Didn’t he say this a decade ago and is now more rich than he was back then?
TaxEat the rich!Here’s the thing. Even if he lives up to this promise, it’s still him deciding where that money should go, and it won’t be towards long term support of social safety nets for the commoners. He should just have been paying his fair share of taxes all along and into the future.
Based on current spending, it will most likely be spent getting drinkable water to the majority of the world’s population.
I don’t like how he got his money, but he’s been reasonably responsible with it since his divorce.
That said, he has over $113b dollars. If he gives away 99% of it, he’ll still have over a billion dollars.
Behind the bastards has a good two parter on him. I wouldn’t say he’s been responsible with it.
He’s been buying up huge swathes of farm land in the middle of the country. Not everything he’s doing has been philanthropy
There are books on him exposing how half of his charities are frauds. Given his past records humanity should be wary of putting this man anywhere near anything drinkable or useful
…or paying his employees more.
Funny how we don’t have a popular term for the portion of an employee’s deserved wage that turns into “record shareholder profit.”
Imagine if all corporations were required to put a line item on check stubs showing how much you made them.
That term is wage theft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_theft
Too knee jerk. Needs “tax” incorporated as it’s so unpopular.
Employee value index?
Who do you think Bill Gates’ employees are right now? Do you think he’s still the CEO of Microsoft? Are you referring to the Gates Foundation? If so, have you got data on what they’re paid?
This is him avoiding estate taxes, change my mind.
How much would his estate taxes be vs giving up 99% of his fortune?
I mean if I want my next of kin/whoever to get my money, it’s better to do it while alive when you can get creative with the accounting. Especially when you’ve got Gates money and setting up something like a nonprofit is relatively easy.
Once you’re dead and you’ve got this lump declared assets you’re trying to pass on that Uncle Sam will take up to like 40% of.
If only there was some way to see what the non-profit was doing, some kind of third party auditor or something.
While I’m all for taxing the rich more than the current system of not at all, I think in the long term it would be better to instigate or modify systems so that we don’t get these exceedingly greedy people going unchecked in the first place. How about a cap on the ratio between the highest and the lowest paid employee in any organisation for a start? Boss wants a raise, everyone gets a raise.
Yeah but that’s communism, so no way it would’ve ever happened. The average American voter thinks they can become billionaires some day.
Does the word communism even have meaning any more, or is it just something to yell when confused people get confused?
I’m using it sarcastically
I know, I caught the silent /s at the end of your post :) You are referring to people who don’t use it sarcastically - does the word communism have meaning left when they use it?
It means when the government helps people that aren’t me or people I like, or fails to hurt the people I don’t like.
“Communism” like we ever had real communism.
Because it’s a dream that would suffer the same fate that capitalism does.
I’m so glad we have you here to finally tell us how everything works. Thank god.
Do you feel like this has been a meaningful addition to anything? Are you capable of discussing without attacking your opponents?
- Thats an excellent question. Do you apply it sometime? 2. Do you think youre somehow entitled to spew nonsense and not be called out for it?
I’m stating an opinion, you’re the one screeching nonsense.
I’ve been sending his chain emails along since the 90s so he owes me some serious interest.
Bullshit, he’s “transferring” his wealth to his own charity for tax reasons…
It’s a trick to protect his money for his children.
Not according to the opening sentence?
The Gates Foundation plans to give away $US200 billion ($313 billion) over the next 20 years before shutting down entirely in 2045
Sure. The Gates Foundation gives the money to the Totally Not A Tax Dodge foundation which quietly pays the Gates kids as much as they want. I’m sure it will be more elegant than that, but that’s the basic grift.
Meanwhile, Gates uses his reputation as a philanthropist, and all the soft power from controlling billions to further his own interests and cement his personal philosophy as the only option.
The charity means that the American people have no control at all over how the money is spent, so the plebians have to beg at their door for money to be used in the way that Gates says it must be used.
foundation which quietly pays the Gates kids as much as they want
Any sources?
You’re asking me to cite a source for Gates’s donation to the “Not a Tax Dodge Foundation”? After I said "I’m sure it will be more elegant than that, but that’s the basic grift. ”
Please go look up the term “hypothetical”. You might want to investigate the Onion too.
No, I’m asking for articles about payments made from the Gates foundation to the Gates children.
It’s the first I’ve heard of this and I’d like more details.
I will say, the business of fake charities is so common that it does sound almost preferable to make their own, and actually understand where aid is needed in the world.
It’s an old topic for me, but I do remember hearing about the B&MGF working on clean water solutions in other parts of the world.
Also; Warren Buffett recently pledged to the charity, while having his own trust for his kids. That action wouldn’t make sense if the charity just existed to protect family.
American people have not been known for wise choices lately.
I’ll believe it when I see it. He’s evil and always has been.
He was anti-competetive towards Netscape navigator, admitted guilt and paid for it, since then he’s putting his money where his mouth is. Anything else I left out?
Microsoft has gone to shit after he left.
Lemmy sounds exactly like magas
“plans”
He has been making this kind of promise since the early 2000s, but never follows through. Just the goal post keeps moving to the right.
While the goal post keeps moving, it’s the opposite of your statement. As explained in the article:
That target would represent a doubling in spending for the nonprofit, which has disbursed more than $US100 billion since it was co-founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates in 2000. Originally, the foundation was set to close 20 years after the Microsoft co-founder’s death.
“I have decided to give my money back to society much faster than I had originally planned,” Gates, 69, wrote in a statement. “I will give away virtually all my wealth through the Gates Foundation over the next 20 years to the cause of saving and improving lives around the world.”
Supposedly he’s already given away half, why is it unthinkable that he’s planning to give away the other half?
Because good people don’t hoard wealth to begin with.
He does this so people don’t hate him for helping to destabilize the global economy.
I think only allowing bad people to hoard wealth would be a moral failure if a good person had the opportunity to choose.
Doesn’t that leave him still with something like $2 billion? I’m not knocking the philanthropy, but also, his safety net is going to remain about $2 billion dollars larger than
minemost every other human being on this entire planet. And it will continue to accrue value at a higher rate than inflation as long as the good ol’ American engine keeps on chugging along as normal.From his vantage point, this sacrifice will likely impact neither his daily lifestyle nor his long-term comfort one iota.
It’s a great thing he’s doing, and I want to be clear about that. He’s giving a boatload of money to charity. And I also don’t know what else he might be doing with the remainder. I might be being an asshole. I haven’t even read the article. I just saw that fuckin guy and the shining headline and had a strong reaction.
(Edited)
I wouldn’t for a second think or hope that he endures the distress of poverty or feeling needy given where he started - he has tried to do good with his fortune and that is good enough for me…he is doing what he can for the world around him and should be comfortable as he does so. I hope to find my own (much less extravagant) comfort some day.
and thats the thing there are some who could realistically give away 99% of thier wealth and still individually be rich beyond belief. I hope it spawns some Rockefeller thing where the rich realize they can eat thier cake and have it to, they can be unbelievably rich and donate unbelievable ammounts of wealth, leaving a huge, arguably postive mark on history.
Yeah
Like the idiots who think philanthropy is an acceptable compromise to a fair society.
You making yourself our enemy won’t make us take your side.
I’m saying ‘saving lives is good actually’ and you declare me an enemy that “endorses capitalism and imperialism”
exhausting
Omg you’re exhausting!!
It would be better if be hadn’t fucked with our economies to start with.
Bill gates isn’t actually going to do this…
Your “nothing wrong” includes frequent trips to Epstein’s island. 😬
I guess I’m just a crazy online Leftist for not thinking a nice donation to NPR is enough to even out molesting kids. I guess you want to give him a tote bag?
what is bill gates sacrificing to do this? As far as I’m aware absolutely nothing at all.
i think in order for this to be praised, in order for it to be good or generous there needs to be any amount of sacrifice. Is he downsizing his mansion for this? Does even one thing about his life change?
this is just a way of buying good pr.
He’s sacrificing power and influence. That’s what the big money people are all about, right?
I think if you use your eyes, you might be able to find the title that explains pretty succinctly what Bill Gates plans to give up in order to save millions of lives.
I know reading is hard Communist, but it helps us understand the world!
…you do realize that, for example, if you had 100 billion dollars, you already have every asset you ever wanted, and then you lost 99 billion, and still had a billion dollars, your life wouldn’t be impacted at all, right?
99 percent of his wealth being lost does what to him exactly? I literally can’t think of one thing he loses with this.
i think you could benefit from reading yourself, my point was about what he loses by donating the wealth, if you think money has inherent value I feel very bad for you, honestly.
He could spend billions on megayachts, private islands, hookers, and blow, or hoard it like a dragon as other billionaires do. Instead he’s making a direct material difference in millions of lives around the world.
What he’s doing saves millions of people. I know a communist might think a million lives is just a statistic, but those are individual people. Bill Gates the billionaire is doing more to make the world a tangibly better place than all the conplainers in this thread.
He could spend billions on megayachts, private islands, hookers, and blow, or hoard it like a dragon as other billionaires do. Instead he’s making a direct material difference in millions of lives around the world.
He can still do that, he still will have billions. He will likely not reduce the frequency of these purchases at all.
What he’s doing saves millions of people.
Yeah, and it’s the bare minimum. consider the hundreds of thousands that could be saved if he went down to being a millionare… He sacrificed literally nothing to save millions of people. It’s outrageous that all billionaires aren’t doing this, but it isn’t particularly noble.
I know a communist might think a million lives is just a statistic, but those are individual people. Bill Gates the billionaire is doing more to make the world a tangibly better place than all the conplainers in this thread.
of course he is, but he’s sacrificing literally nothing to do it. So, so what? It just makes it even more disgusting that he built up that amount of wealth in the first place. Nobody should be that wealthy and this should not be applauded, it should be less than even the bare minimum. If he downsizes his mansion or otherwise loses something then it’s a minor act of charity. Until his life is in someway effected this is basically nothing. If you donate a 20 dollar bill it will likely impact your life more than this will impact his.
If you donate a 20 dollar bill it will impact your life more than this will impact his
Why are you measuring this in hardship inflicted on the one donating, and not measuring it in lives saved?
I don’t give half a shit if Gate’s personal life isn’t changed, I care if small children get their polio vaccines and access to potable water.
Like the fuck you mean “so what?”, millions of PEOPLE won’t starve to death because of his personal choice to do this. You’re surely not turning your nose up at that?
Hundreds of thousands will die because of his greed, him making up for some of it doesn’t make him worthy of praise, yes obviously it’s a good thing that fewer people will suffer, but we’re discussing whether he did a good thing. My argument is that he did less than the bare minimum because he is keeping billions
your standards are so incredibly low for humanity that this is good enough to praise, my standards are not so low, I expect him to sacrifice to help others before I think he deserves praise.
I’m with you 100%.
Get fucked with a rusty rake bill, you helped stop the COVID vaccines from being patent exempt, among plenty of other awful shit, all for more money.
The vaccines were patent exempt, WTO adopted it officially in 2022, which the Gates Foundation endorsed shortly after Bill’s initial objection.
2022…I wonder how many people died to protect corporation’s profits in two years of a global pandemic.
The first US full non-emergency-use approved vaccine was Pfizer-BioNTech in August 2021.
Patent laws aren’t something they implemented to stop the vaccines, its the default stance which they, including the Gates Foundation, pushed to change for the greater good.
You didn’t need to explain that patent laws existed before 2020.
In May 2020, WHO, the Government of Costa Rica and other partners launched the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) to facilitate faster equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 health products for people in all countries. C-TAP, which is currently endorsed by 45 WHO Member States, was a response to the global Solidarity Call to Action. Its implementing partners include UNDP, the Medicines Patent Pool, the UN Technology Bank and Unitaid.
https://www.who.int/initiatives/covid-19-technology-access-pool
Medical patents do always cause death, of course. Artificial scarcity protects profits at the cost of lives. Bill Gates, and the Gates Foundation at first, opposed programs to allow poor countries to produce the vaccine themselves.
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Give it away now instead you piece of shit. If he actually gave a shit he would have donated it all to charities already. It’s just a billionaire farse, fuck him and the rest of em.
he actually gave a shit he would have donated it all to charities already. It’s just a billionaire farse,
Just not his own goddamned
tax avoidance schemecharityYes, to actual charities.
Which are also tax avoidance schemes
Careful now. Don’t go painting all charities as a form of tax avoidance just because a lot are used for that.
There are many great charities for many great causes out there.
Depends if you are talking about big charities or actual charities
Great tax avoidance. Pay 100% of that money to some charity to avoid paying 20% to government
He is. He is already giving it all away. He’s been doing it for 25 years and he will continue to do it for the next 20 years.
You have to understand that his value grows over time and selling his stocks en masse would decrease their market value. He’s been maximizing the amount of good done very effectively.
His value grows from exploiting even more people.
You keep repeating the claim that selling his stocks rapidly would tank their sale value. Let’s see your math.
Stocks are an unpredictable mess of human behavior; you can’t put anything in a calculator to see what they will be tomorrow. It is based on market confidence.
90% of investors won’t buy claims of “It’s just for charity” and will only see a massive sell off of MSFT, and drain the rest in turn through panic sales. It’s how every stock exchange crash has happened (though it can happen to just one or a few companies)
The basic lesson for finance as in all things is whatever you want to do, it’s better to do it slowly over time. Even charities work better if they have funding over a long period to hire staff and plan events, rather than a sudden billion all at once for a room of 8 volunteers to figure out.
OH NO! OH GOD NO! The US Tech Workers! They’re being forced to use, oh god no, forced to use Visual Studio Code *vomits
Oh the exploitation!
First, pick up a book.
Second, you seem to be assuming all of his investments have only tech workers, and that they’re all very well paid.
Lmao
He’s been doing it for 25 years and STILL managed to reach 133 billion? No, I call bullshit. You don’t just accidentally end up with that kind of money while “giving it all away”, get real.
When you own shares of Microsoft from 1986 to 2025 yes you do.
So sell and donate. What’s the problem? That it is a lot? He had a lot of time to do that.
The problem is that it’s less than donate and sell over a span of 20 years.
Why wait, just do it already.
Individuals hoarding wealth is bad for society.
Because he wants to benefit personally from his wealth and be seen as a good person.
And the idiots will keep eating it up
I mean, 99% of his wealth gone still leaves him with over a billion dollars. Might be more of a logistics and planning issue.
This is correct.
He’s gone in depth about this a number of times, where he talks about the complexity of using philanthropic money effectively. For example, is a dollar better spent educating poor children, or building wells in rural communities? Providing bed nets for malaria, or treatments for tuberculosis? And then once you decide on the cause you will put your money into, how do you ensure the money goes where you wanted it to go, rather than being syphoned off by bureaucrats, reallocated to spurious pet projects, or lining the pockets of some local warlord? And once your money has gone to the cause, how do you measure its impact to ensure it was money well spent? Do people actually use the well? Does it provide clean water? Does it work reliably? Did rates of malaria actually go down, or are people too lazy to use the bed nets? Etc.
These things are complicated and take time to figure out. Hence why all the “donate it now” comments are ridiculous.
Do you have a comprehensive plan on how to immediately spend 200Bn USD evenly and fairly only to the most impoverished people on earth in such a way that maximises longterm benefit more than spreading it out over 20 years?
Also, if you sell off 200Bn USD worth of stocks in a day then you’re not going to make 200Bn USD off the sales.
Yes, as a UBI. The average person is so poor that “means testing” it is just a waste of time and money. Poverty is very expensive - a high “interest rate” - so $1 donated today will have a drastically higher impact than $1 in 20 years, even adjusting for inflation.
Also, Gates’ wealth is now diversified enough that slippage would be minimal. And doing it suddenly without notice prevents speculators selling ahead of him and then buying back afterwards, which would essentially siphon off the wealth.
A UBI for 340 Million Americans from 200Bn USD comes out to about…
Tap tap tap tap
$588.23 each for exactly once. Saving 0 children across the world from starvation, malaria, or dehydration. You could also try distributing that money directly to poor regions but thats such a terrible idea that its on the same tier as immediately releasing Afghanistans funds to the Taliban.
Nobody is suggesting that we limit it to the USA. That would be about a week’s pay for the average person, saving lives right now, not maybe in 20 years.
Alright then, fine
200,000,000,000 / 8,222,255,289 = 24.32Enjoy your free pizza I guess
Gee, do I want to explain why this is stupid so you can celebrate your ignorance here too, or
Dude, even just planning and organizing a UBI takes time and effort.
It would start with a billionaire requesting people’s personal data (because he couldn’t publically admit to having it through dark sources) and who wants to do that?
He also couldn’t afford a UBI in every nation on the planet; right now his help is focused on countries with far worse standards of living than the USA.
you seem to be all over the thread defending gates. Do you really think this is how a good willed person helps people? by preventing vaccine patents, and using impoverished kids for testing.
He’s creating pathway to funnel his money where he wants it, his own family, with least criticism, and defended by short sighted stringent followers like you.
You think preventing vaccine patents was the bad outcome? I don’t even know how to begin with that, I don’t feel any need to defend if that’s your stance.
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Maybe pay some fucking taxes first, Bill.
I’m fairly certain he pays every last cent he government asks of him.
The problem is that the government has been unwilling to ask for more, and the current one certainly won’t.He has been advocating for higher taxes for while though, like backing the Washington Income Tax initiative with his father:
Bill Gates Sr., father of the Microsoft Corp. co-founder, and about two dozen other supporters of Initiative 1098 turned in 350,000 petition signatures Thursday in Olympia, many more than the roughly 241,000 required to get on the ballot. The campaign says it will turn in an additional 20,000 Friday. Gates said that it was time “to make our tax code fair for the middle class and small businesses.”
He has been advocating for higher taxes for while though
Yeah, that’s called PR. The billionaires love living in a world where they can say they support something and take credit for that position in full knowledge that they’ll never actually be held accountable for it.
Yo this motherfucker fights diseases that kills millions and absolutely is nowhere near Musk or his shit filled ilk
Stop consuming right wing propaganda. This dude tries more than most let humans be human fuck sake not like he set this system up
But doesn’t support FOSS tech
This dude has that button box that says “press me for a million dollars but someone somewhere will be hurt” and he spends his days pressing that button over, and over, and over, and over again.
If he wants my affection, he needs to do this now. I will 100% change my tune if he wakes up tomorrow and donates 99% of his wealth here, in the US.
Also, I think the world would be a better place if people didn’t simp for billionaires. His business practices are robbing all of us of value we should be getting for our taxes.
His business practices are the result of a very toxic business landscape that operates on corrupt business practices.
He still spent a good chunk of his wealth battling something
He also invented that toxic landscape, ever heard of E.E.E
donates 99% of his wealth here, in the US.
Why would he do that when he could donate money to helping the worlds poorest people have access to clean water and education…?
And that is exactly what he and his class makes sure of via their politics and clandestine political
briberylobbying efforts.
Is this supposed to impress anyone?
I find it lovely that he’s racked by guilt over his legacy and tries to do something about it.
Racked by guilt? His company is helping commit genocide by providing AI tools to automatically designate civilians as targets for military strikes.
I’d rather he keeps his money and uses his influence to stop that. He chooses not to do so every day.
I don’t think he has that influence any more.
And yeah, genocide would be one of the reasons to feel guilty, but it’s far from the only one.
why do you think one of the richest man doesn’t have “that” influence at a company he founded anymore?
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Don’t give it away.
If you really want to help people, buy media, buy politicans and get REAL change that will actually last.
You giving money to random charities does fuck all, except give you tax breaks.
We need change in the political system so that we don’t need fucking charities for basic needs.
He does give money to politicians and the Gates Foundation does as well:
If you really want to help people, buy media, buy politicans and get REAL change that will actually last.
Did he stutter?
Good guy bill, saw him also giving shit to Musk as well recently
Bill Gates accused Elon Musk of killing poor children as he announced Thursday that he would donate his remaining fortune to his charity
What a turn around from the 90’s
Don’t get fooled, nothing changed he just step up his pr game
what’s to be fooled with? i appreciate that he donates and advocates to help people with his money
there are plenty of other billionaires you’ll never hear of and they’ll never have to hear you complain because they don’t step into the limelight at all and just horde their money instead
He donates as a form of investment to avoid paying taxes and to clean his image.
i don’t really give a shit why he’s donating and i don’t know why you attach yourself to conspiracy theories like a trump supporter, he’s donating, he’s helping, that’s all i need to know:
Before the Gates efforts on malaria, malaria drugmakers had largely given up on producing drugs to fight the disease, and the foundation is the world’s largest donor to research on diseases of the poor.[139]
With the help of Gates-funded vaccination drives, deaths from measles in Africa have dropped by 90 percent since 2000.[140]
The foundation has donated billions of dollars to help sufferers of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, protecting millions of children from death at the hands of preventable diseases.[140]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_Foundation#Criticism
They have an entire criticism section that doesn’t even list everything people in this thread are saying.
Are you aware where you are and how lemmy works?
