• @disguy_ovahea
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    76 months ago

    I agree that the insanely disproportionate taxes are causing more problems than donations are solving. However, as billionaires go, Bill and Melinda Gates are exceptionally philanthropic.

    • @[email protected]
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      346 months ago

      Philanthropy is a way for people who created wealth on the backs of their underpaid employees in their businesses that broke multiple laws and dodged taxes. If they actually cared about people they would have paid higher wages or had profit sharing, and would not have pushed for tax breaks for the wealthy.

      Nobody calls a blue collar person who donates to charity a philanthropist.

      • @disguy_ovahea
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        6 months ago

        You’re right, but they’ve almost eradicated polio worldwide. So there’s that.

        Bill spoke out against Trump’s disproportionate tax cuts, as well as the growing wealth inequality, and called for increasing taxes on the wealthy.

        https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/03/bill-gates-americas-tax-system-is-not-fair.html

        He also cofounded The Giving Pledge, an agreement to give the majority of his wealth away to charity rather than pass it on to his children.

        https://givingpledge.org/about

        • @[email protected]
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          6 months ago

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio_eradication

          Polio eradication, the permanent global cessation of circulation of the poliovirus and hence elimination of the poliomyelitis (polio) it causes, is the aim of a multinational public health effort begun in 1988, led by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Rotary Foundation.[1] These organizations, along with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and The Gates Foundation, have spearheaded the campaign through the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). Successful eradication of infectious diseases has been achieved twice before, with smallpox in humans[2] and rinderpest in ruminants.

          Hey look, and example of a rich guy buying credit for something that was already being done!

          He also spoke out against Trumps disproportionate tax cuts for the wealthy, and called for increased taxes for top earners.

          Oh, so he spoke out about the thing he abused to get wealthy, that doesn’t make him a hypocrite!

    • Ænima
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      6 months ago

      Bill and Melinda WERE philanthropic. Then Bill did a cheat and eventually got divorced.

      She was always his better half. Bill has always been a piece of shit business man and only started his philanthropy due to Melinda. That’s why there’s not so much of that same philanthropy from ol’ Microsoft, himself, as of late.

    • Neato
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      26 months ago

      So they are some of the best of thieves and abusers.

    • ThrowawayOnLemmy
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      26 months ago

      And they could be just as philanthropic while also paying their fair share of taxes because they’re just that rich.