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.
Hi, I’m Bill Gates, and I am spending more on this ad campaign than I paid in taxes.
Paid for by Bill Gates
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?
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.
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. 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 and I can still recognize that is cutting a check.
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.
Buy a few Republicans and let’s make it happen, Billy Boy.
“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.
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
¯_(ツ)_/¯ At least bill is probably the most generous billionaire that has existed so far
If there were ever a generous billionaire, they’d no longer be a billionaire.
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
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.
They big 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
250 individuals vs how many other ultra-wealthy individuals and big businesses behind them though? It’s a pack of Goliath vs a horde of Goliath, and unfortunately a horde will out do a pack.
They signed a letter?!?!?!?
Damn, if only there was literally anything more they could do 😥
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.
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.
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.
“should be pushed to be more generous”
Generosity my arse. Should be forced to pay their way. The rest of us cannot afford them.
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.
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.
Genuinely hard to tell if a joke sometimes
Disingenuous? He has billions of dollars stored in a 501(c)(3).
A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code.
He’s a fucking clown.
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.
They can flap their lips all they want, I won’t believe them til they lobby for it and it gets changed.
That’s what this is…
Too late, compost these fuckers.
You can voluntarily overpay taxes. Put your money where your mouth is Bill.
There are some rich people who recognize that higher taxes are actually good for them in the long-term by increasing growth and decreasing income inequality (which in the long-term, leads to rolling heads). But it’s a Prisoner’s Dilemma style situation - if they, as individuals, donate additional wealth to the government, nothing happens except that their own wealth makes a tiny little drip in the ocean, and their competitors then benefit at no cost to themselves. But if the government imposes a uniform levy on them all, then the cost and the benefits are evenly applied, instead of one ‘suffering’ (and I use the term very loosely) and the others slightly benefiting.
My point here isn’t to lionize them, because ultimately most of them are voicing this opinion out of personal interest, not morality. But it is probably a sincerely held personal interest, rather than pantomime.
