Faux generosity: How Bill Gates bought his power and influence | Hacker News Reader

Faux generosity: How Bill Gates bought his power and influence

mintpressnews.com

23 pointsAndrewBissell14 comments

>if Gates is so committed to giving his money away, why does he keep getting richer?

>he should not be viewed as a hero. All billionaires should be viewed as sick in the head.

Is this really worth posting on HN? Sounds like a great way to disencentivize philanthropy, reminding me yet again of https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/07/29/against-against-billio...

Well you know what? Building massive empires while evading taxes, exploiting unregulated markets or down-right not adhering to existing law and then relying on „philanthropy“ to make the world a better place should be disincentivized.

That said Bill & Melinda Gates do seem genuine in their efforts and I think it‘s great what they‘re doing. They just shouldn‘t have been able to obtain such obscene amounts of wealth in the first place.

If Bill Gates had donated 100% of his wealth the instant he became a billionaire, his total amount donated would be 1B, and then he would be broke.

Alternatively, if he holds onto his MSFT position and donates over the course of his life, his total amount donated will be >100B.

I don‘t care how much he donates. My point is exactly that we shouldn‘t have to rely on one wealthy individual for anything. The money should‘ve stayed in big parts with the people that helped build this wealth (i.e. employees) and the ones living in the country which enabled this creation of wealth (i.e. taxes)

The only problem I have with the very wealthy is their influence on government that the average person doesn't have. They can afford teams of lobbyists to pitch support to provide loopholes to make themselves more wealthy. They can influence elections through large donations to PACS that favor the wealthy.

Other than this, I really don't care how much money they have.

Mint Press is known for publishing copy for Sputnik and Russia Today. This isn't newsworthy nor does it belong on HN.

I don't believe Bill Gates has all this money on hand. He'd have to sell massive amounts of shares to actually hold his wealth. Wouldn't selling his shares to actually obtain that wealth damage the businesses for which the shares are for?

No, there'd be buyers for his shares, at the market value determined by the performance and intrinsic value of Microsoft

The value of Microsoft has to do with the performance of its business, not the makeup of its investors

I meant more so in selling off large amounts of shares at one time.

This is such a propaganda piece...

Rich people get rich (outside of criminals) by enriching the lives of others through voluntary trade. Get over it.

Oh yeah, I mean Gates fostered so much voluntary trade that his company faced the largest antitrust suit in US history.

Super voluntary.

He did say outside of criminals. Underhanded practices to remove competition is illegal

I don't see how this is relevant to HN. Just because it's a story about someone related to technology doesn't mean the story has anything to do with anything but politics.

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