As though a wealthy person would speak the Truth…
tbh I’m surprised that there are 9 who did
as a reward we should leave them for last
Lol… While gates foundation does do some decent work. Let’s be real it is astroturf operation inherently
Also, Warren already back out.
So this is just a shill op for these “good” parasites.
Read between the lines folks, these people are your enemies
The only good billionaire is a dead billionaire whose stolen wealth has been returned to the people
To people like this, the number in their bank account is like a scoreboard. They didn’t get that high up the leaderboard purely by accident.
Anyone who thinks that kind of person is just going to give up their place on the scoreboard is either incredibly naïve or gullible.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some people to there who may have some semblance of empathy, but as seen by the title, that’s about 1 in 25.
They also don’t do good things out of the goodness of their hearts, they do it to win social points so that they don’t get gunned down in the middle of a NYC street.
This doesn’t make much sense to me.
Sure. Gates is not a “nice” person. The business practices involved in becoming a billionaire require him to be a vile human being. Granted.
That said, he has given up his place on the leaderboard. He has become dramatically less wealthy as a result of his philanthropic work.
What are you claiming is Gates’ motivation here? Not getting murdered? Come on. There are much more practical, reliable, and cheaper means to achieve that.
To people like this, the number in their bank account is like a scoreboard.
It’s not just that.
Besides the humanitarian work that the gates foundation does do “voluntarily”, money is agency, it is power.
There is very little argument and reason to believe that “people” and “countries” would actually be more responsible in spending it.
If there was a big, motivated, carefully planned social movement that had a solid idea and spending plan, things would be different. And such a group could also force them to give up that money to spend it on these things. But such a movement doesn’t exist.
As it stands, the idea that they would voluntarily give up money is dumb. To do what? Feed the corruption and nepo network in their country, that then will benefit only the people that are just like them, but less rich? That makes no sense.
It has to come from public pressure and equal wealth taxes.
They didn’t get that high up the leaderboard purely by accident.
You also don’t stay up there in the leaderboard by accident
also Gates have accused of vaccine colonialism by african countries, hes not doing out of his own heart, its most likely his way of laundering money, plus to distance himself from epstein.
This doesn’t make any sense.
He’s been doing this since long before Epstein was arrested.
He also doesn’t need to launder money because he’s already paid tax on all his money. He’s becoming demonstrably, significantly less wealthy in the course of distributing vaccines. If he were laundering money he would be becoming more wealthy.
I assume that tax avoidance is also a factor.
What taxes?
You wouldn’t expect these clowns to pay taxes that’s what w2 slaves are for. In fact, the treasury should be paying them. Just look at the national debt since 1980s then look at how fat these swine got.
Crux of the everything crisis we got on our hands.
But hey the good parasites paid 15k for a fluf piece, put on a suit and say thank you!
It always has been (points gun)
Let’s not forget
lobbyingbribery. And since said political influence is ostensibly being bought for the sake of charity, nobody would even blink.Just my theory, mind you. But every one of these charitable foundations is primarily done for tax avoidance. No question. Well that is every one of these foundations except for the one set up by Mr President Tiny Dick. He just can’t resist the temptation of embezzlement. I mean seriously, he bankrupted THREE casinos, and had a judge not just dissolve his foundation, but also bar him from running one of these so-called charitable foundations ever again.
I don’t even want to know how you can fuck up that egregiously. One of those things where you have to wonder if successfully finding understanding of how it happened is going to hopelessly corrupt your own soul for all of eternity.
Why would you waste $10 to save $5 in tax?
I can’t say how the tax avoidance strategies of the super-rich work in practice, but in any case, their feigned philanthropy is a key part of it.
It’s not.
This is a common misconception based on meme level reasoning.
I don’t know how this works but I know I don’t like billionaires.
You need to be more specific. I’m not going to waste my time refuting your statement because I can’t even begin to imagine how you came up with that.
That makes two of us I guess.
You said that you don’t know how it works, I can’t really respond to that.
You said that philanthropy is not misused to avoid taxes—that is definitely wrong, but if you want to believe it, please do.
It’s the difference between spending money to have your will enacted, and having your money taken by the people, for use of the commons.
The latter is a very dangerous precedent to set. You don’t want the people feeling like they can have their will enacted.
The prospect of still being billionaires, but with less billions, was just too much to handle
I mean, you don’t become a billionaire by giving money away.
Uh, yeah you do. What do you think charities are for? Helping people?
Exactly why they need to be taxed more.
Billionaires shouldn’t exist to begin with and don’t assume tax money are used by governments for good.
Now imagine if there was some way a government could take a percentage of that and put it towards improving society as a whole.
Oh well, guess we’re fucked.
Now imagine if there was some way a government could take a percentage of that and put it towards improving society as a whole.
Yes, some form of “giving pledge” where the amount was standardized and there was no option to back out. Radical thinking here.
BUT THAT WOULD BE COMMUNISM!!1!
stop stop i’m already hard
Take it from them all
Take it all from them*
As soon as you give up everything you own.
Wow the greediest scumbags on the planet lied about giving up their ill gotten power? I’m shocked! SHOCKED! \s
Pledge
Words are meaningless.
This article has slightly more dirt but still seems a bit vague on hard numbers and names.
I pledged allegiance to the flag for over a decade. that pledge doesn’t mean shit to me.
Is any of that because what would have been half their worth 15 years ago is now less than half of what it would be?
Like, if someone had 100 billion in 2010, and did give away 50 billion in that time, but also made a further 20 billion in that time, did they give away half their worth or not?
I’ve not read the article, so maybe that question is answered in there.
Who would have thought
Meh. I actually don’t think its a good idea. You just draw power away from the best of a segment empowering the biggest assholes. Taxes should be progressive and include all sources of income not just wages and the tax brackets should go all the way up to the highest income level. So there should be a level for over 100 billion and another for over 10 billion and over 1 billion and so on. Five figure income should be zero.
Taxes should be progressive
Yeah ofc. Why do you think the billionaires came up with this BS plan instead?
I agree with you and your proposal with the exception of 5 figure income having no income tax. At a billion level it might not be so important the difference between one or two billion. But on the 5 digits salaries, the difference of someone making 30k or someone making 80k is definitely meaningful. And as someone being in a comfy point in between there I do think everyone in my bracket should be paying taxes. Not high, but definitely something. Then lower incomes then yes, definitely 0% tax. But the amount of people on 5 digits salaries that are on the higher end is definitely worth having some tax, even when a small amount it already helps support the system with so many.
At the upper end you might be able to swing the more modest of housing and put away for retirement and that is great but it is not like changes circumstances that much. I would argue that opposite that the 2billion is one billion of funny money over what the one bilion guy has and should be taxed along the lines of lottery winnings.
and the tax brackets should go all the way up to the highest income level
What does that even mean? They’re lower limits. Everything that exceeds the lower limit for the top bracket (which has no upper limit) is taxed the top rate.
It means the highest tax bracket should not be in thousands when the top makes hundreds of billions.
The highest rate is on annual taxable income in the hundreds of thousands and up. The hundreds of billions are also getting taxed that top marginal rate.
Your statement is muddled. Maybe the word same is missing like
Everyone in the top bracket shouldn’t be paying the same marginal tax rate. Beyond the start of the current top bracket, the marginal tax rate should continue increasing (for millionaires & billionaires).
Some of your ideas are confused. Income taxes are already progressive. Taxable income already includes income other than wages. The standard deduction exempts the low 5 figure annual incomes from taxes.
The way you suggest realizing things that are already true draws into question whether you’ve ever filed taxes. Likewise for the people agreeing with you: have they ever filed taxes?
Yes what I meant is the rate should not stop increasing at such a low amount. In fact the hundreds of billions do not pay the rate because of the way we tax work higher than returns and because social security and medicare have a max point. Basically the folks paying the highest rate are the folks that make it to that highest rate for what is still a common profession like doctors and lawyers. After that its escape velocity for taxes.
That makes more sense.
Long-term capital gains are taxed significantly less than ordinary income: that’s partly to incentivize stabler markets by rewarding long-term investments over short-term market timing activity.
The annual ceiling on contributions to social security is bullshit & needs to be eliminated. However, there’s no such ceiling for medicare:
All covered wages are subject to Medicare tax.
Have you looked at the taxable income distribution/quantiles? The top marginal tax rate seems to begin somewhere between the minimum adjusted gross income (AGI) for the top 1% & 2%. < 1% have an AGI over $1M. We’re talking about increasing marginal rates for the top fractions of a percent here. While that could increase federal revenues, it’s unclear that will boost revenues as much as we need.
For example, the Social Security administration publishes annual reports on solvency proposals with summaries. Eliminating that taxable maximum alone won’t save social security. Increasing the payroll tax rate, however, will definitely save it. It’d help to know the effect of taxing all taxable income.
Keeping programs solvent might require increasing taxes on the bulk or a more significant part of the population.
Look, I’m fully aware that this won’t sit well with the billionaires are horrifying monsters that not only should be slain but should be strung up in the town square and be given the blood eagle…BUT if you’re going to make the argument that traffic fines or any other monetary penalties should be a percentage of your net wealth or yearly income, then you have to acknowledge that giving away half of your lifetime earnings is a tremendous act of good will.
Now–there is a difference between me giving up $5000 of my roughly $11,000 in liquidity. We still have around $40,000 in student loan debt and $120k in a 25 year mortgage while we make about $100k per year. And these billionaires could still buy a second house in Cabo with a helipad using what is remaining, but it is SOMETHING. If they truly are “spurning” their billionaire status they should start with giving away half their fortune and continue to give away half their yearly income on top of that, but I won’t totally disregard the contribution that they’ve already made. Unless they’re republican. Then I’m nearly certain that money is going exactly where it shouldn’t.
And these billionaires could still buy a second house in Cabo with a helipad using what is remaining
Important to remember just how much a billion dollars is. Even a billionaire who has only $500m after giving away half would be able to buy a dozen of those properties. A multi-billionaire could potentially buy hundreds of similar properties with money left over. A billion dollars is a TREMENDOUS amount of money.
A hundred million dollars is 10% of one billion.
$100,000,000 is only ten percent of a billion dollars.
Pikachu Face
