Why not spend a couple of those billions and put a bounty on Musks head? America is a lawless hellhole already, so some good and put your money where your mouth is.
old billy has been visited by a ghost
“Elon Musk is a patriot working to fulfill President Trump’s mission to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse,” Harrison Fields, a spokesperson for DOGE, said in a statement. "Backbenchers should celebrate the selfless efforts of America’s most innovative entrepreneur, who is dedicating time to support American taxpayers and hold Washington accountable to the people of this great nation.”
Wtf. only the government should be allowed to criticize the government, because everybody else is a backbencher. What are these people, 12 year olds playing Fortnite? Just wow.
Bill is definitely not a good person, but he does do a lot of good things. And I’m willing to temporarily forget about all the bad things while he’s dissing Elon and forking over his cash.
Gates at least seems determined to buy his salvation.
Got a real Rockefeller vibe to him now, don’t he?
He’s been giving away his wealth for decades, and only got richer during this time.
Hasn’t he mainly been “giving it away” to a Charity he himself controls?
Yep, and he’s using that charity money to get influence with research institutions and universities. Meanwhile he privately holds stock in big pharmaceutical and energy companies. Not sure if anyone has done the work to trace the money, but I’m sure his charitable donations end up benefiting those private investments.
So the money he would’ve otherwise paid in taxes went to a vehicle that buys him PR and benefits him financially through his other investments.
It’s his Gates Foundation that manages the cash, uses it for investments and similar stuff to make more money, and then handle all of the separate donations towards projects and charities. When you have billions to donate you can’t just donate it around. Most charities can’t handle millions in money. Eventually it becomes a logistics game and you’ll have cash laying around.
It’s a good read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_Foundation
Of course, but that’s more than most of the ruling class can say.
Credit where credit is due, and only where it’s due.
Billionaires can never do a good thing while remaining a billionaire.
They can do good things, but it doesn’t make them overall a good person.
I don’t think it’s possible to amass $1 billion in worth and not be a bad human.
I…think you misread me? I said a billionaire cannot do a good thing while remaining a billionaire?
They didn’t misread you; they just didn’t agree with you
Oh cool, we’re all having problems reading.
At least one of us, yeah
Cool captain capitalism defender guy
They can’t still do a good thing.
Correct, they can’t.
Cruelty is a feature not a bug.
People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them
I’ll just save time for my future self: He died complicit, supporting and enabling the system that creates inequality and blocks progress, and he directly stagnated technology by engaging in monopolistic practices.
Bill Gates quite obviously pays a lot for PR, and giving away wealth to those in need is obviously positive, but if he used his influence to call out Microsoft for using their technology/AI and infrastructure in war, called out the imperialism and destabilizing influence of the US empire, and so on; maybe I would have a more charitable forecast for his legacy.
I would be more than happy to be wrong and I hope I am.
Also, I think he has no concept of what rich is anymore. There’s no way in hell he isn’t, at minimum, rich in assets when he dies. His house, assuming he dies and only owns one, will probably be worth more than most people make in a lifetime. Unless he takes out insane mortgages against it and donates them, he’ll still be rich. Even then, it’s still call living a life where you have access to a house like that rich, even if he effectively doesn’t own it anymore.
He’s definitely not living poorly. His legacy will still be “filthy rich”.
He’s not giving so much that he can’t live a life with more privilege and access to abundance than the overwhelming majority of people. He also wields more power and influence than most could ever hope for.
Yeah instead of billionaires giving away their wealth to charity, I’d much rather tax them and let the government distribute that money.
You mean the government that uses that money for concentration camps and eradicating minorities?
Capitalism exists in the form it does because government doesn’t exist. It’s a big lie. We are in the age of modern feudalism, ruled by corporations, oligarchs, and others that concentrate wealth, power, and influence.
I wouldn’t trust the government to reliably redistribute the money or to reliably tax the very rich.
We have a system that rewards greed, parasitism, and exploitation with wild success. Until that is solved, redistributing wealth will be unsuccessful — a temporary fix, at best.
The entire raison d’etre of Neoliberalism was to reduce the Power of the State (and hence the power of voters, who elect who controls it) below the Power of Money - leaving just about everything to “the Market” with “non-interventionism” and “deregulation” is really just another way to say that the State should not exercise any power over Money and thus leave Money to be the highest Power.
In other words, Democracy has been destroyed, not by wars or revolutions but by being hallowed out into a meaningless performance (the vote) for control of a lesser power, all thanks to Corruption, Propaganda and Subversion by insiders.
It feels like Feudalism because it is Feudalism, just with better image management.
Right. The solution is a better government.
To get that, we need a better culture.
To get that, we need to rescind our consumerism.
The culture is already there. We have a great base called the constitution and its bill of rights — we largely already support concepts like democracy and human rights.
Humans and our units tend to be weak and vulnerable, we are easily manipulated, and we are easily corruptible. Capital has an greater influence on individuals (and especially our leaders and institutions) than forward momentum and the act of working towards solutions — making life better on this planet for everyone. Capital should not be a factor operating at a level above our ability to govern and direct our societies.
Humanity has to start to learn how to thrive and simultaneously learn to live in balance with the planet. Consumerism is certainly out of control, but it’s reductive and unfair to single out any single person, group, or entity. Humanity is largely kept in survival mode (and also in fear, hate, and division), scarcity is artificial with our current level of technology and organization, and the truth of our consumerism (and its roots) is veiled to us.
Nobody besides the oppressed truly knows the extent of modern slavery, of modern child slavery, and of third-world exploitation.
In my eyes, the solution is direct democracy and socialism. Building up our communities and making our society at large (and especially our cities) self-sustainable.
I personally think that an international human bill of rights would be a wonderful goal to have to kick off a golden age for humanity.
The culture is not here, no.
Right now, most of us believe that those who have more deserve more and those who have less deserve less. We don’t see an issue with, say, someone getting most of their meals through Doordash while complaining they ‘need’ more money.
Until that changes, we can’t expect society to change. We don’t want it to change unless it directly benefits us. If we have to sacrifice anything so those who have less than us can have more, we immediately become conservatives in our rhetoric.
Yes, I do think it’s important to address the echo-chambers and the centers of propaganda, no matter which side of the coin you’re looking at.
To the side that you’re referencing: Fox News (et. al), conservative think-tanks, and the many conservative influencers spread these perspectives and viewpoints. Responsible individuals and organizations convince everyone that it is a matter of survival that they don’t contribute to their societies.
These groups and influencers convince people that others shouldn’t have it easy because it invalidates their struggle. They also convince them that the government is out of control, that it is interested in taking their wealth and their rights, and that it largely doesn’t serve their needs — that they are getting a raw deal.
So these individuals want a small government. They don’t really care what happens to society at large because they are just focused on themselves, potentially their families, or at best a portion of their local communities or churches. They are in the weeds of survival mode and tribalism — they are warding off invaders and perceived threats and stopping others’ ability to take what they earned, including their status and power in society.
The answer is finding the real cost of capitalism, of ineffective governance, and of not making any forward movement as a global society. What are the real costs of this apathy and inaction? It can’t be something that you simply argue with science — with the costs of runaway industrialization, because they have been propagandized to think our emissions/etc. have no affect on the world at large. They are thinking small, and again, in a state of survival.
Conservatives, under the rule of this current administration, are going to be faced with some harsh realities and truth as this stagnation (and at worse, this regression) continues. They are going to quickly find out the source and human cost of our goods, be it domestic produce or various other items sourced from exploited countries.
It’s relevant to point out that an estimated 40% of US agricultural workers (arguably more) are undocumented immigrants. This administration is deporting workers that we depend on to work our fields, harvest our food, and likely produce the products that go on our shelves. They are doing so at a breakneck pace. When these conservatives are forced to work the fields to survive or forced to go into the factories, they will quickly understand how much blood, sweat, and tears go into their consumerism.
As for Doordash, it is a symptom of our apathy, the disconnection with our communities, and the result of local business being crushed. Just like Doordash being not so great, you can’t go to the grocery store and not support modern slavery. You need to consume food to live. The food on our shelves is devoid of nutrition, it is loaded to the brim with chemicals and contaminants (like PFAs, from the use of biosolids to fertilize our crops), and it is vastly under-regulated and making us ill. Our soil practices are also unsustainable and they will only remain viable for approximately 60 more harvests.
If RFK and some of his proposals (particularly regarding food) resonate with these voters, there is hope yet, especially if these individuals get a wake-up call in the form of a food crisis, facing the consequences of alienating our trade partners, and our store shelves going empty.
They already resonate with the government being broken, and we don’t need to give up anything as a society to thrive and live sustainably. We can accomplish all modern convenience and privilege with our technology and ingenuity without raping the environment.
These individuals are propagandized against green energy and regulation (industrial or otherwise). If we can convince them that everybody can thrive without breaking a sweat, and show them the costs of deregulation of our environments (e.g. their communities and their water tables) and the costs of deregulation on our health (their health and the health of their children), they will probably come around quick.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a63152930/proton-batteries/
If that technology is finished, we won’t even need rare elements to store energy. It is a story that many slept on. Solar panels are very cheap comparatively to make.
Gates also announced that his Gates Foundation will cease operations in 2045, sooner than previously planned.
Didn’t he just get divorced? Wonder if this has something to do with that.
It doesn’t seem so.
The actual interview referenced in the article is somewhat longer: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/magazine/bill-gates-foundation-closing-2045.html
From what I can gather there are at least 3 reasons to end it earlier:
It was always planned to have an end date. This was set before they even knew what they’re were going to do. They now have a clear plan, where they can say “a human life can be saved for this amount of dollars”, so they don’t need to wait for anything.
Bill Gates criticizes post-life foundations, stating that they’re in risk of getting eaten by administration costs. I don’t know about that, but it appears that he doesn’t trust others to as good a job as he wants to do himself.
Warren Buffett is doubling the contributions for the foundation, but only for as long as Bill and Melinda are alive. Gates is 69 years old, so blowing it all in 20 years seems to be a realistic timeframe if they want to take full advantage of Warren Buffett’s pledge.
I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes, alleged to be from A. Carnegie:
“The man who dies rich, dies disgraced.”
I detested the Microsoft Bill (I’m in tech) but the post-M$ Bill seems to have reformed quite a bit. I have to admire someone who gives away all their $ (whatever the route - directly or through a foundation) to try to solve some of humanity’s problems. Of course MAGA/Qanon portraying him as a villain doesn’t hurt his image either, it pretty much guarantees that there must be something good about him.
Don’t be fooled. His foundation does a lot of real charity but it is still an entity that is under his control and he uses it to launder his reputation while supporting the systems that have allowed him to leverage his wealth for political power. Because of him, the covid vaccine was used as yet another vehicle for funneling wealth into the hands of the plutocrats even though it was mostly public funds that created it.
vaccine
he made sure the poorer nations cant develop thier own vaccines , and it must be bought from USa.
Good move by Bill Gates.
The only good billionaire is a dead one.
If Bill sheds all his excess wealth he can be a human being with the rest of us.
He sheds more than anyone else. He’d be much higher on the richest-people list otherwise.
So far, he’s given over 60 billion to the Gates Foundation, which has given away over 100 billion (the rest of the money comes from Warren Buffet and endowment growth).
It’s designed to spend to zero (over 200 billion dollars) by 2045 so it doesn’t become a self-sustaining wealth generator for staff like other endowments have.
The idea is that the harm caused by him amassing such excess caused more harm than any good he can do through philanthropy.
And the crazy part of this philanthropy is that there’s no guarantee to anything. These oligarchs live like kings amongst men and we can see ourselves lucky to be in the light of their philanthropic sun.
I mean yes thank you Bill Gates for not being such a dipshit like Elon, but I also think that this kind of power should not be in the hands of individuals ever.
Cause as you said: the harm they caused (actively or passively by f.e. not paying taxes in countries outside the US and therefore stealing money from governments and people) can never be fixed by any philanthropy.
You just don’t get that kind of rich without being an asshole along the way.
Paying off student loans would be a nice start. ALL student loans, not the crap that always seems to miss me by a dollar.
Man, it’s sad my generation got suckered into taking out loans for college.
So many of them now have debt and are doing the same jobs as people that don’t have degrees.
