Philanthropist Melinda French Gates said she is giving $1 billion over the next two years to support women and families, including reproductive rights.
Yay, a small portion of the taxes that the wealthy like her should have paid over the years that could have gone to the same thing but based on the decisions of society and not dependent on one wealthy person!
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.
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.
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!
They then spent another $1.2B to do what the WHO couldn’t accomplish.
The first problem they tackled was getting the vaccine to remote and war-torn areas while maintaining efficacy. Once they accomplished that, all that was left were isolated tribes. They then paid anthropologists to spend years assimilating into remote villages around the world to earn their trust so they would accept the vaccine.
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.
“The decisions of society” is how we got Trump and enough wrong-wing Supreme Court Justices to eliminate reproductive rights. You really think the billions we could get in taxes from the billionaires would be wasted on restoring rights and supporting women and children, when there’s a military industrial complex to feed? Until the day capitalism collapses, Melinda Gates and MacKenzie Scotts should be praised. Not for their own egos, but in order to entice those who live by “what’s in it for me?” into better uses of their obscene wealth than yachts.
I dunno f bill gates ever killed anybody. The government kills people all the time. If anyone is the mob in this scenario, it’s the feds. They’re the most violent gang on the block by a wide margin.
Yay, a small portion of the taxes that the wealthy like her should have paid over the years that could have gone to the same thing but based on the decisions of society and not dependent on one wealthy person!
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.
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.
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
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio_eradication
Hey look, and example of a rich guy buying credit for something that was already being done!
Oh, so he spoke out about the thing he abused to get wealthy, that doesn’t make him a hypocrite!
They paid for the GPEI initiative cited in your comment. It literally says “The Gates Foundation” in your quote.
https://www.emro.who.int/press-releases/2005/gates-foundation-funds-new-polio-vaccine-to-accelerate-eradication-efforts.html
They then spent another $1.2B to do what the WHO couldn’t accomplish.
The first problem they tackled was getting the vaccine to remote and war-torn areas while maintaining efficacy. Once they accomplished that, all that was left were isolated tribes. They then paid anthropologists to spend years assimilating into remote villages around the world to earn their trust so they would accept the vaccine.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/gates-foundation-pledges-1-2b-to-eradicate-polio-heres-why-its-been-a-struggle-for-decades
Could have been paid through taxes instead of being the whim of a billionaire looking for a positive legacy.
Agreed. I’m not saying he should have that much money. I’m saying he does far more benevolent things with it than most billionaires.
Frankly, I don’t think we should be relying on the benevolence of billionaires.
So they are some of the best of thieves and abusers.
And they could be just as philanthropic while also paying their fair share of taxes because they’re just that rich.
He is, and he’s asking the government to make him pay more. He’s a rare one for sure.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/03/bill-gates-americas-tax-system-is-not-fair.html
What’s stopping him from simply writing Congress a check?
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.
Indeed. Now she has only ca. USD$11B left over to survive with. She can buy only five, possibly six Sentinel ICBMs.
What We Want Now
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$11B is her net worth prior to issuing the $1B donation. When was the last time you gave 9% of your net worth to a cause?
When was the last time you had USD$10B? Next you’re gonna defend Mackenzie Scott’s hard-earned USB$34B, I suppose.
What We Want Now
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Trump would have put it into a wall and Big Macs for his Cheeto-dusted minions.
“The decisions of society” is how we got Trump and enough wrong-wing Supreme Court Justices to eliminate reproductive rights. You really think the billions we could get in taxes from the billionaires would be wasted on restoring rights and supporting women and children, when there’s a military industrial complex to feed? Until the day capitalism collapses, Melinda Gates and MacKenzie Scotts should be praised. Not for their own egos, but in order to entice those who live by “what’s in it for me?” into better uses of their obscene wealth than yachts.
I’m not going to praise people for giving back a small portion of their ill gotten gains. That would be like praising the mob for opening soup kitchens with the money they made through criminal enterprise.
I dunno f bill gates ever killed anybody. The government kills people all the time. If anyone is the mob in this scenario, it’s the feds. They’re the most violent gang on the block by a wide margin.