• storm@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 hours ago

    Can we quit running billionaire’s PR campaigns for them? These people are not our friends, and giving back a portion of what they stole (always in the most public way) doesn’t change that

  • But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    To his kids and their charities? Reminder that Bill gates is every bit as exploitative and evil, he didn’t become a billionaire by paying fair wages. This is all PR to try and save his reputation as everyone turns on billionaires. Like buffet, he just shuffles his money to his kids and calls it charity

  • madcaesar@lemmy.world
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    7 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.

  • TheDeadlySquid@lemm.ee
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    6 hours 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.

    • lemonaz@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      Once you have over a billion in wealth, you’ve won the game of life.

      More like the game of 100 lives. I’m using $10m as a gross estimation for what a person living comfortably needs to spend throughout their whole life. Sure it varies by country and other factors, but this amount should more than cover a lifestyle in which you literally don’t need to worry about a thing. No need for sketchy investments either: just stuff it in a deposit and you could live off the interest alone, but that’s assuming you have all the money at once.

    • CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      Truly a financial genius to give up 99% of his wealth for tax breaks…

      I figure he donates to his own charity and still has a lot of control over the money either way.

      I wonder what thatd look like on his taxes.

  • Zacryon@feddit.org
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    8 hours ago

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

  • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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    10 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
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      9 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

      • A Wild Mimic appears!@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 hours ago

        McKenzie Scott (Bezos Ex-Wife) is doing what she can to get the divorce money to where it normally doesn’t land, so if we eat the rich, i’d currently say she’s off limits, pending good behavior.

      • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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        9 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.

          • CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            I think a big problem with our financial system is people with wealth have the ability to siphon wealth out of companies through the stock market. Ultimately that company is paying shareholders with profit generated by the workers. A billion invested with just 5% dividends would take many lifetimes of constant work for an individual to pay off a single time, let alone every year. Yet that’s how it is. Billionaires get richer and richer and their blood sucking proboscis gets bigger and bigger.

            We live in a financially feudal society where the Lord’s have no responsibility to tend to the land.

      • Katana314@lemmy.world
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        8 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)

  • excral@feddit.org
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    10 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
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    11 hours ago

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

      • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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        9 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
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          8 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
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        10 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
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          9 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
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    13 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
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    15 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.

  • rational_lib@lemmy.world
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    16 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
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      5 hours 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
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      11 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
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      10 hours ago

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

      So many bsods

  • FireAtWill@lemmy.world
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    14 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.