Comment on Linus Torvalds and Bill Gates Meet for the First Time Ever

• fushuan@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ 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.

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  • binomialchicken@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ 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.

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    • fushuan@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      That’s the sentiment that allows these rich fucks to avoid paying taxes without big backlash. First focus on collecting, then on spending…

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• Allero@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ 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

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  • victorz@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Well that’s disgusting, ain’t it. 🫤

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  • Valmond@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Amen

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• interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ 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.

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  • victorz@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Gotcha. That sounds very bad indeed.

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• Valmond@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ 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.

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  • victorz@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    You sweet summer child.

    Alright dude, I don’t know much about the foundation, sorry. 🤷‍♂️

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