
That's what this is...
No this is a PR campaign to make you think Bill Gates is "one of the good ones"
Lobbying is when they're paying people to go to Congress and say 'hey the wealthy should have their taxes cut some more'
Do you think a random lobbyist will get more attention in Congress than one of the richest men in the world? Stop thinking like a poor person.
Bill Gates can have his secretary set up a phone call with any congressperson or senator in a few hours. Less if they really need money. He could literally ask them to set it up in a few hours, and go to the spa expecting for it to be ready when he gets out. He is the lobbyist.
Lobbyists for hire are a) generally well known to Congress people, these are people that spend their entire day working directly with representatives to push an agenda. And b) are very frequently former representatives. Yes, they absolutely get more attention than any individual billionaire it is literally their job to talk to Congress on behalf of people. Lobbyists can be more experienced at maneuvering Congress than your average representative.
Gates doesn't have to make that phone call, he never has to go to Congress, because there's a team of lobbyists who work directly for him that are well known in DC, and any representative is going to know that when this lobbyist asks for something, it's Bill Gates asking.
People are mental on this website. To them, all good is just evil pretending.
Literally nothing is stopping any of them from cutting a massive check to the government. This is lip service to stop people from hating on the billionaire class.
Except the issue is systemic. You have a percentage of mega wealthy who simply don’t even pay their share. A few billionaires sending a large check to the government doesn’t fix anything. They could but until we change the way we handle taxes for the wealthy, we have a systemic problem we need to fix.
Speaking out that all the rich should pay more helps (maybe) make the case that those making hella bank should pay more.
Your statement is a bit of a straw man which doesn’t actually address the fact that the mega rich aren’t paying their fair share.
Except I wholeheartedly agree with you. There is a huge issue here, but at the same time if these billionaires truly believe that they should be paying more, they should just… do it. There is literally nothing stopping them. They should be forced to, yes, and that’s what they’re saying. But they should be putting their money where their mouths are in the meantime.
The man is covering like 11% of the WHO budget. On the one hand I want to say that that's too much power, OTOH he doesn't do too terribly a job at allocating money (compared to, say, the IMF) and every man deserves a hobby.
The billionaires complaining about wealth taxes, should lead by example by paying them at the same time lobbying governments to fix the issue.
Ah I see. I apologize if my comment came off as overly rude. I have heard the comment of them sending money as a reason to do nothing.
I assumed you were advocating we do nothing, which to me implies keep the taxes low on the rich and just let them send whatever they want.
I think saying that their taxes should be raised is doing something. Sending extra cash money into the giant money pit is kinda pointless until we address the military industrial complex getting the lion’s share and we start using the money more effectively.
They buy politicians left and right, but THIS issue is completely out of their hands.
Hang on, my eyes rolled so far back I need to cough them up now
I mean, it's not like they're going to bribe the government into forcing them to pay greater taxes.
Why not? Gates sounds like he wants to
If you are cutting massive checks for the social good, private charitable organizations are typically better stewards of the money than the government. Unless you want the military to have more fighter jets, I suppose
Cutting massive checks into charities THEY own to hide it from being taxed...
FTFY....
You aren’t wrong
Except you think they're actually using the money for charity, when it is actually a way to pass the money to children/heirs without paying inheritance tax...
These philanthropy projects are definitely tax shields but they actually do have to do charitable work to keep their tax-exempt status.
In theory, reality is not so much. Many of them do very very little.
If you think billionaires paying more taxes to governments will mean better lives for the poor then oh boy do I have a bridge to sell you.
No, obviously it takes those in government to have good intentions as well.
It means better lives for those poor executives of military contractors. Think of Lockheed-Martin's children!
Too late, compost these fuckers.
Put up or shut up, Bill. And don't get me started on all the land you own
Oh, thank goodness the billionaires will save us from [checks notes] the billionaires.
Bill Gates should either shut his stupid fucking mouth or put his insanely exorbitant amount of money where that stupid fucking mouth is. Oh, he is a philanthropist and supports many causes and charities? No, he is an ultra wealthy individual who hordes his insane amount of wealth and has so much of it that he can casually drop seven plus figures in to any cause he wants, collect accolades from the public for it, and make that money back by the end of the fucking hour. Fuck bill gates
Not to mention he got a fake divorce from his wife for monetary purposes
Or that he wasnt even a struggling inventor like the stories have us believe, his mom was on the board for IBM ffs
The official reasoning from Melinda was about his business with Epstein I think? So basically Melinda didn't like that Bill was fucking underage girls
Id be doubtful she didnt know her long time husbands proclivities if it involved flying to random islands with a bunch of pervos
Even so, the divorce was well timed considering the markets and tax laws
I think he donated half his wealth and convinced other billionaires to do the same a few years back.
he makes money exponentially, that is meaningless to his total wealth
My nine year old: “My nails are sharp and they get stuck to my clothes”
Me: “You should cut them. Do you need any help?”
9 y.o.: “Please cut them even if I start crying”
Sometimes people need their nails cut for them and you should be happy to oblige even if they start crying. Though I think Bill’s waning moment bribes are more convincing than offering to do chores.
Okay then like do it, if you want to pay more money to the government then just fucking give it to them instead of fucking around with this dumb letter saying, "oh we promise we care about the peasan.... I mean poors.... I mean the financially disadvantaged"
I can't actually picture how easily someone would just send a larger check to the IRS - it'd probably be kicked back to you as a tax refund if you filled your taxes correctly.
Much easier would be to found your own charity to get similar effects done - which, surprise, Gates already does. And I'm sure he doesn't just mean "I should be paying more taxes", he means "Everyone as wealthy as me", even if said other people don't agree with him.
Don't worry, the US Treasury has directions:
https://fiscal.treasury.gov/public/gifts-to-government.html
Well, I learned something new!
That said, I could certainly worry about the way sudden money like that would be spent. A lot of better government programs are supported by sustained funding, rather than the sudden effect of a billionaire waking up feeling charitable enough to send out a lump sum.
It's super simple, you literally write a cheque and send it.
This is such a BS reply I see all the time. He does not want to give up his relative position. He wants folks at his position to pay their share. So he wants to retain a level playing field for competion for wealth but wealth should not come out of an ability to not pay taxes if you have the power to avoid it.
If billionaires really wanted higher taxes, they'd have higher taxes.
What they want is no taxes and to look like their hands are tied "I can't possibly pay taxes they won't take my money! It's not my fault it's the government. Damn them!"
While they spend millions of dollars a year lobbying to get their taxes reduced even further and passed on to the working class.
Quoted by https://kbin.social/m/news@lemmy.world/t/780024/-/comment/4717309, probably should search to find the actual source
Have you considered how that would be done? How does one give extra money to the government? Should he just bank transfer Biden a few billion?
If only the US Treasury had some sort of process to gift money to the US government, since 1843, that can be easily googled in like three words.
Do they?
Well there you go. What other wonders will I discover about your retarded country next?
For every one of him, there are probably thousands of neuvo riche and wannabe rich who say otherwise. It's an unfortunate truth.
No one is stopping you from giving money to the government.
You can make a gift to reduce public debt here: https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/23779454
You can donate to the U.S. Government here: https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/708094624
This is the same argument the other billionaires, politicians, and the media makes when arguing against Gates, Buffet, and Soros. I'm not saying Gates is a great person, but he's more or less right in this particular case. It's kinda like the "so, if you want the homeless to be housed, let them stay in your apartment," argument.
I don't disagree with his opinion, I just think he is a tremendous hypocrite.
Are they both tax deductible?
I don't have any idea.
Honestly donating to the national debt probably should be
If you're gonna tax dodge at least do it in a way that offers even a nominal benefit to the rest of us
I’m sure what they’re saying is that they want to give the government money but the government won’t let them.
Quit being disingenuous.
Disingenuous? He has billions of dollars stored in a 501(c)(3).
He's a fucking clown.
They'll increase the tax and then funnel the government money into their sheets again, but now they can claim that they are being taxed as they should. All's fair. Except the workers who get shitter pay, worse conditions.
Genuinely hard to tell if a joke sometimes
"should be pushed to be more generous"
Generosity my arse. Should be forced to pay their way. The rest of us cannot afford them.
So does this mean a wealth tax that will actually hit the rich or simply increasing income taxes that will be avoided by the rich as usual?
Some of these people are so filthy rich they wouldn't even notice the missing money after their tax bill got paid. I'm pretty well convinced that they are just tax evading for sport.
It's not for sport, but it's by the same means anyone with even remotely complex assets gets tax advantages. You pay someone to manage your tax returns for you. You will naturally, by trial and error and recommendations from friends (and in the case of these billionaires, probably have accountants knocking on your door asking to do your returns for hefty fees), end up with the person (or organisation) who saves you the most money, because why wouldn't you?
Now, you're still liable for not paying tax you should've paid, but I don't think people are going out of their way to find tax loopholes. Accountants do that for them, and there is absolutely no incentive to find an accountant that's more "ethical" because, for that industry, it makes no sense to do anything other than get the most back for your clients.
You're right though. There would be no tangible impact to these people's lives, and it's for this reason they should all be supportive of increasing the tax they pay.
The fox thinks that we need a stronger hen security doors installed and the weasels agree 👏
They always say shit like this then put all their money in charities or shell corporations overseas… this is just marketing. He could easily pay more taxes right now if he wanted to.
At this point I think they're just taunting us.
At this point? These fuckers openly taunt us since the dawn of Assyria lol
"if only someone would close the loop holes, but alack, they remain and the accountants force me to use them, what ever is to become of poor rich Bill"
Sad bit is, you don't even have to use loopholes. Certain forms of income that are more common amongst the wealthy are simply less taxed than regular income.
Yup, capital gains tops out at 15%.
Thats right Walmart workers, stock gambling is taxed less than your hard earned wages!
You can voluntarily overpay taxes. Put your money where your mouth is Bill.
Honestly, if you have the option, it's a pretty simple choice - put it into a charity you know will help people or overpay taxes and watch the money be guzzled by the military.
I don't understand this comment. It's some psuedo-leftist aggression. How can you pay extra taxes? Just not file and get a return? I have filed my own taxes for 20 years and never seen "do you want to pay more?" Other than contributing to the Presidental fund. The only thing I can come up with is not filing after already paying. That's tax evasion.
You give a contribution to the Treasury Department under their Gifts to Reduce Debt Held by the Public program. In 2022, this amounted to just $180,310.32.
While you can argue that "that isn't taxes though!", it is essentially accomplishing the same thing but obviously not taxes because a donation isn't a 'tax'. With ~$180,000 from 2022, it is clear this is more bullshit than meaningful intent.
Well it isn't the same thing and not what my point is, but good to know. I appreciate the comment. However I was asking what the mechanism in paying taxes was to pay more. This is not that.
What would stop them from just funding housing, healthcare or education by themselves, if they want to contribute to society?
It's still a massive difference to taxes. Society should decide where the money goes, not the wealthy individuals themselves
That would put them behind those who wouldn't do it, if every rich person is forced to pay more taxes noone loses power
Bingo. They could do it themselves, but they want to spend other people's money, not just their own. Same as any other tax. Bonus PR points for appearing "generous".
Do you want an American Sengoku Warring States era? Because this is how you build an American Sengoku Warring States era. It would very rapidly devolve into multiple self-contained nations each lorded over by a different billionaire. They would each come with their own schools and housing and military. It would be the end of whatever United we still have left in our States.
TBF Bill Gates does.
I feel like these billionaires are afraid of the shitshow we call capitalism collapsing and they're willing to throw money at the problem so they can keep it going and stay in power.
And what he's willing to be taxed is a fraction of his hoard.
Talk is cheap
I'm not rich and I also agree.
Bill Gates asking us to tax his "wealth" while he hides most of it. This guy is the worst of the billionaires cause he pretends to be good. Also one of Epstein's buddies
Take that money and talk and fund progressive politicians so we'll have systematic change.
This bullshit talk about paying more taxes is worthless.
Performative, these people could write checks directly to their countries tax collection agency any time they wanted. Old Bill there could send $500,000 a day for a hundred years and not miss it.
Yes I did the math, that would work out to only 18 Billion of his 121 Billion fortune!
See PugJesus’s reply below, plus mandating it would make it required
Old Billy bitch tits
Hey don’t sully Bill Burr’s name like that!
I wonder if those billionaires that agree do so because they feel that the time are changing and people are done with getting ripped off.
"That's why I pay people to lobby the government to cut taxes for the wealthy." -Bill Gates, probably
Plenty don't which is why you've got the best government money can buy.
Ah yes they'll be starting anytime now, soon.. Just wait...
We’re way past that point now. Too little, too late.
They shouldn't pay less taxes if they don't exist in the first place
I'm not very smart but I do sense a catch here. If my 'suspicion' (if you can call it that) is right, could someone kindly explain it to me?
The catch is that if they pay taxes and life gets better for other people we agree to not bring out the torches, pitchforks, and guillotines or tar, feathers, and such
The torches, pitchforks, guillotine, tar, and feathers aren't going to reach a billionaire. They're going to be used on whoever is around.
You aren't getting within five miles of a billionaire. They don't play D&D and eat at McDonald's, bro. Sorry.
You are more likely to find yourself unfortunately headless than even getting the chance to hurt the feelings of a billionaire let alone their actual person.
The point, of course, is that the cost of being a billionaire is that you can't go out in public- if the public is mad enough about it
Billionaires don't really go out in public even when the public isn't mad about it. This is what I'm saying: people think they're taking something from them that they don't use and didn't want in the first place.
"That's right! The righteous anger of the public now makes you appearing in public dangerous! Try going to MY McDonald's, Mr. Man!"
It's just impotent hand waving and revenge fantasizing. Fine and well, I suppose. Oh no, what ever shall they do and all that. 🤣
Financially speaking, a millionaire is far, far, far closer to a homeless drug addict than a billionaire.
If it ever comes to it, rioters are probably going to go after celebrities (possibly including influencers). There seems to be an increasing trend of people being turned off by inauthentic charm and conspicuous consumption, these days. Also, more and more of them seem to have been born into the life (like a child of a celebrity) rather than being elevated from working class life.
Anonymity is the new celebrity.
Ive been hearing Mark to Market get tossed around as a viable means to tax non liquid wealth, what I think is gonna be the big fight is how to tax items of subjective valuations like art pieces, or how even to establish a standard procedure of assessment that can't be fudged for tax purposes
You could start by paying your workers their fair value.
... Microsoft or the Gates Foundation?
I don't think either are wanting for salaries lol.
Bill Gates should something about inequality in his own country. He only helped enable the tech dystopia we live in today. Him and his family practically live on another planet insulated from their evil. Security guards, elaborate compounds, multiple properties, and they want to go around in sweaters pretending they know how hard people have it while only focusing on other countries' plights. In order to help developing countries they steal wealth from their own countrymen in order to have pet projects so we the people don't see there's nothing behind their eyes only malice and hatred for their fellow man.
k