If you look here:

https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/

Bill Gates is only the 5th richest.

…but the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has an endowment total of $75.2 billion.

So, his wealth ($149 billion) + foundation ($75 billion) = $224 billion.

So, my question is…can he spend that foundation money any way he wants instead of spending his personal money? If he wants a jet can he just use the foundation money? If so, then he is still the richest person in the world even though he does not get labeled as such in the news anymore.

  • @whoreticulture@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    10•5 months ago

    Because we shouldn’t be, and don’t need to be, relying on the goodwill of Billionaires to solve social problems. Instead of giving tax breaks for billionaires to pick and choose which issues to fund, we should tax the billionaires out of existence and democratically decide what to do with our money.

    Philanthropy rhetoric is used to justify the existence of billionaires. We don’t need them.

    • @fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
      9•5 months ago

      Philanthropy rhetoric is used to justify the existence of billionaires.

      What a silly thing to say.

      No one is saying “oh yes well we need billionaires because they donate all their money to worthy causes”.

      Billionaires shouldn’t exist, but if we’re getting out the guillotine I don’t really understand why Gates should be first in line.

      • @whoreticulture@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        1•5 months ago

        People absolutely say that, “philanthrocapitalism” is a nerdy word for it it, but that basic argument comes up in a lot of contexts … pay attention.

          • @whoreticulture@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            2•5 months ago

            🤷🏻‍♂️ Pay attention, look for it and you will see this argument come up a lot. Trickle-down economics is a similar idea, and that was a national talking point for years.

            • @fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
              2•5 months ago

              Dude. Pay attention. We’re here discussing why everyone hates BG. Your point is “yeah well idiots think we need billionaires to pay for vaccines”? Is that why we should hate the person who is actually spending their fortune on vaccines?

              • @whoreticulture@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                3•5 months ago

                My point is that we can and should criticize any billionaire no matter their philanthropy, noone becomes a billionaire by accident and it is shameful to be one.

                I don’t want to help spread pro-billionaire sentiment by just being “oh yay Bill Gates” for donating the money he got from intellectual thievery and violating anti-trust laws.

                • @fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
                  0•5 months ago

                  That’s not what this thread is about though. Pay attention.

                  People hate Bill Gates more than other billionaires not engaged in philanthropy. My question is why? What is it about his philanthropy specifically that attracts more hatred than other billionaires?

                  If you looked at a list of the 10 wealthiest people, I’m sure there are names higher than Gates that most of us wouldn’t recognise.

                  • @whoreticulture@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                    1•5 months ago

                    This thread is about rich people using philanthropy to seem more palatable.

                    Your question doesn’t even make sense because it’s not at all true that Bill Gates gets extra hate, I think people rightly hate on all the Billionaires. I very rarely even hear about Bill Gates, more often it’s Elon Musk or Bezos … or Taylor Swift lately.