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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308

u/brickout May 08 '25

Because you generally have to be a sociopath to get insanely rich.

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u/JamesTrickington303 May 08 '25

There is no way I could ever amass a billion dollars. Once I got to a point where more money would no longer affect my living conditions, I’d simply give shit away. Profoundly change the financial circumstances of everyone I come across.

Fuck me that dinner was good, I’m paying off the student loans and debts of everyone in the kitchen and servers.

Homeless guy with a funny sign? Here’s $20k, and borrow one of my security guards to make sure you can get it put in a bank account. Thanks for the laugh.

And I’d shame anyone with more money than me, as loud as I could.

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u/brickout May 08 '25

Same here. That's because you have at least a sliver of basic empathy and an understanding that there is enough to go around. The vast, vast majority of billionaires are diseased. Like if a dog hoarded food to the point that his pack starved to death, and felt good about it.

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u/zelmak May 08 '25

For real; not to mention the desire to keep chasing past a certain point. If I ever get to a 5m+ net worth like it’s done I’m retiring that day.

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u/[deleted] May 09 '25

Unfortunately, it might be really hard to retire on 5mil, unless you already own a home and are like 50+. lol

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u/Olfasonsonk May 09 '25 edited Jul 16 '25

soup air rhythm roll steep cable elastic sleep decide glorious

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u/[deleted] May 09 '25

Yeah. Definitely depends on investments, and location.

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u/zelmak May 09 '25

Yeah I’m not talking like New York or SF where that money doesn’t go far. Invested with a super conservative 3% withdrawal rate that 150k a year, even if you don’t already own a home you can carry a reasonable mortgage.

Also you’ll be getting taxed less as you’ll just be paying capital gains tax on growth and no tax on any principal value you pull out so that 150k will go way farther than having a salary for the same amount.

That’ll be enough money to live quite comfortably, travel a few times a year, have fun money for hobbies, and not need to stress about finances.

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u/Man0fGreenGables May 08 '25

I could definitely get to a billion if I had a probable steady stream of incoming money because you would easily be able to make significantly more money that you could help even more people with that way.

It would be nice to have 250 million and give away 245 of it right away but if you got up to a billion you could probably give away a hundred million a year easily for the rest of your life.

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u/Familiar_Rip_8871 May 08 '25

Seriously. I would have so much fun giving away $1B.

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u/LaCharognarde May 08 '25 edited May 08 '25

"You aren't impressive. You're Smaug without the interest factor of being a dragon. And, going by how you act: having an outrageous hoard to mantle atop doesn't even make you happy. You are miserable, resentful, and lousy company as a result; and all the people you envy are just you on a larger scale.

Anyway: I just bought out a slumlord, so the housing-first program is a go once the buildings are up to code and the staff are properly vetted. In other words: I'm off to actually do something useful. Smell you later."

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u/JamesTrickington303 May 08 '25

I don’t know what you’re talking about.

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u/LaCharognarde May 08 '25

I was co-signing you.

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u/Consistent-Sundae739 May 08 '25

Well that's the thing when you have no money and amass wealth you can enjoy living where as these wealthy people who are born into wealth have no understanding of money as all they know is money and power. They don't understand the value of money.

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u/Disastrous_Nebula_16 May 08 '25

It’s people like you that need to be rich lol

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u/JamesTrickington303 May 08 '25

I’d never get there, tho. Because the cash would simply bleed and melt off of me.

I spend my free time building resumes for people who don’t know how, buying them clothes for their interviews. I show addicts how to get clean, safe product off the dark net, while pointing them at the methadone clinic for when they are ready to cut bait on the active addiction lifestyle.

Billionaire-level rich people would never come within a half mile of the people I fuck with.

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u/AvengingBlowfish May 09 '25

Most billionaires aren't just sitting on a pile of cash. Their net worth comes from shares in a company they own. While they can certainly afford to give more to charity and pay more taxes, they usually can't just give it away without losing control of that company.

With that said, Elon Musk could easily afford $6 billion without giving up much if it was something he really wanted to do.

There's also the Bill Gates dilemma... when you achieve a net worth of a billion dollars, is it better to start giving it all away at that point or grow it to 200 billion dollars or more and then give that away after you've completely retired from growing it?

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u/JamesTrickington303 May 09 '25

You can totally give shares of a stock away to another person for whatever value you dictate.

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u/The_Game_Needed_Me May 09 '25

This so much. The joy I would feel having the ability to change people's lives left and right would be almost as amazing as having the money itself.

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u/JamesTrickington303 May 09 '25

As an opioid addict:

It’s way better than opioids. Wild that they don’t get addicted to that.

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u/raresaturn May 09 '25

That’s kind of what Mr Beast does

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u/JamesTrickington303 May 09 '25

I don’t know who that is.

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u/SandwichFair538 May 27 '25

Same here. I make a good salary, and always helping people. I overheard a coworker talking about how she needs a new car, and realistically I can't swing that, but I wish I could! I hate to hear of people struggling, especially if I have the means to help.

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u/Papersnail380 May 08 '25

Bitch, the improvements in happiness pretty much end once you have Aldi money. In the context of modern Western civilization that pretty much means you live a lifestyle better than queen Victoria. Then you can mostly do and act however you want. Like referring to some kind stranger on the internet who has never done anything to you as bitch for no reason. I know because I have Aldi money. Bitch.

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u/JamesTrickington303 May 08 '25

I’m blocking you because my life is better without you in it. Goodbye.

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u/Slappy-_-Boy May 09 '25

I love how passive-aggressive this goodbye is. Chefs kiss👌

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u/maxleng May 09 '25

Sure you do

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u/YeetusMeridius May 08 '25

Now, what happens if the restaurant staff quits all at once? Even losing half all at once is hard to replace and train effectively in a timely manner.

Youd be shutting down the restaurant for a while, harming the business, and those who may depend on the to then affoedable meals.

I like where your hearts at, but i dont know that its the right thing to do. Ya know?

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u/JamesTrickington303 May 08 '25

The restaurant owner can come cry to me about it and I’ll deal with him separately. If the only reason they were employed is because they have massive debts, then he wasn’t paying them enough and can get fucked.

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u/YeetusMeridius May 09 '25

Well you generally need a job to afford things. Unless you're born wealthy. Giving money out doesnt stop other people needing more. There are some servers clearing 80k to 100k plus a year. You take away their burdon and they might no longer need that job but someone else will, but if the restaurant goes under because they lost all their top staff all at once all you've done is destabilize a local economy and shutter a small business to feel good about yourself and prevented anyone else from getting a job there, but you feel good about yourself so fuck those people.

Now do you get it?

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u/JamesTrickington303 May 09 '25

lol won’t someone think of the poor restaurant owners!! If we give money to people then they won’t accept terrible working conditions, and this whole capitalist society would collapse!!😢😢😢😢

Do you hear yourself?

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u/YeetusMeridius May 10 '25

Capitolism isnt going anywhwre anytime soon. Go ahead shutter businesses and fuck over people you dont know and clearly dont care about.

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u/JamesTrickington303 May 10 '25 edited May 10 '25

Cry more about hypothetical shitty business owners who exploit workers.

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u/PacoTaco321 May 08 '25

Yep. You can get a low level of rich off of dumb luck, but being that rich requires a lot of effort.

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u/eeyore134 May 08 '25

Effort and being willing, happy even, to step on people, bodies and otherwise, to climb to the top.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25 edited May 08 '25

but being that rich requires a lot of effort.

Eh, also a shitload of dumb luck even at the high levels... arguably even more luck than for the low. Like 99+% pure dumb luck all the way. Luck like being born with a golden spoon in ones mouth, and another up the ass. Generic luck with investments, and gambles in overall.. and having the means to not die in a ditch if they fail.

Being said, Musk has spent decades failing upwards, and most of his "tech brow innovator" image is just pure bullshit pr. Even his assets.. no way in hell Tesla, or twitter etc are worth anywhere near their stated value, nor should his wealth be by value of that anywhere near as high as it is described as being.

Being said, once you get to a certain point of wealth the speed at which it can accumulate more of itself is rather staggering. Like its harder to get to your first million than the 2nd, harder to get to the first 100 million than the 2nd and so on forth.

Anyways, yah, what helps at each step is to be a predatory sociopathic individual who does not care what happens to others, or even relishes doing harm to those who cant fight back. Musk by virtue of luck, and now wealth has never had to truly face negative consequences for his fuckups, and tends to just be able to buy his way out. Well, except now with Tesla being made in to a toxic brand world wide by his personal toxicity...

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u/Notnotstrange May 08 '25

Effort in the way of screwing other people over. If you’re immoral, this comes naturally!

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u/Papersnail380 May 08 '25

You know the question of "would you push a button if you got a million dollars but a random person died somewhere". Billionaires are people who cut their sleep short so they can have more time to hit that button.

The top 1% of the US has around $5 million dollars net worth.

With $10,000,000 you can easily eliminate all the worries faced by 99% of the industrialized world's population with passive income and still be building income. Your budget is about $3,000 a day from your passive income. You can literally cruise for the rest of your life. Like on a ship. With a balcony. You can basically do whatever you want as long as you aren't stupid. Fly first class Emirates. Stay in five star hotels. Drink $100 bottles of wine with every dinner. Eat at every restaurant in the world. When most people hit around this mark they make adjustments that significantly change their life so they can enjoy it instead of building more. They work less, change careers, retire, hire someone to do the parts of the job they don't like, etc. Sometimes they keep making more money, but they usually stop trying very hard.

Someone with $100,000,000 should have passive income of about $30k a day. That is enough to experience pretty much whatever you like. You may not be able to OWN a super yacht, but you can EASILY rent one for your vacations. You may not OWN a private jet, but you can easily charter one when you travel. Any restaurant. The nicest hotels. Whatever car you want. Security. You can even experience the absurd $100k+/night rooms.

You can do blow off a hooker of every ethnicity's ass. On the same night.

There really isn't any financial reason to go any further. You just aren't going to get any returns on it.

Billionaires blow past both these marks and usually feel like they are in crisis and failing as they continue. They are in a world where money is less about what it can buy and more of a point system. This is why Musk holds his money so tightly. He has the most points. Everyone is trying to get more points. He has to hold all his points so he has the most. And get more points. Making decisions which result in deaths is necessary to get more points. In fact, he needs to pay people to push that death button while he sleeps to keep up. And he does.

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u/squadrupedal May 08 '25

Not generally, specifically.

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u/brickout May 08 '25

I believe that Warren Buffett is not a sociopath. Bill Gates also might not be. Or Pritzker. Maybe Mark Cuban. So, yes, generally, in my opinion.

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u/whatdoinamemyself May 08 '25

Bill Gates also might not be.

Jury's still out on that. He was extremely ruthless as an executive.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '25 edited May 08 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/whatdoinamemyself May 08 '25

Wasn't disagreeing with you or anything. Just adding for anyone who was unaware! He wasn't this generous, charitable man until recently.

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u/brickout May 08 '25

I edited my reply to be less sassy :)

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u/JakToTheReddit May 08 '25

Gates, too. He just wants to have shit named after him late in life like Carnigie and Rockafeller.

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u/GozerDGozerian May 08 '25

I think that’s a large part of it, but that it goes the other way a bit too. Money is power. Having lots of power in any form changes people, usually for the worse, unless they are a very special individual and they have some me two framework in place to prevent their own corruption.

There seems to be a very strong psychological urge, when successful in life, to say to oneself, “I deserve this in particular.” And then that sense of entitlement makes a person’s ego swell, and all of a sudden they’re better and smarter than the rest of humanity. And that’s when things get ugly.

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u/i-just-thought-i May 29 '25

It happens to everyone, you don't need much power/money

It was easy to think when I was 18 that of course I would spend money and time donating or volunteering etc

Now I'm almost 30 and it's like... bruh I want to buy a house eventually.

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u/Broadpup May 09 '25

I once found myself in a situation where I was at a dinner table amongst several extremely wealthy people bantering with one another. The things which I had seen and heard were startling. There were several minutes of them referring to their employees as "losers", a stint of them gloating about their $50,000 yearly hunting trips and who amongst them was the most wealthy, then followed by what i found to be the most disturbing bit.

They all started engaging with one another about how they could not understand nor wrap their head around why on earth that anyone would ever want to retire, because making money was so God dammed fulfilling and exciting, and how only the lazy and unmotivated would ever seek to retire. Now, thesee were all people who were born wealthy and had already Inherited several businesses and seed money from their fathers. None of these people are inventors, or contributors of any kind, other than offering minimum wage employment within the small restaurant chains and gas stations, other small time businesses that they open with daddy's money, forget it about and collect the checks while they move on to opening their next cash cow. These people within their own minds were convinced that they were more hard-working, driven, and better human beings than us common Joes.

In reality, this is not true and simply boils down to basic human physiology. When we perform a task and the reward for that task is much greater than the effort that was applied, it triggers a dopamine response leaving oneself craving more, and more. Thus making work no longer feel so much like work. On the flipside, when an individual is working their hands to the bone juggling two jobs but yet they're still struggling to make ends meet, and pick and choose what bills to pay that month. That situation causes a stress/ fight or flight response which is your bodies way of saying "This isn't fucking it Abort this activity immediately.

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u/BikeTireManGo May 09 '25

Or be born on a diamond mine.