this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
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[–] nulluser@lemmy.world 118 points 1 day ago (5 children)

~~Tax~~ Eat the rich!

Here's the thing. Even if he lives up to this promise, it's still him deciding where that money should go, and it won't be towards long term support of social safety nets for the commoners. He should just have been paying his fair share of taxes all along and into the future.

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 63 points 1 day ago (3 children)

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.

[–] Bronzebeard@lemm.ee 18 points 1 day ago

He's been buying up huge swathes of farm land in the middle of the country. Not everything he's doing has been philanthropy

[–] brachiosaurus@mander.xyz 13 points 1 day ago

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

[–] Draces@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago

Behind the bastards has a good two parter on him. I wouldn't say he's been responsible with it.

[–] madeinthebackseat@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

...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.

[–] PunnyName@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] madeinthebackseat@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Too knee jerk. Needs "tax" incorporated as it's so unpopular.

[–] BrinkBreaker@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 hour ago

Employee value index?

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone -2 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

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?

[–] SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is him avoiding estate taxes, change my mind.

[–] NotAnotherLemmyUser@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

How much would his estate taxes be vs giving up 99% of his fortune?

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Bill Gates uses his "charity" to exert influence worldwide and demand stuff in return.

If this man was truly giving away his money then world hunger would have been solved by now.

He is the largest landowner in the US

[–] brachiosaurus@mander.xyz 9 points 1 day ago

Even on lemmy his marketing pr is successful

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What stuff has he demanded in return?

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

He heaivily invests in vaccines and pharma companies. And he keeps the vaccines patented.

See also this great video https://youtu.be/i8w3qPwpzZA

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com -5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sorry, what stuff has he demanded in return ?

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

He holds the patents on the vaccines which he acquired using a "nonprofit".

Do you think Sam Altman is also graciously saving the world with his "nonprofit"?

[–] SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 day ago

If only there was some way to see what the non-profit was doing, some kind of third party auditor or something.

[–] Almacca@aussie.zone 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

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.

Absolutely.

The problem is that we live in liberal-democracies [as in, a certain type of democracy] where systematic mass media bias and financial corruption of the political system are ingrained from the start. It's not merely coincidence that almost every country has ended up like this. It's the inevitable trend of capitalism, a system that rewards corruption and that can't be leashed without worker power.

The bottom line is that such reforms would be nice, and I support any viable effort at making them happen, but at the end of the day, we're asking the owning class to give themselves less money. And unless you have mass worker-class power to threaten them, their answer is going to be "no" with a dash of "protesting is now more illegal". Historically speaking, the owning class don't give up any serious concessions without going to violent war.

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yeah but that’s communism, so no way it would’ve ever happened. The average American voter thinks they can become billionaires some day.

[–] skvlp@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Does the word communism even have meaning any more, or is it just something to yell when confused people get confused?

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] skvlp@lemm.ee 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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?

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 hours ago

Honestly, it might just be creeping closer to "social". As in, concerning a society. Things like bike lanes and healthcare.

[–] i_dont_want_to@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 16 hours ago

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.

[–] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com -1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

"Communism" like we ever had real communism.

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 hours ago

Communism is a word with different legitimate meanings and it sound like this comment is conflating two of them.

  • The communist movement, guided by the various theories within Marxist schools of thought. [as you can see, there's a huge range of ideologies in this school of thought, and a few different ones have become ruling governments, and any claiming to be the one true 'real communism' are being arrogant and ignorant]

  • Communist society, a society with a socialist mode of production replacing the capitalist mode of production, which those theories are trying to achieve. This has not been accomplished by a post-industrial society.

[–] rikudou@lemmings.world -1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Because it's a dream that would suffer the same fate that capitalism does.

[–] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 0 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I'm so glad we have you here to finally tell us how everything works. Thank god.

[–] rikudou@lemmings.world 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Do you feel like this has been a meaningful addition to anything? Are you capable of discussing without attacking your opponents?

[–] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 0 points 4 hours ago (1 children)
  1. 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?
[–] rikudou@lemmings.world 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

I'm stating an opinion, you're the one screeching nonsense.

[–] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com -2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Thanks for dropping the facade. Now go back to your hole.

[–] rikudou@lemmings.world 0 points 3 hours ago

Are you a random word generator by any chance?