olivecrest

So the right way to be a billionaire is to do exactly what Gates does - make a charitable foundation and use that to do your “common good” work.

You can have access to all and control of that money AND invest and spend it wisely AND not worry about taxes.. just set up a charitable foundation that you control. Sure there are limits to how you spend it - but if your intention is to do stuff for the common good anyways = totally easy to do “help people” stuff with charitable foundation money.

Technically that money belongs to the foundation, not to Gates. When he dies the money stays with the foundation and continues to do good stuff.

I cannot think of any non selfish reason for one person to have that much money. If they want to do good with the money they will set up a charitable foundation because that is a much more effective way to accomplish good things with their funds.

If they keep the money as their own it is fair to assume they fall in the “billionaire bad” category, because if they were planning to use it for the common good they would put it in a foundation they control and spend it from there.

The Gates have way more money than they will ever need. So do a lot of people.

They spend their money helping people. Other billionaires do not.

So yeah, your option is just not very well informed.

For sure he is not perfect. For sure there are pros and cons to every choice. For sure there are areas I disagree with him.

But you are random opinion having internet person and the foundation is a 25 yr old foundation with 2,000+ extremely capable people who have so much more research based knowledge about how to be effective in that space than you and I ever could dream of having it’s laughable.

Right - the charitable company manages its money to try to continue doing charitable work. That is not Bill Gates money. That is charity money.

Ok, just making sure you didn’t think he was implanting microchips, lol.

I agree that his stance on intellectual property rights is not one that benefits the common good. But it’s a belief he has held consistently and wasn’t covid specific. I disagree with it, but it does not negate the gazillion things he has done that I do agree with.

And it’s hard for me to think it’s profit motivated because he consistently gives away more money than he makes. If his motive was to make more money he would not be doing almost all of the things he’s doing.

100% agree the IP stuff sucks and is bad for the world. Disagree that his stance on that negates everything else he’s done. Nobody is perfect and he has had a more positive effect on the world than almost anyone alive - certainly more than anyone in his income bracket. Could he be better? Yes. Does that make him bad? Nope.

Absolutely you can be rich and stay rich and and invest well AND do great charitable work, all very ethically.

That is not what we are talking about. Go watch some of those videos that try to explain “a billion”. It’s really hard to wrap your head around the difference- but it’s like cup of water, pool of water vs all the oceans on earth. There is a point beyond which it is unethical to keep all that money.

Finite resources. When millions of people suffer and die for lack of resources while one parson controls enough resources to support all of them = it’s just not fair. No one person is worth more than hundreds of thousands of people.

For someone lucky and successful and hardworking to be better off than others = totally cool. You can do that no problem with 100 mil.

But when you have 1000x1000 more than you will ever need and other people die for want? Not cool.

What is it you think they did?

Agree. Being a billionaire is inherently immoral.

However if all billionaires supported the politicians and policies that the Gates support we would not be in this situation. Like they actually do understand the value of a strong/healthy middle class.

Note that Bill Gates plans to give away more than 99% of his wealth. It’s hard to call him unethical for keeping his money with a straight face when he’s giving away 99% of it. And working hard to do that in ways that will matter to fellow humans who are truly suffering. Like he’s not building libraries to put his name on, he’s giving away vaccines and mosquito nets.

So I’m thinking he actually isn’t keeping his excessive wealth. Like he is actually giving it away - so yeah, I don’t lump him with the others at all.

Then you are not paying attention.

I’m not denying Bill was a merciless asshole as a business man to make his money, but he got married and had kids and learned compassion. Still not a perfect human, but he has given away over 100 billion dollars- with care and thought and in ways that literally save lives. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2p4p4l78zo

Google says his foundation has saved 122 million lives. SAVED LIVES. Not propped up his own interests or gotten accolades or done PR to impress ignorant people - but literally spent years of his own life working to SAVETHE LIVES of his fellow human beings.

They are not the same.

I did this more when I lived on the east coast and could hop on a bus - but it’s wicked expensive to fly and get a hotel. 😛 I have done it, and would be willing to again - I just can’t afford it regularly.

I went to the one in Portland. It was such good energy- it invigorates everyone present. It gives us energy to do other things as well.

The fact that Trump doesn’t care about Oregon doesn’t mean that “doing nothing” is a better option. Don’t discourage people from taking action. If we are gathering and talking to each other we’re more likely to find and join in other efforts.

Speaking of which - what is it that you would suggest the good people of Oregon be doing to make a difference?