Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Bill Gates is at it again. The richest man in the world is giving back to the poorest among us.
On Tuesday, Gates donated 64 million Microsoft Corp. stock shares worth an estimated $4.6 billion.
I have noticed that Gates, Buffet, Zuck and other (I think Steve Jobs wife, Tim Cook and others) have pledged virtually ALL of their billions to help humanity. In other words, they - unlike many of the right wing billionaires financing our current political mess - believe that money is not some "entitlement" for the future generations of your family to live like Kings.
This is very heartening. Taxes or no taxes, it is the right idea.
On the other side of the same equation - if one really wants to speak of selfishness and hypocrisy - we have families like the Waltons and the Kochs who spend DECADES and amazing amount of money and energy inserting themselves into the center of American politics SO THEY CAN SAVE A FEW PERCENT.
Death tax? Entire thing made up by the Waltons - richest family in America. This is the company whose founder would not think of buying things from overseas.
"Similarly, Americans have always understood that establishing a small group of families with seemingly unlimited wealth, social privilege, and political power undermines a fundamental American principle: that all citizens are legally and politically equal.
Some founders wanted to eliminate inheritance entirely. In a letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson suggested that all property be redistributed every fifty years, because "the earth belongs in usufruct to the living." Madison gently pointed out the plan's impracticality. Benjamin Franklin unsuccessfully pushed for the first Pennsylvania constitution to declare concentrated wealth "a danger to the happiness of mankind."
It appears the Kochs, Waltons, Mercers and other modern right wing billionaires do not agree. They not only feel deserving of every penny they made (even from public lands), but feel that the rest of us taxpayers should make up the difference when the low paid employees of wal-mart need to get food stamps or health care. That takes quite some nerve when you have a value of 100 Billion dollars.
If Bill Gates truly wanted to be exceptional, he would speak on the government to give black descendants of slaves reparations. I don't want to hear about what he is doing across the world with his money, what are you doing for your home country? The first thing that needs to be solved is addressing this nation's original sin and the effects it has today.
Uh, more Microsoft products are used elsewhere in the world than here.
And they probably have more employees elsewhere in the world.
The first sign of a rational human being is when they reject nationalism.
if it goes somewhere else other than th bill and melinda gate foundation, then fine. if it goes to the foundation however, all it does is put money away from any taxation by the federal government. i thought you liberals all wanted to tax the heck out of the rich. but now oyu are praising them for putting money away where it CANT be taxed.
Another poster who clearly has no clue what the gates foundation even is.
Gates is giving the money away to the gates foundation, he is losing 100% of the money how that is a "dodge" i just dont know. The foundation has billions and it uses those billions to make your life better and the lives of people all over the globe. They are vastly more effective than virtually any government, it is a dream come true to conservatives.
Billions of dollars, working super hard, to achieve great results at a fraction of the overhead a state or federal gov can manage.
You should be thrilled gates is investing long term, helping children in the USA get better educations, researching those diseases that pharma don't care about, fighting disease, disparity and developing cheap low tech and high tech solutions to serious long term global problems. Bill is helping the poor across the world to be able to STAY HOME and thrive. even the alts love bill for that.
I have noticed that Gates, Buffet, Zuck and other (I think Steve Jobs wife, Tim Cook and others) have pledged virtually ALL of their billions to help humanity. In other words, they - unlike many of the right wing billionaires financing our current political mess - believe that money is not some "entitlement" for the future generations of your family to live like Kings.
This is very heartening. Taxes or no taxes, it is the right idea.
On the other side of the same equation - if one really wants to speak of selfishness and hypocrisy - we have families like the Waltons and the Kochs who spend DECADES and amazing amount of money and energy inserting themselves into the center of American politics SO THEY CAN SAVE A FEW PERCENT.
Death tax? Entire thing made up by the Waltons - richest family in America. This is the company whose founder would not think of buying things from overseas.
"Similarly, Americans have always understood that establishing a small group of families with seemingly unlimited wealth, social privilege, and political power undermines a fundamental American principle: that all citizens are legally and politically equal.
Some founders wanted to eliminate inheritance entirely. In a letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson suggested that all property be redistributed every fifty years, because "the earth belongs in usufruct to the living." Madison gently pointed out the plan's impracticality. Benjamin Franklin unsuccessfully pushed for the first Pennsylvania constitution to declare concentrated wealth "a danger to the happiness of mankind."
It appears the Kochs, Waltons, Mercers and other modern right wing billionaires do not agree. They not only feel deserving of every penny they made (even from public lands), but feel that the rest of us taxpayers should make up the difference when the low paid employees of wal-mart need to get food stamps or health care. That takes quite some nerve when you have a value of 100 Billion dollars.
the kochs, waltons, mercers, romneys, etc. all have their own foundations. when you get that rich, regardless of whether or not you are liberal or conservative, you set up the foundation to protect your money to protect it from the government. its a standard practice by the super rich.
and all these foundations do good works around the world, you just dont hear the conservatives blowing their own horns in this manner.
but where do you think the foundation money comes from to begin with? from the businesses you either love or hate. you hate walmart, but the family does put a lot of money into their foundation. as for what walmart pays their employees, that is a subject for a different thread, and even then you are likely wrong about it as well, since most walmart jobs are ENTRY LEVEL jobs. perhaps you should run your own business and pay your employees what you think they should make for what ever job you hire them for, and come back in a few years and let us know how ti is working out for you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by evilcart
Another poster who clearly has no clue what the gates foundation even is.
Gates is giving the money away to the gates foundation, he is losing 100% of the money how that is a "dodge" i just dont know. The foundation has billions and it uses those billions to make your life better and the lives of people all over the globe. They are vastly more effective than virtually any government, it is a dream come true to conservatives.
Billions of dollars, working super hard, to achieve great results at a fraction of the overhead a state or federal gov can manage.
You should be thrilled gates is investing long term, helping children in the USA get better educations, researching those diseases that pharma don't care about, fighting disease, disparity and developing cheap low tech and high tech solutions to serious long term global problems. Bill is helping the poor across the world to be able to STAY HOME and thrive. even the alts love bill for that.
yes i know about what the gates foundation does, and i think it is a good thing. in fact, except for the clinton foundation, they all pretty much do great things with the money invested in those foundations.
once again however you took something i said and are trying to make it seem like i said something else. my point was that gates is putting money away out of reach of governments around the world. foundations are tax free instruments that the super rich use to avoid paying taxes. the only catch to setting up a foundation though is the foundation has to give away a certain percentage of its net worth each year, but that is far lower than the taxes that would have been paid on that money.
here is another bit of hypocrisy from the left; in 2012 romney was excoriated by the left for donating $14 million in one year to a variety of causes. he could have wrote off ALL that money on his tax returns, but he only wrote off half that amount. so romney paid MORE in taxes than he should have. and then he was excoriated for having LEGAL offshore bank accounts. he wasnt hiding any money, yet the left blasted him over their assumption that he was.
now gates publicly donates to HIS foundation, and the left praises him for not paying taxes. even though you dont realize that little fact.
as i have said many times, foundations are great, i like them and the good works they do. but dont get hypocritical here and claim that this donation is purely a humanitarian thing, because it isnt.
o and who do you think controls the gates foundation? thats right bill and melinda gates. they also make money off the foundation. one more thing, foundations are not only insulated from taxes, but they are also insulated from lawsuits.
Trump avoids paying taxes at all costs and brags about it.
Buffett also bragged about it as well.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
