Bill Gates wants ultra-wealthy individuals to pay more tax — and now a growing chorus of billionaires agree.
In his annual “Ask Me Anything” forum on Reddit last year, the Microsoft cofounder said he was “surprised” that taxes for the rich haven’t been increased more.
Gates doubled down on his calls to tax the rich in a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. He said the wealthiest nations should donate more money to developing countries to help redress inequality.
“Those who have the most — whether it’s countries, companies, or individuals — should be pushed to be more generous,” he said.
It seems others agree, as more than 250 ultra-wealthy people signed an open letter calling for global leaders to impose a wealth tax.
Except the issue is systemic. You have a percentage of mega wealthy who simply don’t even pay their share. A few billionaires sending a large check to the government doesn’t fix anything. They could but until we change the way we handle taxes for the wealthy, we have a systemic problem we need to fix.
Speaking out that all the rich should pay more helps (maybe) make the case that those making hella bank should pay more.
Your statement is a bit of a straw man which doesn’t actually address the fact that the mega rich aren’t paying their fair share.
Except I wholeheartedly agree with you. There is a huge issue here, but at the same time if these billionaires truly believe that they should be paying more, they should just… do it. There is literally nothing stopping them. They should be forced to, yes, and that’s what they’re saying. But they should be putting their money where their mouths are in the meantime.
The man is covering like 11% of the WHO budget. On the one hand I want to say that that’s too much power, OTOH he doesn’t do too terribly a job at allocating money (compared to, say, the IMF) and every man deserves a hobby.
Ah I see. I apologize if my comment came off as overly rude. I have heard the comment of them sending money as a reason to do nothing.
I assumed you were advocating we do nothing, which to me implies keep the taxes low on the rich and just let them send whatever they want.
I think saying that their taxes should be raised is doing something. Sending extra cash money into the giant money pit is kinda pointless until we address the military industrial complex getting the lion’s share and we start using the money more effectively.
The billionaires complaining about wealth taxes, should lead by example by paying them at the same time lobbying governments to fix the issue.