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How about backing up that letter with some lobbyists?
Ads. We need these folks taking out issues ads, raising the profile of taxing the ultra-rich.
Hi, I'm Bill Gates, and I am spending more on this ad campaign than I paid in taxes.
Paid for by Bill Gates
As long as it is only a letter other billionaires don't care. They know it's lip service.
Yep, who cares what these billionaires say.
Other billionaires are spending tens or hundreds of millions on lobbyists to prevent tax.
If they want it to change, they need to pay some lobbyists too.
People are right to point out that he should not simply cut a check to the government, instead he should lobby for higher wealth taxes like he lobbies for patents or voucher schools. Anything less is just free PR.
Says the guy that fought tooth and nail for MRNA vaccination patents to remain private. Yeah pay taxes but maybe don't make the money to begin with.
actions > words
Says the guy who funnels his entire wealth through a foundation to avoid paying any taxes. Just like he told Epstein to do. Love you Bill
But you see, he deserves it for stealing all that work and ideas from other people
Dear Bill,
Would you be up for taxing charities owned by billionaires?
Sincerely yours
Charities are such an obvious money laundering scheme. "Philanthropy" my ass, it's always tax evasion, all of this is just for the gallery.
Source: https://ips-dc.org/report-true-cost-of-billionaire-philanthropy/?mc_cid=bfa8894a28
Billionaire philanthropy is also frequently a PR thing-- image rehabilitation.
"i know you guys are upset at us fucking over all of you, but i assure you if you let us continue being petty tyrants with vast fortunes, we might give a marginally bigger sum of it back to the government, which will still spend it on whatever we tell it to anyway. win win!"
i don't want you to be more generous, i want you to be gone. if anyone proposed a plan that would actually affect them i doubt they would still support a wealth tax.
“Generous” is the noteworthy takeaway. Either ‘currency’ belongs to society and some people hoard it instead of circulating it, or ‘the world’ ‘belongs’ to a very select few people.
Imagine if a wealthy individual, who believes that the wealthy should be taxed more, actually used their wealth to take out TV commercials in all states/provinces advocating for the increase in taxes for the wealthy, actually trying to sway the political mindset in a big way with the power they have via their wealth.
Easier to just release a statement. That way you can be the "good guy billionaire" without actually having to pay up.
I don't believe shit they say, if they say "go ahead and tax me" it's because they've got a way out so they won't have to, somehow.
That "somehow" is called using credit to buy everything then setting your stocks as collateral, and since debt can't be taxed well...
TL/DR; The super wealthy own the politicians so much they can tell them to do something that they will never do. Democracy is a fool's word.
After he has already used a "charity" he created to tax shelter most of his money...
He has more money now than when he started giving “virtually all” of it away to (his) charity. This doesn’t stop rubes from using his fauxlanthropy as some kind of proof that not all billionaires are evil.
Dear Bill,
the german government has a banking account where you can send them money, no questions asked. Feel free to send over your fair share of taxes you are avoiding by routing the Microsoft profits from Germany via Luxembourg and other tax havens.
They can flap their lips all they want, I won't believe them til they lobby for it and it gets changed.
It'd be really cool if Gates and other not-so-evil megarich would just openly give a bag of money to every congressman to vote for more taxes to multimillionaires :)
Too late, compost these fuckers.
Put up or shut up, Bill. And don't get me started on all the land you own
Oh, thank goodness the billionaires will save us from [checks notes] the billionaires.
But not him, he doesn’t have a lot of money. He donated all of it to charity which he is the founding member of and has an exclusive rights on using resources they have. Thus some money gets used yearly for charity, but significantly less than if it was taxed, the rest is kept for when he needs it. The most common way for rich to avoid taxation. So now every time you see some rich dude donating almost all of their wealth to charity… they are creating a banking institution without tax.
Pretty sure I've seen this exact story about every 5 years for the last 20 years. It looks to me at this point like wealth apologism.
My nine year old: “My nails are sharp and they get stuck to my clothes”
Me: “You should cut them. Do you need any help?”
9 y.o.: “Please cut them even if I start crying”
Sometimes people need their nails cut for them and you should be happy to oblige even if they start crying. Though I think Bill’s waning moment bribes are more convincing than offering to do chores.
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.
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.
Bill Gates should either shut his stupid fucking mouth or put his insanely exorbitant amount of money where that stupid fucking mouth is. Oh, he is a philanthropist and supports many causes and charities? No, he is an ultra wealthy individual who hordes his insane amount of wealth and has so much of it that he can casually drop seven plus figures in to any cause he wants, collect accolades from the public for it, and make that money back by the end of the fucking hour. Fuck bill gates
No one is stopping you from giving money to the government.
You can make a gift to reduce public debt here: https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/23779454
You can donate to the U.S. Government here: https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/708094624
"should be pushed to be more generous"
Generosity my arse. Should be forced to pay their way. The rest of us cannot afford them.
For every one of him, there are probably thousands of neuvo riche and wannabe rich who say otherwise. It's an unfortunate truth.
They always say shit like this then put all their money in charities or shell corporations overseas… this is just marketing. He could easily pay more taxes right now if he wanted to.
So does this mean a wealth tax that will actually hit the rich or simply increasing income taxes that will be avoided by the rich as usual?
The fox thinks that we need a stronger hen security doors installed and the weasels agree 👏
"if only someone would close the loop holes, but alack, they remain and the accountants force me to use them, what ever is to become of poor rich Bill"
What would stop them from just funding housing, healthcare or education by themselves, if they want to contribute to society?
It's still a massive difference to taxes. Society should decide where the money goes, not the wealthy individuals themselves
You can voluntarily overpay taxes. Put your money where your mouth is Bill.