Bill Gates call Warren's wealth tax too high; wouldn't directly answer who he'd vote for if it's Trump v Warren

[Doctoglethorpe]

"But when you say I should pay $100 billion, then I'm starting to do a little math over what I have left over."

Hmm, carry the two... divide the sum... round the fraction...
Ahh, yes. The answer is 'still far more than one person could ever need.'

Not that anyone even said you should pay that much. More like 50b. You're welcome genius.

 

[DiK4]

I can't believe everyone ignored my glorious McDonald's analogy. This is truly the Eracrats at their dumbest. Dik4 is the real American.

 

[Chairman Yang]

Congratulations on trying to play off your fandom for a billionaire as caring about non-white people while insinuating everyone criticizing him must be a racist. It couldn't be that the billions upon billions he has was 1) Earned off of the labor of a lot of people, including people of color and 2) Couldn't help far more people of color if somebody came in and redistributed his ill-gotten wealth.

But yes, please continue this extremely bad faith argument.

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Your argument is bad faith and driven by your blind ideological bias.

1) yes, that's how labour works. It's a voluntary exchange of time and effort for money, hopefully governed by sensible rules and regulations. Your "exploitation" claim is a communist talking point and the logical outcome of following it has led to mass suffering.

2) the answer is no, more people of colour would not be helped by the American government with Bill Gates' money. Unless you think Americans are inherently more deserving than people of colour in much more dire circumstances. Yes, I'm absolutely insinuating that view is racist or nationalist.

 

[III-V]

That fact our society permits these people to have insane amounts of money on the backs of working class people is disgusting. Here I am shedding the tiniest of fucking tears for you Bill.

 

[Deleted member 20630]

Since there are so many posts talking about how he "earned" his billions and "deserves" such wealth, let me pose a question:

If him having wealth is a matter of him deserving it because he "earned" it, do homeless people also deserve to be homeless for not "earning" enough?

Because if you're going to argue he's a self-made man and he only has this fortune because of his own merits, than it follows that people with less only have less because of a lack of merits.

 

[Mr. X]

The idolizing of the rich here is dumb af.

The same rich individuals or businesses that give hundreds of thousands or millions to the politicians that are pulling regulations on the environment, arguing climate change is a hoax, changing definitions and putting people in hellish camps for 'illegal' immigration, fighting against equal rights, against unions, voter suppression, against gun laws, etc.

Same rich people who are cool paying minimum wage and their workers getting gov assistance as they avoid taxes and make billions to horde. Wait, those politicians don't want gov assistance.

And people still thinking they're good people who will do the right thing or fucking sympathetic to them hating taxes.

 

[Aureon]

He could end world hunger right now.

Fuck Bill Gates.

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You think the guy who fucking eradicated malaria wouldn't do that if he could?
He basically thought he would, and he was humbled in how hard it is to give money away a billion times, and is still trying his hardest.

His point, to which i don't agree to, is that if a 3% on all net worth over 1b was in effect, he wouldn't have been able to do what he did, because of his ~200b earned, over 20 years of pretty much sitting on it, he would've paid a total or so of 150b.
Which, to me, sounds about right - but to him, it doesn't, and i kind of understand the situation.

But it doesn't really matter, because even if Gates is going all in in philantrophy, we shouldn't rely on the goodwill of billionaries to do so.

Also, that's a shoddy fucking headline.

"I've paid over $10 billion in taxes. I've paid more than anyone in taxes. If I had to have paid $20 billion, it's fine. But when you say I should pay $100 billion, then I'm starting to do a little math about what I have left over," Gates said, eventually adding that he was "just kidding."

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That sounds very fucking much edited.

Asked who he'd back in a hypothetical election between Warren and Donald Trump, Gates suggested but did not say outright that it would be Warren

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That's not the headline.

 

[Bronx-Man]

The idolizing of the rich here is dumb af.

The same rich individuals or businesses that give hundreds of thousands or millions to the politicians that are pulling regulations on the environment, arguing climate change is a hoax, changing definitions and putting people in hellish camps for 'illegal' immigration, fighting against equal rights, against unions, voter suppression, against gun laws, etc.

Same rich people who are cool paying minimum wage and their workers getting gov assistance as they avoid taxes and make billions to horde.

And people still thinking they're good people who will do the right thing or fucking sympathetic to them hating taxes.

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Philanthropy is a very easy way to get common people on your side and have them not think about the root causes of the issues billionaires provide philanthropy to. And as we see today, it works like a charm.

 

[dabig2]

"But when you say I should pay $100 billion, then I'm starting to do a little math over what I have left over."

Hmm, carry the two... divide the sum... round the fraction...
Ahh, yes. The answer is 'still far more than one person could ever need.'

Not that anyone even said you should pay that much. More like 50b. You're welcome genius.

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As Katie Porter puts it:

There isn't a small enough violin in the world to play this sad song. Let's talk when you've had to clip coupons to afford your kid's sneakers or repairs to the minivan. Millions of Americans are doing more than just "a little math" every day.

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[Yerffej]

Your argument is bad faith and driven by your blind ideological bias.

1) yes, that's how labour works. It's a voluntary exchange of time and effort for money, hopefully governed by sensible rules and regulations. Your "exploitation" claim is a communist talking point and the logical outcome of following it has led to mass suffering.

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lol

 

[Surakian]

I'd be mad if the government was coming after my money too, frankly, I think most people would. Still, hope he votes for Warren instead of orange douchebag

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The government already does come after our money. This year, in fact, they took more money from the middle class and below to pay for the refunds of the mega rich who paid little to no taxes.

The idea is to make sure the rich are paying taxes instead of not paying any at all then getting a refund after.

 

[Giant Panda]

It's a bit surprising that Bill asks for higher taxes and heavily implies he'll vote for Warren and people in this thread still like to treat him like the enemy.

It's like you all don't care about actually making progress.

 

[Deleted member 20630]

Your argument is bad faith and driven by your blind ideological bias.

1) yes, that's how labour works. It's a voluntary exchange of time and effort for money, hopefully governed by sensible rules and regulations. Your "exploitation" claim is a communist talking point and the logical outcome of following it has led to mass suffering.

2) the answer is no, more people of colour would not be helped by the American government with Bill Gates' money. Unless you think Americans are inherently more deserving than people of colour in much more dire circumstances. Yes, I'm absolutely insinuating that view is racist or nationalist.

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I should know better than to engage in your bad faith arguments, but fuck it. Let's play this game.

My exploitation is a communist talking point? Ok. Cool. Bill Gates' net worth is 107 billion dollars. The average adult's net worth is 70,000. Bill Gates' net worth is about 1,528,571 times that. Is Bill Gates 1.5 million times more capable, more innovative, and more deserving of his money than the average person? Did he come to have a million and a half times the average person's net worth purely through his own merits and not through any exploitative practices?

You call my argument "communist talking points" that has led to mass suffering as if the masses under capitalism are thriving and happy. There's something that doesn't quite gel with arguing that he deserves his wealth because he and he alone earned every penny. An elephant in the room. If his wealth is purely the product of merit, than conversely anyone without money must have little or no money because they lacked the merits to earn it, right?

 

[Skiptastic]

As my dad tells me time and time again, having to pay taxes is the kind of problems you WANT to have.

 

[Dan-o]

As Katie Porter puts it:

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I hate that genuinely smart people like her still didn't bother to watch the damn interview.

Misinformation all around.

 

[Yerffej]

I should know better than to engage in your bad faith arguments, but fuck it. Let's play this game.

My exploitation is a communist talking point? Ok. Cool. Bill Gates' net worth is 107 billion dollars. The average adult's net worth is 70,000. Bill Gates' net worth is about 1,528,571 times that. Is Bill Gates 1.5 million times more capable, more innovative, and more deserving of his money than the average person? Did he come to have a million and a half times the average person's net worth purely through his own merits and not through any exploitative practices?

You call my argument "communist talking points" that has led to mass suffering as if the masses under capitalism are thriving and happy. There's something that doesn't quite gel with arguing that he deserves his wealth because he and he alone earned every penny. An elephant in the room. If his wealth is purely the product of merit, than conversely anyone without money must have little or no money because they lacked the merits to earn it, right?

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Bro, value your time and don't even engage with people like that. He's so far gone.

 

[Chairman Yang]

lol

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So like, can we implement those rules and regulations like many European countries have done instead of becoming a communist hellscape?

 

[DiK4]

Bro, value your time and don't even engage with people like that. He's so far gone.

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Yes. I am a far better rival.

 

[Chaos Legion]

You're not going to solve all the world's problems. How about first and foremost, give more money to your workers, the people here and overseas that contribute to Microsoft and how about the society in the United States that he lives in. Besides the fact, he's still worth 100 billion dollars even if he's trying to solve malaria it's not meaningfully affecting his wealth. There's no reason he couldn't significantly improve the society he lives in and still have plenty left over to be filthy rich and work on malaria, let me know when he has that cured btw.

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This is truly disturbing. He can't solve all problems, so let's focus on ourselves than think of other countries with little to no access to the ridiculous wealth in some of these developed countries and are beneficiaries of those fortunate to have an interest in helping them.

This. If the wealth was distributed it wouldn't be to those in third world countries. It'd be to the west, spent on videogames, phones, weed, alcohol, clothes and other useless shit. People love getting on their high horse.

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Yup. Essentially it's "fuck the poor (in other countries)". I'm flabbergasted that people legitimately are at odds with a rich man having the ability to choose to invest in programs that benefit human lives of other countries. While he agrees that he should pay recently more taxes domestically. And has paid a whopping $10 billion already.

Fuck him and every other billionaire who thinks donations make up for not being taxed. Also, will idiots please stop acting like the government is going to come in and take over half his wealth. Do you understand what a progressive tax system is?

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You realize even compared to European countries, we technically have one of the most progressive tax systems in the world? If you want people to "pay their fair share," that means we're significantly going to have to start taxing the people who under our current system, pay nothing? Reason no candidate actually wants to address that? It's poison and thus it's easier to get millennials to scream "eat the rich" than "the necessary tax revenue is going to mean a comprehensive tax reform that will include the middle class!"

 

[Deleted member 20630]

lol

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Right??? Hahaha. I'm not sure which is funnier, that line or the line from last night's thread about people "money shaming" billionaires.

Bro, value your time and don't even engage with people like that. He's so far gone.

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Eh, honestly, I expect them to come in with some more bad faith horse shit, but I'm hoping someone else will scroll through the thread and have a moment of insight even if the person I'm responding to won't.

 

[Deleted member 25600]

Your argument is bad faith and driven by your blind ideological bias.

1) yes, that's how labour works. It's a voluntary exchange of time and effort for money, hopefully governed by sensible rules and regulations. Your "exploitation" claim is a communist talking point and the logical outcome of following it has led to mass suffering.

2) the answer is no, more people of colour would not be helped by the American government with Bill Gates' money. Unless you think Americans are inherently more deserving than people of colour in much more dire circumstances. Yes, I'm absolutely insinuating that view is racist or nationalist.

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There's nothing voluntary about labour. If you don't sell your labour, you starve and become homeless.

Where had Billy avoided paying Capital gains tax by donating stock to his charitable foundation? Oh yeah....the USA. The money he's using to help people overseas is money that is owed to the people of the United States by way of capital gains tax. That's theft. It's a "legal" form of theft, but it's stil theft.

 

[Eidan]

Yawn. I don't want to hear this shit, Bill.

Opinion | The Rich Really Do Pay Lower Taxes Than You (Published 2019)

The 400 wealthiest Americans now pay a lower rate than the middle class.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Yerffej]

Right??? Hahaha. I'm not sure which is funnier, that line or the line from last night's thread about people "money shaming" billionaires.


Eh, honestly, I expect them to come in with some more bad faith horse shit, but I'm hoping someone else will scroll through the thread and have a moment of insight even if the person I'm responding to won't.

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You are a better man than I.

 

[DopeyFish]

just for the sake of it

if bill gates was taxed $100billion... he'd still have enough money to spend $450,000 per DAY for the rest of his life

 

[Chairman Yang]

I should know better than to engage in your bad faith arguments, but fuck it. Let's play this game.

My exploitation is a communist talking point? Ok. Cool. Bill Gates' net worth is 107 billion dollars. The average adult's net worth is 70,000. Bill Gates' net worth is about 1,528,571 times that. Is Bill Gates 1.5 million times more capable, more innovative, and more deserving of his money than the average person? Did he come to have a million and a half times the average person's net worth purely through his own merits and not through any exploitative practices?

You call my argument "communist talking points" that has led to mass suffering as if the masses under capitalism are thriving and happy. There's something that doesn't quite gel with arguing that he deserves his wealth because he and he alone earned every penny. An elephant in the room. If his wealth is purely the product of merit, than conversely anyone without money must have little or no money because they lacked the merits to earn it, right?

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I actually don't think he, or anyone megarich, "deserves" his wealth. It's a totally irrelevant question. I care about whether more people benefit more with the wealth under HIS control than the US government's.

 

[MonoStable]

I just have to laugh at people thinking if the government took more of his money it would be used to fund liberal programs here in the u.s., no it wouldn't it would go to military contractors and more wars.

 

[onadesertedisland]

I just have to laugh at people thinking if the government took more of his money it would be used to fund liberal programs here in the u.s., no it wouldn't it would go to military contractors and more wars.

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They don't need to tax to go to war, they just invent the money. I laugh at the people upset about taxing the rich because they think they're going to be joining their ranks.

 

[electricblue]

If bill gates, elon musk, jeff bezos et cetera actually solved problems of the world they might have an argument, but they don't. They merely take credit for other's hard work which is what they've done their whole lives

 

[onadesertedisland]

just for the sake of it

if bill gates was taxed $100billion... he'd still have enough money to spend $450,000 per DAY for the rest of his life

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That's assuming he isn't getting interest on the rest of his money.

 

[Chairman Yang]

Bro, value your time and don't even engage with people like that. He's so far gone.

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How about you respond to the points instead? Or don't, but then have the decency to stay out of the discussion instead of snidely commenting from the sidelines.

 

[Top NHST Product]

Like even if he's still giving nearly $4.7 billion a year to his foundation and had to pay the wealth tax, using lasr last year's $10.5 billion as an example, his wealth still would have increased by $2.5 billion from the year prior 😆.

So if he was just joking like some of said alright. However, the idea that this would in anyway harm innivation is ridiculous.

 

[DrROBschiz]

I just have to laugh at people thinking if the government took more of his money it would be used to fund liberal programs here in the u.s., no it wouldn't it would go to military contractors and more wars.

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The argument for bad government policy isn't removing government

Its called getting people to care about it enough to fix it

Maybe Bill Gates is the best case scenario for the wealth for now but like any good dynasty that wealth will move on without any say from the populance

Thats the difference. By allowing wealth to continue to consolidate to individuals we not only fall further away from a functioning society but we risk big swings based on the whims of the individuals that claim or inherit such wealth

I would rather have a stable and lasting institutional system that I can influence than 100 Bill Gates that I have no say in what they do

 

[onadesertedisland]

You realize even compared to European countries, we technically have one of the most progressive tax systems in the world? If you want people to "pay their fair share," that means we're significantly going to have to start taxing the people who under our current system, pay nothing? Reason no candidate actually wants to address that? It's poison and thus it's easier to get millennials to scream "eat the rich" than "the necessary tax revenue is going to mean a comprehensive tax reform that will include the middle class!"

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People that do not pay income tax pay plenty of other taxes. Since the poor spend 100% of their income, and most of that is spent on taxable things, they pay their share.

 

[Chairman Yang]

You are a better man than I.

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He really is. He's actually contributing to the discussion, as much as I disagree with the points, unlike you.

 

[Deleted member 20630]

I actually don't think he, or anyone megarich, "deserves" his wealth. It's a totally irrelevant question. I care about whether more people benefit more with the wealth under HIS control than the US government's.

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But you do care. You certainly cared enough to call my argument a communist talking point while insinuating his critics were just racists. So why are you suddenly feigning that you don't care? Seems pretty odd, huh. It's almost like you're exposing where your arguments are coming from, and that they aren't stemming from a place of good faith.

 

[onadesertedisland]

Stop defending billionaires complaining about taxation. You will never be a billionaire. Billionaires are an aberration of a broken economic system.

 

[Richiek]

Bu bu but I thought Bill Gates was one of the good ones! He gives so much money for charity!

EDIT: Citations Needed did a 2 part podcast on how Gates philanthropy is not all that:

Episode 45: The Not-So-Benevolent Billionaire (Part I) — Bill Gates and Western Media

Citations Needed | July 25, 2018 | Transcript

medium.com

https://medium.com/@CitationsPodcst...ire-part-ii-bill-gates-in-africa-4329389dd4a3

 

[Reckheim]

I feel like I'm reading a different article than a lot of people in this thread lol

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you think people are reading the article?

 

[TheExecutive]

So... it's quite frankly none of our business who he would vote for and I can totally understand why he would be wary of Warren. Shit he said he would pay 20 billion in taxes. Let's hold him to it.

 

[Yerffej]

He really is. He's actually contributing to the discussion, as much as I disagree with the points, unlike you.

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I'm not interested in adding on to his or any other argument that's easily able to dismantle your faulty points. I apologize for even responding with the snide "lol", I just couldn't believe what I was reading. *zips lip*

 

[TheGhost]

I just have to laugh at people thinking if the government took more of his money it would be used to fund liberal programs here in the u.s., no it wouldn't it would go to military contractors and more wars.

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Fucking exactly, Bill gates money does more for people around the globe when he is behind the wheel. That money would be used for more guns, bombs and ships. Especially when there is no longer a Democrat in office in the future.

 

[sgtnosboss]

wasn't one of his goals to give away a lot of his money anyways....?

 

[piratepwnsninja]

I feel like I'm reading a different article than a lot of people in this thread lol

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Most people are just reading the headline/ tweet, which is exactly why this thread was created and closed once already.

 

[NoName999]

For someone who's apparently not a progressive, Warren should gets under the nerves of so many billionaires.


HMMMMMMMMMMM! It's so weird!

 

[Lishi]

Most people are just reading the headline/ tweet, which is exactly why this thread was created and closed once already.

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Sound like any thread with billionaire in the title.

 

[Chairman Yang]

But you do care. You certainly cared enough to call my argument a communist talking point while insinuating his critics were just racists. So why are you suddenly feigning that you don't care? Seems pretty odd, huh. It's almost like you're exposing where your arguments are coming from, and that they aren't stemming from a place of good faith.

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The "exploitation" argument basically tries to sidestep from the issue of whether the money has done more good in his hands than the government's. It's not only wrong, it's evasive.

Feigning that I don't care? I do care, just not about the dumb "deserve" question that you tried to turn it into. I care, as you should and really everyone should, about the end effect of his wealth. And yes, caring more about relatively wealthy Americans than the actual targets of his philanthropy isn't a decent position to hold.

 

[Dan-o]

I just have to laugh at people thinking if the government took more of his money it would be used to fund liberal programs here in the u.s., no it wouldn't it would go to military contractors and more wars.

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Yeah. Gates even says he's all for super progressive tax systems... But that they need more transparency. He seemed to be talking about transparency on behalf of the rich (ensuring they're not using loopholes) but it would also be to ensure the money goes to the right things.

If only people watched the damn interview...

But nah. Easier to make up lies.

 

[Clefargle]

That maybe a 99% tax on pure wealth might be a little eccessive?

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Which is neither Warren or Bernie's plan, and no one running is suggesting it. So why did he bring this up? A joke about nothing by a man who has everything? A serious issue he has with progressive taxation? Take your pick.

Spoiler: Also

It's spelled excessive

 

[dabig2]

I hate that genuinely smart people like her still didn't bother to watch the damn interview.

Misinformation all around.

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She got nothing wrong here. Bill was vomiting up a false dilemma and he knew damn well that his hyperbole would be broadcasted more. It's also a common psychology trick, and as someone else already pointed out, one commonly used and abused by President Dotard.

Also, what's not getting talked about here are his Epstein remarks. Or how he thinks a mere "mea culpa" will absolve him of seeking dirty money from a known child rapist and known money launderer.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/06/bill-gates-says-i-made-a-mistake-meeting-with-jeffrey-epstein.html

Microsoft founder and multibillionaire Bill Gates said Wednesday that he "made a mistake" meeting with convicted sex criminal and wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein to discuss philanthropy.

Gates, speaking at The New York Times Dealbook Conference in New York, said he thought his discussions with the now-deceased money manager would bring in billions of dollars for his global health efforts.

But "that was a mirage," Gates said. "None of that money ever appeared, and I gave him some benefit by the association, so I made a doubly wrong mistake there."

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Gates met with Epstein multiple times – including in 2013 while he was the chairman of Microsoft – years after the disgraced financier had struck a plea deal on prostitution-related charges filed by Florida prosecutors in 2008.

Gates told the DealBook audience that his global health initiative is "extremely resource limited." He had told The Wall Street Journal in a prior interview that "there were people around [Epstein] who were saying, hey, if you want to raise money for global health and get more philanthropy, he knows a lot of rich people."

Gates said Wednesday that he takes precautions about the sources of money flowing into his philanthropic efforts, such as the Giving Pledge.

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Though it sounds like many here would be fine making associations with a guy like Epstein, boosting this rapists profile, power, and reach. After all, the money could be going somewhere to do some good...

 

[Chairman Yang]

I'm not interested in adding on to his or any other argument that's easily able to dismantle your faulty points. I apologize for even responding with the snide "lol", I just couldn't believe what I was reading. *zips lip*

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Apology accepted.