People keep bringing up the fact that Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) are millionaires so much that the two of them have centered their attacks on billionaires.
Warren wants a wealth tax targeting billionaires. Microsoft founder Bill Gates served up a dose of reality to Warren and others who believe billionaires should pay their so-called “fair share.”
At the Dealbook Conference, Gates, who is worth over $100 billion, reminded Warren that if the government taxes them too much it could interfere with “capital formation, innovation” produced in America. From Fox News:
“I’ve paid over $10 billion in taxes, I’ve paid more than anyone in taxes,” he continued. “If I’d had to have paid $20 billion in taxes – fine. But, when you say I should pay $100 billion, ‘OK, I’m starting to do a little math about what I have left over,'” Gates jokingly said during the interview.Gates said he does not agree with Warren’s stance that billionaires should not exist at all in the U.S. “Maybe I’m just too biased to think that if you create a company that’s super-valuable, that at least some part of that, you should be able to have – a little bit for consumption, and hopefully the balance to do philanthropic things,” Gates continued.
Warren’s plan has led Gates to wonder “how open-minded she is” when it comes to tax policy. He also does not know if “she’d be willing to sit down with somebody who has large amounts of money.”
Gates is 100% correct. He built Microsoft from the ground up. He deserves his wealth and the right to manage it however he sees fit.
Also, his wealth allows him to grow Microsoft. He can make it better. He can produce better products for consumers. Growth also means more jobs for people.
Gates and his wife Melinda have also used their wealth for good. They are known as one of the most charitable couples in the world. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the world with $50.7 billion in assets.
Gates encourages his fellow billionaires and other wealthy people “to donate the majority of their wealth to charity.” The foundation developed The Giving Pledge, which had over 170 signatures in 2017.
In 2018, they were named “the most generous philanthropists in America.” Overall they have donated more than $36 billion. They donated $4.8 billion in 2017 alone. From Business Insider:
Since its launch in 2000, their foundation has spent more than $36 billion to fund work in global health, emergency relief, education, poverty, and more.The philanthropists have pledged about $2 billion to help defeat malaria alone. Their foundation most recently partnered with mosquito engineering company Oxitec to develop a male mosquito that would kill off future generations of malaria-transmitting bugs. The Gates Foundation wants to eliminate malaria “within a generation,” tackling a disease that has recently been on a fatal rise after decades of decline.Bill and Melinda Gates are also working to end Ebola and polio; they donated more than $50 million in 2014 to help fight the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, and they pledged $38 million to a Japanese pharmaceutical company that is working on creating a low-cost polio vaccine.One of the foundation’s most significant partnerships is with the GAVI Alliance, a group of scientists, government leaders, businesses, and philanthropists working to improve access to vaccines in the poorest countries in the world. The Gates Foundation has committed at least $2.5 billion to the GAVI Alliance since 1999.
Warren and other so-called progressives would rather have the government “spread the wealth” instead of private charities. It also seems like they think these business owners hoard their money when the majority invest a lot of their wealth back into the company.
You take away their money they cannot give as much to charity. I am by no means wealthy, but I wish my taxes would go down so I could give even more to charity.
Gates has criticized President Donald Trump in the past, but he would not tell the conference who he would vote for if the ticket was between Trump or Warren:
“I’m not going to make political declarations,” Gates said. “But I do think no matter what policy somebody has in mind … whoever I decide will have the more professional approach in the current situation, probably is the thing I will weigh the most. And I hope that the more professional candidate is an electable candidate.”
Warren responded to Gates’s remarks:
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