• madcaesar@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 hours ago

    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.

  • Zacryon@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    3 hours ago

    My tired brain read “99 cent” at first and I thought it was an article by The Onion.

  • TheDeadlySquid@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 hour ago

    Still leaves him with just over $1 billion, enough for his great great grandchildren to live comfortably forever. Don’t be fooled, this is about tax breaks, not charity. Once you have over a billion in wealth, you’ve won the game of life. There’s nothing you can’t buy, there’s nothing you can do.

  • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    5 hours ago

    Sorry Bill but it’s too late and not enough. I still want to eat the rich and that includes you.

    Although I‘ll admit if all billionaires did this instead of - oh you know - investing in fascism and actively dismembering democracy globally I might feel different about this. But as things stand I am done with billionaires. We cannot coexist. Simple as that.

    • floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 hours ago

      Isn’t he literally the only billionaire who has been donating a lot over the years?

      But yes, fully agree. There’s no reason any person should be that rich. They’re cause and symptom of a fucked-up system

      • Katana314@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        3 hours ago

        Absolutely not. I think others give a bit less, but they’re just not public about it.

        Warren Buffet makes $5B annual donations to charities. He’s an investor, so if he gave it all out as a lump sum, he wouldn’t be able to make more to donate next year (and aside total received, many charities work better with consistent yearly funding)

      • Squizzy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        4 hours ago

        How did he get to be a billionaire? By standing on the throats of others, he could not have created that wealth without harm.

  • excral@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    5 hours ago

    While it’s good that he’s willing to give away 99%, he’d still be a billionaire and one of the richest persons of the world afterwards. He’s so incomprehensibly rich that even 1% of his wealth is more than any single person should own.

  • whome@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    7 hours ago

    Using all his money and influence to advocate taxing the super rich significantly would be helpful.

      • Squizzy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 hours ago

        Buffet has rescinded his giving in favour of leaving a trust to kids…who are senior citizens. If you cant stand on your own by then, you dont deserve to make it.

        • Katana314@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          3 hours ago

          His son recently gave half a billion to Ukraine, out of pocket. I get the impression they At least have their minds on the right side of history.

          What would be great is if the trust is designed to be given to charities, rather than for his kin’s space flights. But they may do that anyway.

      • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        6 hours ago

        I don’t believe there is a spectrum at all. If you keep going to get to that level of wealth you have a fucked up mind. Most people would be content and stop.

        Now I could see that if you make something and go from nothing to selling for a billion then maybe, but even then I’d want rid of most of that wealth as I don’t need that much.

        • Robbity@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          4 hours ago

          Well if you just manage your money properly, it grows. I would argue it’s better to do that and give you money away rather than not manage your money properly. In the end, more money goes to good causes that way.

          If they “stopped” that would mean leaving their money in a bank account sleeping. The only entity benefiting from this would be the bank.

  • polysexualstick@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    9
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    8 hours ago

    Bill Gates is 69. By 2045 he’s going to be 89. What’s he going to do with all that money at 89 anyways, after he kept it all his life.

  • NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    10 hours ago

    Though it’s better than hoarding, a billionaire can’t even give away their money without wielding a dangerous amount of influence on all of our lives.

  • FireAtWill@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    9 hours ago

    Gates is an unusual man who deserves a lot of praise. Most billionaires only want to build monuments to themselves. Gates has picked off a lot of projects that have virtually no chance of being funded by anyone or anything else. That’s epic and legendary.

  • rational_lib@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    11 hours ago

    Bill Gates deserves a lot of shit for creating the original big tech monopoly. But I’ll say this about him: At least he’s not hoarding his money to build a secretive compound to hold hundreds of kids he spawned with right wing crazy women for the purpose of creating a future master race.

    • ddash@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      42 minutes ago

      Yes, but, why does he have to spread the spend now over 20 years? After which he still has like a billion left. If he gave that all away, those 99% right now, he still would be a billionaire AND have maximum impact with his money. Sorry, he can’t be excused either. Good intention but again there is some ulterior motive behind this “slow” spending. Like always.

    • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      6 hours ago

      How do you know this? It would cost less than 1% of his wealth, and it was an objective of his good friend Jeffrey Epstein.

    • stab48fjfifi@lemmy.cafe
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      6 hours ago

      He could be rapping kids and that would still be less nefarious than having created windows

      So many bsods

  • core_of_arden@feddit.dk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    edit-2
    10 hours ago

    In 20 years, while still sitting on a mountain of money… All rich people are evil. The sooner people realize this, the better.

    • smeenz@lemmy.nz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      edit-2
      7 hours ago

      I would hazard a guess that you live in a first world country, and therefore would be considered rich by those who do not. Therefore, by your own definition, you are evil.

      • stab48fjfifi@lemmy.cafe
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        6 hours ago

        I earn like 30% more than the median income here. Colonisation is the cause of wealth disparity and it’s disguisting but you can’t compare normal people with a dude who have more money than entire countries. It’s dishonest as fuck

        • ZeroOne@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 hours ago

          You still earn more than me & have a lavish life compared to me who lives in a 3rd world

          • stab48fjfifi@lemmy.cafe
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            5 hours ago

            In absolute number only. You might have an idealized view of the first world. My wife she’s tunisian. She’s telling me about those pink glasses report on tunisian TV on how Europe is so easy and rich and anybody can just move here and get a 100 grands loan from the bank. She’s always shocked when i tell her we’re out of money by the 15th of the Month. We are struggling. Money is causing me constant anxiety.

            I have a flat and sometime i even manage to buy grosseries to the end of the month. I’ve been trying to buy a bike for months but i can’t save 100 euros

            Not to diminish what you’re going through but cost of living matters. So don’t compare me to a fucking billionaire, it might be better than in Africa but the working class is still oppressed here

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    14 hours ago

    I’ll take whatever win I can get at this point. I just hope that it’s actually going to good causes that will actually help people and not just bullshit money laundering “charity” shell games.

    • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      31
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      15 hours ago

      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.”

      • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        14 hours ago

        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.

        • Doom@ttrpg.network
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          15
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          14 hours ago

          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

          • comfy@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            edit-2
            8 hours ago

            I’m not going to praise someone for throwing in an amount that, to you and me, is equivalent to a few dollars. Proportionate to our income, I’ve donated more to fighting malaria than Gates. This is basically purchasing PR.

            Stop consuming right wing propaganda.

            I’m on the FOSS instance, we’ve been hating Gates since 1976.

            not like he set this system up

            He’s one of the very few people with the individual power to change it.

          • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            arrow-down
            8
            ·
            edit-2
            13 hours ago

            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.

            • blarghly@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              6
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              10 hours ago

              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…?

            • Doom@ttrpg.network
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              9 hours ago

              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

      • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        15 hours ago

        And that is exactly what he and his class makes sure of via their politics and clandestine political bribery lobbying efforts.