Thank you to Howard G. Buffett!
I am glad that Howard Buffett has a sober understanding of how the russians operate. They will not engage in good faith unless you demonstrate that you are able and willing to fuck them up.
I have mixed feelings about this headline. On the one hand, it’s good to see this much money going to a good cause. On the other hand, I firmly oppose the ability of any one person to control this much money.
Compare this one guy’s donation to a good cause against all the other billionaires donating money to the Heritage Foundation, MAGA, etc
Billionaires “donating” to foreign countries sounds like bribes for rare earth minerals.
No billionaire is altruistic. Bill Gates is the best example.
An altruistic billionaire is an oxymoron. If they were truly altruistic, they wouldn’t be a billionaire.
this is clearly reductionist. you can inherit that money and then utilize it effectively by donating it without destroying your ability to raise more money for donating. donating all your money means you have no investments to raise more money for donating. governments don’t do this, their goal is to spend taxpayer money to make the world a better place, while billionaires can only do the same if they keep an income stream.
But billionaire kids do not do this. Warren Buffet is still alive too.
Another nefarious motive would be tax writeoffs to purchase goods at one of his own companies.
Never ever ever ever give a billionaire the benefit of the doubt. Ever.
The fundamental leap in logic to being a libertarian
Not the OC but the problem I have is in just one private citizen’s ability to influence so much military power. While historically this isn’t new and in this case it does overall good, I think that this kind of thing is a slippery slope that eventually could lead to billionaires funding wars to manipulate market elements for profit.
I also hate that it just moves forward this idea of “individuals and charities will pick up the slack” when they dismantle everything good the government does.
Yeah, we know. There’s hundreds of opportunities to complain about its use for evil. Let’s just appreciate it for what it is.
Sounds like those motherfuckers need to pay some taxes, clearly.
That’s your take away?
Yep. A single billionaire funding a war effort is abhorrent.
This one happens to be on the right side, but there’s absolutely no guarantee that his will be the case for any of these fucking psychopaths.who horde wealth. They all need to go.
Counterpoint - under the current administration, paying taxes might help Russia more
But would the current administration be the current administration without wealth hoarding psychopaths?
No, it would not.
It wouldn’t, but I think that ship has sailed already. I don’t see how your current governmental structure would ever fix that. It’s been a problem since citizens united, if not before
It has always been up to the people to establish governmental structure. History provides the examples, mon frére.
Except he’s not funding a war, he’s funding the defense of a nation fighting for freedom and its right to exist.
Ukraine didn’t get in this war as a pissing match with Russia. It was wrongly attacked and is a democracy defending itself. It’s had its children kidnapped and its civilians targeted. It will cease to exist if it loses. We don’t have a greedy capitalist funding an unjust war for profit as you’re trying to suggest. Helping Ukraine is the right thing to do. Refusing to help them will simply result in Europe fighting a better-resourced Russia later.
We don’t have a greedy capitalist funding an unjust war for profit as you’re trying to suggest.
Yet.
If there’s one thing billionaires are known for, it is, of course, giving billions to a war effort with absolutely zero strings attached. Totally.
I don’t doubt the possibility but that’s not the situation here and now with defending Ukraine.
I’m not arguing that these funds shouldn’t go to Ukraine. I’m arguing that no single individual should ever be allowed to have so much money that they are able to do this. They all need to be cut down to size ASAP.
Do you say the same thing about Russian billionaires funding the war against Ukraine?
They said :
they all need to go
All being the operative word here, which is inclusive of Russian billionaires.
Are you ByteJunk? Is ByteJunk a name for a group of people or why do you say « they »?
No. I am dependencyInjection.
I said they, as I was referencing ByteJunk and what they literally said (typed, if you want to be a pedant) in the comment you replied to.
Are you happy now? Do you need anything else blatantly obvious to be clarified for you?
Bogus is just doing that new anti-trans-panic performance the nazis do now where they pretend English hasn’t used they/them for unspecified gender for hundreds of years. She’s a troll.
Ah, ByteJunk, one person it is not, many, it is. Got it. But how they decide what to comment, hmm? Take much time, it must 😂
There’s really no such thing as “Russian billionaires”, at least not in the western sense. Also not in the oligarch sense, oligarchy implies rule by few, that’s not the case in Russia, it’s an autocracy, rule by one: There’s the Tsar and he doeth bequeath wealth upon loyal viceroys in the form of fiefdoms to exploit. The Tsar giveth, and the Tsar taketh away. Shit hasn’t changed since the times of the Russian Empire but this time around it’s less about territories and the people on it but factories and industries.
Certainly, the Russian system was and is totally a hierarchical system based on- like everywhere - on power and influence (both intermingle). But this does not exclude that there are very wealthy people in Russia who are funding the war, being it because they are forced to (I hardly believe) or because they make profit out of it. Don’t you think so?
The war is funded partly by the taxpayer, partly by inflation. The viceroys might be making less of a profit right now as they can’t engage in their usual level of grift but Putin doesn’t, and isn’t going to, touch their villas and fancy cars.
Absolutely. What other reasonable response is there?
It’s easy to say the right things when you know you’re never going to be held accountable for your words.
That’s your takeaway?
Yes. If we lived in another reality, and there was a true progressive about to pass a 100% tax on all wealth over a billion dollars, Warren would be showing is true colors very, very quickly. It’s easy to say the right thing on this because he knows he’ll never have to pay a dime more than he does right now.
He’s a dragon among 700 or so other dragons sitting on unimaginable wealth that he will never spend in his lifetime. He deserves nothing but disrespect.
Seems like you make your own reality
about to pass a 100% tax on all wealth over a billion dollars
Here’s the first sentence of that article that you didn’t read:
A 70% marginal tax rate. A 77% estate tax. A 3% tax on every dollar over $1 billion of net worth.
They shouldn’t exist to begin with, workers should get a bigger share and products should be cheaper. Taxes money aren’t necessarily used for good especially when you have a bunch of fascists at the government.
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Yup. That’s what happens when we hand over all the power to a few people.
We get excited when those priviledged people, who are literally the ones who oppress us, make choices that helps us a little.
It’s orphan-crushing-machine stuff
If the wealthy’s heads end up in baskets, the Buffets won’t be among them.
