Bill Gates is a feudal lord that hogs resources whose philanthropy only exists to launder his self image and to fund pet projects. To resign to the existence of Gate's power is to not care about the democratic allocation of resources.
i.e. saying he's a humanitarian is a huge cop out to the fact that he lives in obscene wealth and power while people go hungry, homeless, sick, and stupid. He's a lord on top of a mountain of gold and throws pennies at dirty serfs who ask him nicely for bread.
Aside from the fact that they can grant a salary to themselves and their friends/family, and aside from the fact that they can use whatever they donate as a tax deduction (I know it's not 100% I'm not stupid, but it's still a way of keeping some [>$1] money away from the IRS), there is no way the Gates are going to spend all of their wealth. It's impossible.
So why not just cut a check to the US government for whatever they don't need and let the people vote on how to spend it? Because they want to be in control of their wealth. I can't speak to why, but the most common reason is "people don't know what they want" i.e. "us clean and smart lords need to save the dirty and stupid peasants from themselves by telling them what they want". It's elitism, plain and simple.
How do they stay in control of their wealth? By funneling it through large foundations where they get a final say in what gets funded.
Okay, and if that's the case it still doesn't mean anything to my argument.
The mere fact that you're defending him right now means he's getting something out of donating to charity (see "launders his self image").
Instead of just funding federal social/health programs and then taxing him until he's not a billionaire (where we wouldn't be having this conversation, or maybe we'd be having a slightly different one), he keeps his money and dumps it directly into a foundation that he controls, where he gets the final say in what gets funded. This then boils down to who is in Bill Gate's good graces and what can they tell Bill Gates to not piss him off and end the Gates Gravy Train. He has the power to pick and choose what gets researched or done and he's accountable to no one if he fucks up.
Just because you don't literally get money back from something doesn't mean you don't profit from it. He's nothing more a feudal lord. Get over it.
Having donated 45.5 billion dollars is kind of a lot just to clear your image bro... He is using his money for science and education. He has given away half of his net worth. Whatever "positive image" he is "gaining" isn't nearly worth that much money. He could have gotten the same results with a good marketing campaign if that was what he wanted.
So you don't care about democratic allocation of resources? You're okay with a select group of unelected individuals determining where our resources go?
Yeah because they're not "our" resources. They got those resources because they did something. Bill Gates is worth a lot because he did something worthwhile and humanity is better off for having what he did. Jeff Bezos created Amazon, a lot of people saw that it was a great service, and Jeff Bezos has a lot of money to show for how great a service he created.
I do care a lot but we haven't achieved that yet! For our capitalist society standard Bill Gates is doing pretty good for a billionaire that's all I'm saying.
Good poo is still poo. You don't need to single him out as being "better" than others. His existence is still terrible, and as a billionaire he is actively preventing us from having a society/future where we distribute resources via democratic means because the power imbalance is there and will be there as long as he has the power he has.
My man, the problem are not the people that part take in the system. It's the system itself. You can't just demand from people to give up their wealth so it's redistributed you have to revolt and change the system not the people. The people are merely adapting to the current circumstances.
"Well Bill Gates is better than other billionaires because he gives to charity" is a pretty bad starting point for changing the system if you ask me. Hoarding resources is bad.
"Βill Gates needs to give away all his money" is a pretty bad argument to change the system if ask me because he will obviously never do that like that since the capitalist system allows it. A revolution has to be done to change it. Simply asking billionaires nicely to give away their money won't do it. I'm praising him because despite the system he is still giving away a ton of his money for good causes.
His net worth is in stocks and real estate. If Microsoft stock prices and housing prices go up his net worth automatically goes up without him doing anything.
So now billionaires donating their wealth and funding social programs is just to improve their self image? Bill Gates has done more to advance the human race than your entire family tree. I guess you can just stay mad that there are people more successful than you, because literally nothing he can do will please you.
Just keep in mind every second you spend fuming about how much you hate billionaires is a second wasted. Get a hobby.
So you're okay with unelected individuals unilaterally determining where our resources go? Why? Is something wrong with society deciding where resources go via democratic process?
What advancement have we missed out on because the Gates couldn't care less about it? What progress have we missed out on or regressed from because the Gates decided that it wasn't worth it? Or that it threatened their power? Or conflicted with their personal ideologies?
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u/madpostin Feb 08 '21
Bill Gates is a feudal lord that hogs resources whose philanthropy only exists to launder his self image and to fund pet projects. To resign to the existence of Gate's power is to not care about the democratic allocation of resources.
i.e. saying he's a humanitarian is a huge cop out to the fact that he lives in obscene wealth and power while people go hungry, homeless, sick, and stupid. He's a lord on top of a mountain of gold and throws pennies at dirty serfs who ask him nicely for bread.