• lennybird@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Well said. I’ll take this or Gates or Buffett over the Murdochs, Musks, Kochs, Thiels of the world.

    We need all the powerful allies we can get.

    • taiyang@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      It helps when they say they’ll get rid of their billions after death, like Gates recently said. I don’t particularly trust them to actually do that, although his and Buffetts actions do suggest they don’t just want to hoard wealth like an dragon. They like influence too much to prematurely give up that wealth, though.

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Worth noting that in the case of Gates at least, he has already given away $100 billion and I think committed another $200 over the next 20 years. There is some sound reasoning too that he shouldn’t just dump it all at once, as it’s harder to track corruption.

        • novibe@lemmy.ml
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          2 days ago

          He is “donating” to his own charity, where he won’t have to pay a dime in taxes as his children inherit the foundation… it’s a tax and financial trick, don’t be fooled by it. Gates is not our friend.

          • lennybird@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Even if he donated to other charities, it still wouldn’t be taxed, because the incentive is indeed to donate to charities in the first place. If I was him, I’d do the same because at least I could better track how the money got spent.

            Can you show me a dime of that $100 billion already allocated that went to things like improving health systems in Africa, and fighting things like Malaria, AIDS, and Tuberculosis that instead went back to himself or his kids?

            • novibe@lemmy.ml
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              2 days ago

              The Gates Foundation was expelled from India after they were found to be making women infertile without their knowledge.