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Comment on Linus Torvalds and Bill Gates Meet for the First Time Ever
Valmond@lemmy.world 1 day agoMaking money/influence. It’s such a scam his “Bill and Melinda Charity” (no taxes on charities).
victorz@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’s still giving money away though? Why would you want there to be taxes on charity?
fushuan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
It’s more nuanced though. Here’s how rich people use charities to gain wealth:
Rich person has tons of money that would be taxed if bill Y passes. Rich person creates a charity and donated 20% of what they would had to pay to the IRS to the charity, with that money the charity uses half for good causes and half is given to X lobby company, which then lobbies politicians to avoid passing that bill.
In the end, the rich person saved 80% of what they would had to pay.
Yeah, 10% went to good causes but imagine what the society could afford if 100% went through instead of 0.
This is a very rough outline of how they do it, but the summary is that they use charities to donate to lobbies while skipping taxes on the donation itself.
binomialchicken@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Yeah, 10% went to good causes but imagine what the society could afford if 100% went through instead of 0.
It’s the US, so more weapons I presume.
fushuan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
That’s the sentiment that allows these rich fucks to avoid paying taxes without big backlash. First focus on collecting, then on spending…
Allero@lemmy.today 1 day ago
The point here is that in many jurisdictions doing charity exempts you from certain taxes, and it is possible to shuffle money around under the disguise of philanthropy while still getting all the financial benefits like an actual charity
victorz@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Well that’s disgusting, ain’t it. 🫤
Valmond@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Amen
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Because they are tax avoidance mechanism first and charity seconds.
Money is a brokering system of power, charitues being tax free makes these entities unaccountable to democratic institurions.
That’s how we ended up with this infection of corrupt megachurches.
The “prosperity gospel” is billionaire-serving propaganda. It empowers their formation, growth and necessary abuses that come from such widespread exploitation.
victorz@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Gotcha. That sounds very bad indeed.
Valmond@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Giving away money? You sweet summer child.
Research don’t want “his” (the foundations) money, it comes with so many strings attached all your lives work now belongs to the B&M foundation.
victorz@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You sweet summer child.
Alright dude, I don’t know much about the foundation, sorry. 🤷♂️
dan@upvote.au 1 day ago
(no taxes on charities).
What type of taxes are you talking about?
LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
We can point out how bullshit the charity system is in the US while also acknowledging that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has done some good
Valmond@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Their pr firm seems to function very well at least.
Guess you’re going to whitewash bezos, musk and zuckerberg next?
LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Nope. And I sure as hell don’t white WASH Bill Gates. You don’t get to that level of wealth and dominance without cracking skulls and ruining lives every step of the way. He is not a good person. But the Foundation has done some good work. Surely this isn’t too nuanced for you to understand?
Valmond@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Every dictator did “some good work”, are you thinking they are good people?
IMO your moral compass need maintenance.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 1 day ago
the ends don’t justify the means.
Hitler experimented on hundreds of thousands of Jews and the medical world benefited from it greatly.
does that mean you’re going to nuance the Nazi regime because they “did some good”?
no amount of good is worth the ounce of evil used to make it.
FauxPseudo@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It capitalized Wash because spell checker is the leaf on the wind.
Lemminary@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Lol no. Of all the sleazy and greasy millionaires, Gates is one of the few whose actions speaks for themselves. Dude has been doing noble causes for most of my life.
I’m all for talking shit about the rich, but it better be true.
Valmond@lemmy.world 1 day ago
His pr firm really works well.
Check out when elon ditched his pr firm. He went frm that loved lil crazy fun type to what he really is.
Valmond@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Name one bad historical person that didn’t do at least some good.
Your moral compass is broken.
Honytawk@feddit.nl 1 day ago
The charity did more than some good though.
Valmond@lemmy.world 1 day ago
That’s not how it works, it’s not like “I do some good, now I can do some bad”. It does not even out.
Bad people doesn’t become good because “some good things came out of it”.
If you do bad, then you are bad.