a9cx34udP4ZZ0@lemmy.world 11 months ago
To be fair, out of all the billionaires they at least have made attempts to not make their kids shiteheads which is in stark contrast to most billionaires. At one point in time at least, they were only leaving $10m to each child, with plans to donate everything else.
Is that enough to live better than 99.99% of us? Absolutely. But it’s also not: I can do whatever I want and buy whatever I want and never have to think about money again.
this is not how generational wealth work.
lets say you are 17. having a party in the house with 100k cash in your bank account. you hear dad talk about a big merger “this company will be this company and the stock will go up” you put 50k on that and now you have 300k or something.
I sat with a few upper class once, if I have cache on hand I will be millionaire by now, it doesn’t take much to get rich when you hang out with rich people…
It’s more like “Hey, I have an idea for a new type of toilet. Can you get me a meeting with your golf buddy who is the CEO of the largest toilet company in the world?”. This is literally how Microsoft started.
leaving $10m to each child, with plans to donate everything else
The plans were to donate everything else to a tax-advantaged “charity” in which the Gates family retains complete financial control.
This is not philanthropy. It is tax avoidance, greenwashing, and a public relations campaign.
when gates was on reddit, he choose AMA sub, so he wouldnt get criticized, they allow you to quesiton him on his charities being used tax evasion or money laundering.
Yeah, it might be public relations, but the malaria nets and polio vaccines and HIV treatments and guinea work eradication did actually save millions of lives.
It’s one thing to argue that doing good doesn’t make up for doing bad, but it’s another thing to refuse to acknowledge the good at all.
the countries have complained about his vaccines as being only sourced from us backed countries, so most of them couldnt afford it.
How many billionaires are sourcing from locals? Guessing the answer is closer to none.
slappypantsgo@lemm.ee 11 months ago
That’s all she’s saying. They raised the kids with limits. That’s what she should have said. They obviously weren’t raised “middle class” or anything like it.
Delphia@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I mean, its really open to interpretation.
If Melinda got them up in the morning, made them breakfast and drove them to school herself and picked them up (Even if its in a Bentley), make their snacks when they get home and helped them with their homework(even if you’re getting the snacks out of a walk-in fridge and the housekeeper bought them) thats some regular people shit.
If you have the nanny get them up, the driver take them to school and pick them up then their tutor helps them with their homework while your chef asks them what they would like for dinner… thats not.
slappypantsgo@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I don’t agree that it’s open to interpretation or that your first example constitutes “regular people shit” in any meaningful way. I agree that there’s a difference between having servants and not, obviously, but I don’t think it’s that helpful of a distinction here.
Second of all, flying on a private jet and living in a mega mansion is in no way middle class. I just can’t get on board with the idea of mom picking you up in a Bentley and getting snacks out of a walk-in fridge as being middle class.
I think my point stands. I think it was good to raise them with limits and some humility, that will help them in life, but I think “middle class” and “regular people shit” is simply inapplicable here.