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.
Okay then like do it, if you want to pay more money to the government then just fucking give it to them instead of fucking around with this dumb letter saying, “oh we promise we care about the peasan… I mean poors… I mean the financially disadvantaged”
I can’t actually picture how easily someone would just send a larger check to the IRS - it’d probably be kicked back to you as a tax refund if you filled your taxes correctly.
Much easier would be to found your own charity to get similar effects done - which, surprise, Gates already does. And I’m sure he doesn’t just mean “I should be paying more taxes”, he means “Everyone as wealthy as me”, even if said other people don’t agree with him.
Don’t worry, the US Treasury has directions:
https://fiscal.treasury.gov/public/gifts-to-government.html
Well, I learned something new!
That said, I could certainly worry about the way sudden money like that would be spent. A lot of better government programs are supported by sustained funding, rather than the sudden effect of a billionaire waking up feeling charitable enough to send out a lump sum.
It’s super simple, you literally write a cheque and send it.
This is such a BS reply I see all the time. He does not want to give up his relative position. He wants folks at his position to pay their share. So he wants to retain a level playing field for competion for wealth but wealth should not come out of an ability to not pay taxes if you have the power to avoid it.
What does that even mean? He can pay more taxes but only if he still gets to be #4 richest man on the planet? How about stopping the idiotic race to be “the richest person the universe” instead? You know that being #1 or #5000 doesn’t really change how insanely comfortable your life is. The entire race and just pure vanity.
Don’t be silly. He doesn’t want anyone to pay more. It’s just PR.
Its not silly. Its a fact of economics for everyone. I compete with other people about my income level for the type of housing I might buy. If I voluntarily lower mine in relation to everyone else because we decide the best way to fund government is some sort of voluntary charity affair then giving more would cause me to lose in the bidding process of a possible home. That is why taxes have to be collected from everyone equally based on their relative wealth.
Yes, I’m sure if Bill only has $20B instead of $120B he will go homeless.
its not about that. Im not sure if your being disengenous or are actually not getting what I just said. Its pretty plain. Someone who has 20B is not going to be able to buy the same real estate as someone with 120B For that matter it would also be other large things like companies at that level but I use houses because folks can understand that a bit better. By hook or crook they got to where they are at and they are not going to give it up for just themselves because some people want the goverment to work on a charity methodology. Taxes have to be collected and they need to do so in an even handed manner based on wealth. The right likes to complain about high taxes but they are incredibly low and have underfunded things for over 40 years now which means we actually need higher than normal taxes at some point in the future to ever be prosperous again as a society. The amount does not matter so much though as consistent collection to keep the relative playing fields level as the most expensive things people buy are somewhat limited and done in competition with each other.
You’re making points about general economics and government financing while the comment was about Bill Gates specifically. Of course we’re not going to say “everyone should pay more taxes if they want but taxes will stay as low as possible”. But Bill is 70 years old and worth $100B. He no longer competes with anyone for resources or companies, he’s no longer working to build his wealth and improve his quality of life. He’s just hoarding wealth that he uses to influence policy on a scale that should be restricted to elected officials. If he really thinks the government needs more money and can do with less he can stop hiding taxes in charities.
again. disengenous. the reason specifically bill calls for higher taxes for his class rather than just paying extra himself is because he wants to maintain his relative level. its great you think he has more than enough but this is not about someone voluntarily paying to fund the US. Its about collecting taxes on the wealthy. The response he should just pay more and stay out of it is just nonsensical.
This is what’s nonsensical. “If Bill pays more taxes he might be only #10 richest man on the planet. Surely he can’t do that.” Yeah, it would be sooooo tragic if he would have only half of the money Elon Musk has.
As I said, at this point he’s no longer building his wealth, his just hoarding money. I have no idea why you keep insisting that his wealth relative to other billionaires is so important. He’s no longer competing with them for resources. He has millions times more than he can use in the rest of his life.
If billionaires really wanted higher taxes, they’d have higher taxes.
What they want is no taxes and to look like their hands are tied “I can’t possibly pay taxes they won’t take my money! It’s not my fault it’s the government. Damn them!”
While they spend millions of dollars a year lobbying to get their taxes reduced even further and passed on to the working class.
Quoted by https://kbin.social/m/[email protected]/t/780024/-/comment/4717309, probably should search to find the actual source
Have you considered how that would be done? How does one give extra money to the government? Should he just bank transfer Biden a few billion?
If only the US Treasury had some sort of process to gift money to the US government, since 1843, that can be easily googled in like three words.
Do they?
Well there you go. What other wonders will I discover about your retarded country next?