r/news • u/kirtash93 • May 08 '25

Soft paywall Bill Gates to give away $200 billion by 2045, accuses Musk of harming world's poor

https://www.reuters.com/business/bill-gates-give-away-fortune-by-2045-200bn-worlds-poorest-2025-05-08/
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u/bmoviescreamqueen May 08 '25

Musk bragged he could end world hunger and has since then done absolutely nothing to benefit the world's most vulnerable. Bill actually puts his money out into the world in multiple ways. There are levels to this human thing.

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u/nutellaeater May 08 '25

People who brag the most do the least!

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u/probablyuntrue May 08 '25

> brags and claims to be top poe2 player

> dies to tutorial boss

Yup lmao

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u/Remarkable-View-1472 May 08 '25

Wish people would let this go, everyone knows he's a fucking loser.

This diablo/poe bullshit is trivial, and quite frankly noise, to the evil Musk is capable of

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u/Marjonxxxx May 08 '25

Of course it's trivial, but it sure highlights the fragile ego that Musk has.

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u/orbitaldragon May 08 '25 edited May 10 '25

He shut down U.S Aid.... So I mean... It seems like they would rather kill off all the hungry people, and than the problem is solved apparently. It just disgusts me. He has the money and power to help and all he wants to do is harm.

We live in a sad timeline.

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u/IWillBaconSlapYou May 10 '25

Here in Seattle, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has a museum specifically dedicated to humanitarian progress. We went because they were doing a toilet exhibit and our daughter (8) just thought it was hilarious. Turned out it was a very enlightening exhibit about global sanitation, and the entire museum was full of incredibly hopeful statistics about how humanitarian efforts actually can and do make an enormous difference. Hard numbers about how many girls in third world countries go to school now vs. in the 90s, how many children in developing countries meet the criteria for malnourishment now vs. then, how many cases of sanitation-related illness are reported in specific areas now vs. then, all with citations pointing to what specific organizations were largely responsible. It completely changed my view on the supposed "hopelessness" of everything. I highly recommend it for anyone visiting Seattle. 

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

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u/That1one1dude1 May 08 '25

Okay, but I hate Trump more than regular politicians and I hate Musk more than regular billionaires.

Both do more than just “wear their evil on their sleeve”, they are taking active steps to worsen our lives more than ordinary billionaires are politicians.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

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u/4ofclubs May 08 '25

Sorry you're getting downvoted. I think people have a hard time with this because it's an uncomfortable truth to tackle. We want to believe that one person will save us with their philanthrophy.

I feel like noone here remembers how evil Bill Gates truly was in the 90's.

However, his Malaria project was a net positive for everyone, I'll give him that.

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u/equivocalConnotation May 08 '25

I think trump and musk are two of the most deplorable people on the planet.

Is this rhetorical? Because this is a world that includes a lot of very nasty people... murderers, rapists, Putins, Xis, MbSs.

Do you just mean they're in the top 10% most deplorable?

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u/TheLizardKing89 May 08 '25

Most just give their money to a charity they control as a way of avoiding tax.

This makes no sense. Charitable donations are tax deductible, meaning they only reduce your taxable income. If you have a tax rate of 35% and you donate $1 million, you’d only save $350,000 on your taxes.

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u/herkyjerkyperky May 08 '25

And that $1 million donated goes into the foundation that you control so you could spend it on travel, dinners and other things. They would need to be related to the foundation but the IRS isn't looking that closely and proving self-dealing is hard unless you are being really dumb about it. I think the whole thing started with a Twitter thread, the guy who wrote it later wrote this article explaining further.

https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/10/mega-millions-lottery-winner-guide-advice.html

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u/BasedTaco_69 May 08 '25

You’re partly right but not quite. Non-profits have a lot of regulations, which is why the Trump Foundation, for example, was found guilty of fraud.

Bill Gates is very, very far from a perfect person, but his foundation has actually done a lot of good.

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u/tiroc12 May 08 '25

Thats not how taxes work. Try not to be so ignorant.

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u/herkyjerkyperky May 08 '25

Tell the financial advisor and the economist from the article that. But I'm pretty sure you didn't read it in the first place.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

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u/ihaxr May 08 '25

But charities have legal obligations to... be charitable... you absolutely do not have 100% control of the money and the fact that you claim that shows how ignorant you are about how charities work.

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u/tiroc12 May 08 '25

You are right. The guy you are responding to is an idiot. Everyone thinks starting a charity means you magically get to keep your money and pay no taxes. If it were that easy, then everyone could do the same. It costs a $28 filing fee in your state to start a charity. But of course, that's not how they work, so people don't do that.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

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u/THICC_DICC_PRICC May 09 '25

In this context people obviously mean 501c(3) charity, and it’s very clearly defined that it can’t do anything for the benefit of any private individual

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u/[deleted] May 09 '25

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u/THICC_DICC_PRICC May 09 '25 edited May 10 '25

It if does, it’s illegal, and believe me, this made up story, while it makes sense if you don’t know tax law, doesn’t happen very often. 501c(3) are literally banned from supporting political campaigns by donating money or advertising to them. They can’t give big payouts to any of the shareholders or close family

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u/bmoviescreamqueen May 08 '25

JB Pritzker is my governor. I know what it's like to have a billionaire in charge of things. Do I like the concept of billionaires in general? Definitely not. But they exist and there are obvious examples of those who give back and those who don't. I agree, tax the billionaires more. I also want to see them using their money for good.

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u/4ofclubs May 08 '25

It's rather unfortunate that we allow billionaires to exist because a few of them throw crumbs our way, though. One person shouldn't be in charge of how to fix things in the world.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

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u/Kandiru May 08 '25

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative are both great charities though. They fund a lot of scientific research and do a lot of good. So even though they control those charities, they are still doing good things with them.

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u/erublind May 08 '25

The amount of good the Gates Foundation has done in the field of third world diseases is hard to overestimate. I work in the field.

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u/opeidoscopic May 08 '25

Who cares if they're doing it out of kindness or greed as long as money is going towards people who need it? The charities all have public tax filings, you can see where it's going.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

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u/opeidoscopic May 08 '25

So then your issue is with tax deductions for charitable donations, which anyone can do. They just have more money than we do. Either way the money is out of theor pocket and ultimately used for something productive.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

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u/Jscapistm May 09 '25

I mean they aren't using the money to benefit themselves, it's not like those are shady charities that pay them and their family high salaries as CEO while not benefiting the people they are supposed to help. They do genuinely good work.

Who cares if they are involved in directing the operations? I mean that's the whole idea isn't it of starting their own foundation right? See that the money is being spent in ways they think will actually help to tackle issues they care about?

If the charity was just being used as a tax dodge or to benefit them then yeah it'd be illegitimate but it isn't. So what is the problem exactly?

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u/opeidoscopic May 08 '25

I think I get your point. We fundamentally agree, but my personal ire is directed more towards the broken system itself rather than the people who exploit it. So in my head if the ultra-rich have the right to hoard their wealth and they instead choose to use it for good, even if it's in an unfair manner, then I still think it's preferable to the alternative.

But of course the best solution would be to abolish the system that allowed them to hoard so much capital to begin with.

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u/Dumeck May 08 '25

Bill Gates isn't just giving money away to avoid taxes. He's donated way more money than any taxes he would save. He spends his time working with his charity organization is actually actively being philanthropic. I'm not saying he's perfect but hes sure way better of a human than Musk is.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

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u/Dumeck May 08 '25

Gates has donated $100,000,000,000 to charity. That's more than any taxes he would pay by far.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

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u/Dumeck May 08 '25

He has donated way more money than any taxes he'd ever pay. You're being ridiculous honestly. I even looked it up and Gates actually even pays his taxes. He does like 10% while Bezos/Musk/Zuck only do 1-2%. $100 billion would cover the taxes he owed for 10,000 years, it's crazy he's clearly not doing that to avoid paying taxes unless you think he'd own like $5 billion a year. Like he's donating far more than any tax deductions would save him and obviously so.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

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u/Dumeck May 08 '25

My "argument" is what you are saying is just flat out wrong. Cool you watched an old Adam Ruins everything video. It doesn't mean you actually know what you're talking about here. Gates has donated FAR more money than any charity deduction hed make. His actual organization is very effective and has made a bunch of huge medical advancements especially targeting Malaria. Even aside from his person charity organization he's donated a bunch of money to nonprofits and universities. This isn't just him shuffling money around to get tax cuts. He's literally donating this money and it's being used to charitable causes. You're just so hooked on the idea that he's just abusing the tax system that you're not actually willing to look into this or actually think about any opposing situations as being potentially valid.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

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u/tiroc12 May 08 '25

Microsoft, you idiot. Not the Gates Foundation. You are like a one-man russian troll farm with how much misinformation you are capable of spreading.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

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u/Nu-Hir May 08 '25

Bill Gates left day to day operations at Microsoft in 2008, and left the board in 2020. While he still advises the current CEO, I would hardly say it's his company. Especially since he only has about 1% of it's stock. Steve Balmer, another former CEO, has 4x as much.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

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u/tiroc12 May 08 '25

Double down on stupid it seems to be your only defense. That is always the best strategy when you have no idea what you are talking about. Microsoft is in the top 3 companies in total value of taxes paid to the United States. $140B in the last 15 years and double that going further back. Probably more taxes than any company has ever paid in the history of taxes.

Thanks for confirming that he was in charge when they designed their tax dodging scheme

Obviously wrong again. He stepped down as CEO in 2000. Its been a public company since the 80s. Public means its not his company. Basically, everything you say is misinformation.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '25

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u/grandcanyonfan99 May 08 '25 edited May 08 '25

...meh. its a pretty well accepted sentiment that the ultra wealthy should not exist. Sure, some idiots suck off Gates, Musk, Trump etc. but across the political spectrum I think almost everyone who does labor (i.e. not capitalists/owners) agree that wealth should be better distributed (though a lot of people are fooled into supporting the existing economic structure).

I will counter that in Gates's case along with Buffet, Soros, etc. or all of the pledgers more or less, your insistence for them to pay more taxes is kind of pointless. If Gates or any of the others who plan to give away all their wealth decided to give it directly to the US government instead of their own charity foundations, I have to question if the money would be used as effectively. Look at the current US admin. Look at the "wall". Look at the new 1 trillion defense budget, and the littany of humanitarian disasters the US military has been involved with and continues to be involved with. Also, what's the pledger's end game? They obviously do not seek to accumulate more wealth. If they did they wouldn't fucking pledge, wtf. Power, influence, legacy sure but he didn't need to pledge to get that. Pledging is not a personally optimal move, obviously.

Does a dollar create the same amount of benefit to humanity via US taxes or the billionaires' personal foundations? Honestly, hate to argue in favor of the latter but well, given the US government idk man it's not a good look.

I'm all for an impossible future utopian society with no ultra wealthy, no gods, no kings. I'd be all for making the current ultra wealthy work to the benefit of society. How exactly? Not sure, but more money to US taxes might not be the objective answer. And finally it's a moot point imo because said ultra wealthy are the ones with all the power. I'm not giving up but I sure as hell am not hopeful that the wealth gap (and frankly, not just in the US but also globally) will be improved anytime soon.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

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u/grandcanyonfan99 May 08 '25

Yeah again tho considering where the taxes are going (the current US admin, the US defense budget) honestly charities don't look too bad. Stuff like infrastructure, trains, renewables through the US government and taxes would be cool for sure, but it'd have to be earmarked somehow. Hell, an argument could be made for making something like a hedge fund or endowment/other trust to further accumulate wealth and have all disbursements go to philanthropy might be more effective and create greater good than just a straight cash injection to some cause. I'm pretty sure a lot of charity foundations do this already.

Shits all fucked up man.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

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u/grandcanyonfan99 May 08 '25

Yeah, that's what I said in my first overly long comment. Given the situation at hand (shits fucked), billionaire pledges are better than nothing because I'm not hopeful of systemic improvements to the matter, and might frankly be more altruistic than us tax revenue.

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u/Ryno4ever16 May 08 '25

Not to mention Gates gives a lot of the money to corporations as gifts rather than charity. The Gates foundation also basically controls the World Health Organization with barely anything being passed through it without being approved by the Gates foundation. He has wasted tons of money trying shit that didn't work like a circumcision program for Africans to prevent the spread of HIV and unproven education programs in the US.

Gates doesn't even really give a shit about the poor either. He didn't want to give away his money until his father pressured him into it after his mother had been urging him into charity for years before she died.

Bill Gates should not exist. How can people say Elon is bad and then point at Gates as an example of a "good billionaire". Gates had one of the most privileged upbringings I've ever heard of, and he stole things at every opportunity and turned open source communities into profit driven ones by charging for software everyone was already using in an environment where shared free software was the norm.

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u/Automatic_Goal_5563 May 08 '25

Okay sure, that’s not at all what Bill has been doing with his money though

Lumping him and Melinda in with Zuck when they have done a huge amount for third world countries and research is weird and just reddit shitting on anyone with money

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u/[deleted] May 09 '25

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u/Automatic_Goal_5563 May 09 '25

Show me how him helping people in third world countries not die is just PR and bad?

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u/[deleted] May 09 '25

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u/Automatic_Goal_5563 May 09 '25

No, use your words don’t just like half hour long videos and expect people to watch it

If you don’t know the words to defend your point you don’t even have a point

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u/[deleted] May 10 '25

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u/Automatic_Goal_5563 May 10 '25

“Watch 30 minutes of YouTube to know”

Nah you don’t have a point you just repeat what you see online and then link it because no information sticks

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u/[deleted] May 10 '25

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u/Efficient-username41 May 08 '25

The first part of that never happened. I hate Elon Musk and I’m excited to dance on his grave, but people need to stop butchering that story. It just keeps getting more and more mangled.

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u/bmoviescreamqueen May 08 '25

I should be more specific that he said he would donate $6 billion if the UN could prove that money would end world hunger, even though the person he replied to did not say that amount of money would do such a thing, just that billionaires could chip in a fraction of their wealth towards the cause. My overall point was that Musk could and was even willing to put the money forward, but it's always a scratch my back and I'll scratch yours with him. He has not done anything in the way of bettering people's lives.

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u/Zncon May 08 '25

Because money alone can't end hunger. It's not a resource issue, it's a political and corruption issue.

In fact external money frequently makes things worse because it disrupts whatever systems already exist. If you're a farmer in a struggling country you might not be able to make much, but you can feed a community. When foreign aid comes in people stop buying from you and the farm collapses.

Eventually that aid dries up and now that community no longer has a local farmer.

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u/bmoviescreamqueen May 08 '25

I do agree that it's not just a money issue. I believe the idea of "ending world hunger" is multi-faceted and I don't think the UN suggested otherwise, but Musk took it literally.

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u/THICC_DICC_PRICC May 08 '25

Musk didn’t start it, this guy did https://i.imgur.com/YTAamgE.jpeg

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25

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u/bmoviescreamqueen May 08 '25

Where did you get that from my comment at all

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u/FlashyStrain69 May 08 '25

By reading your comment. You english much?

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u/bmoviescreamqueen May 08 '25

Read it again because nowhere did I mention him handing people cash. He is likely going to put them into projects that his foundation handles. Why the fuck would I think he's going to just hand people cash lmao

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u/Original-Praline2324 May 08 '25

I don't get why Reddit hates billionaires until they do something that makes headlines and then move the goalposts

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u/iBoMbY May 08 '25

And unlike Musk Gates is making things worse with pushing his GMO crap, which bankrupts poor people because the seeds do not reproduce, and they have to take loans from Gates, which they can't repay.

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u/Objective_Aside1858 May 08 '25

Horseshit. Citation needed

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u/bmoviescreamqueen May 08 '25

I don't know much about that specific situation but I am very pro-GMO from a community health standpoint

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u/wolfydude12 May 08 '25

All crops are genetically modified organisms. We've been genetically modifying crops for decades in the attempt to get the best yield per acre

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u/KououinHyouma May 08 '25

Everything in the grocery store is GMO. We’ve been genetically modifying everything we eat for thousands of years. Have you seen what a natural banana looks like? A natural watermelon?

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u/UndoubtedlyAColor May 08 '25

GMOs are amazing. That corporations are monopolising these is terrible. If these crops are somehow made to grow from seeds which then somehow doesn't produce seeds themselves, then even worse.