Bill Gates wants ultra-wealthy individuals to pay more tax — and now a growing chorus of billionaires agree.
In his annual “Ask Me Anything” forum on Reddit last year, the Microsoft cofounder said he was “surprised” that taxes for the rich haven’t been increased more.
Gates doubled down on his calls to tax the rich in a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. He said the wealthiest nations should donate more money to developing countries to help redress inequality.
“Those who have the most — whether it’s countries, companies, or individuals — should be pushed to be more generous,” he said.
It seems others agree, as more than 250 ultra-wealthy people signed an open letter calling for global leaders to impose a wealth tax.
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.
And cut a check.
QED: bringing MacKenzie Scott’s total reported giving to more than $16 billion since 2019
I am a bag of meat and shit yet I can still recognize that is cutting a check.
I think people often lob unfair criticism at Gates, but this is more than fair.
Yeah I’m all for some much needed tax reform but on the flipside can you imagine what the current form of government would do with all the money from tax revenue? They would fuckin blow it and we’d be fucked all over again.
Our current government is all too happy to build weapons with borrowed money. What taxation does is it causes deflation, and a wealth tax has the benefit of deflating the power of the ultra-wealthy.
I was in no way disagreeing with reform. Just had one of those flashes of the current regime scrooge mcducking it in a sea of money and shuddered.