• finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Bill Gates might hold the record for number of starving babies saved and illnesses cured, though.

        Even if you think his wealth is stolen, can you prove the average american would have done more good with it?

        • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          But plenty of Americans are still dying of malnutrition, dehydration, heat stroke, hypothermia, and many other preventable diseases. You think we’d be worse off if the average American had more money?

          And nothing against helping starving children in foreign countries or whatnot, but if we’re so bad off that people think more police and prisons are the answer we’re clearly underinvesting in our own well-being.

          • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Dehydration is a major cause of pediatric illness and death worldwide, some number between 14% and 30% of fatalities in infants and toddlers.

            In the USA it does not even make the top 10, with some number lower than 1.6% according to the CDC.

            You’re actually required by law to provide drinkable water to people who ask in some states, though there is no federal recognition. There are also many programs to assist with heating and cooling for those who cannot afford it.

            You don’t deserve an extra side of fries more than a starving child in Afghanistan. Get over yourself.

              • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Assume Bill Gates is worth 102,200,000,000 according to Forbes

                That could be split evenly among 340 Million americans as $300 each.

                Can you afford housing and education with an extra $300?

                • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  Not all of us need $300. I don’t and I’m not asking for it. I’m asking for more help for the people that will die or turn to crime because their needs aren’t met.

    • Akasazh@feddit.nl
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      3 months ago

      He’s the lesser of two weevils, though.

      Let him out his money where his mouth is

      • legion02@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        He kinda already has. Supposedly already over 100B in charitable donations and has pledged another 100B (basically all of his fortune at) over the next 20 years

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Yep. Equally evil.

          • One guy already donates $100B and pledging most of his fortune
          • other guy a Nazi who not only makes no donations despite being at times richest person on the planet, but leveraged his wealth to end government programs assisting the less fortunate both in the us and globally

          I can see how these look the same. /s

    • Jesus@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I’m out of the loop.

      I’m not down with hoarding of wealth or the shit software he’s made, but what are the allegations against Gates? (The legit ones, not the “he’s putting microchips in Covid vaccines” shit)

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Yeah this just seems like a troll or argument for the sake of argument. It’s just too preposterous an argument

        Did Melon discover Lemmy?

        • diffaldo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          3 months ago

          I must have missed those, thanks for reminding me. Btw can u recommed podcast similiar to behind the bastards.

          • kibiz0r@midwest.social
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            3 months ago

            Well, if you like BtB, you’ll probably enjoy any and all Cool Zone Media pods.

            But if I take similar here to mean: Episodic true history that is partly educational, partly comedic, with an air of “How the fuck did this ever happen?”

            There are a few that fit:

            • Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine
            • Darknet Diaries
            • Sixteenth Minute (of Fame)
            • If Books Could Kill
            • You’re Wrong About
            • Build For Tomorrow

            Some other ones that I always recommend:

            • You Are Not So Smart
            • Team Human
            • Cory Doctorow’s Craphound
            • Molly White’s Citation Needed
            • Very Bad Wizards
            • Knifepoint Horror
      • utopiah@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Just imagine a World where ALL governments, ALL schools of all countries did not have to pay a fee to the then world richest man.

        Imagine if a fraction of those governments invested instead on infrastructure, both physical (imagine literal bridges going to schools) and software (as some are doing now) or better paid teachers. Imagine that some of that money would be invested in Linux, gcompris, etc.

        That’s the genuine cost of Gates wealth.

        Think I’m a “communist” for thinking that? Well I guess then the American DoJ is on that boat too because the 2001 antitrust law case was a landmark, not a matter of my opinion.

        So… yes, he’s a billionaire who did donate a lot of money, but how did he get that money in the first place? It wasn’t his to donate to.

        • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          If he stole tens of billions from the Americans then donated it to starving children in the poorest region, isn’t that still a net possitive? It’s like the tech dystopian Robin Hood.

          • utopiah@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            In your analogy that’d still be Robin Hood coming from a very rich family, accumulating more wealth that anybody he knows around him, fighting with his best friends to keep more, getting indicted by the most powerful government on Earth because he abused his power… then giving only a very small fraction of his wealth to some starving children while still sitting in his mansions, accumulating still more money without working.

            That’s not the Robin Hood of my childhood to say the least. To me that’s clearly not a net positive.

            I do recommend listening to the episode of Behind the Bastards to get a clearer view of the entire process, not “just” imagining a “net positive” outcome regardless of the path that lead to it.

            Edit : sorry but while re-reading what I wrote, somehow confabulating the richest man on Earth for years to Robin Hood shows how excellent his PR work was. Like… what the fuck?!

            Edit2: oh yeah and Robin Hood would fight for Big Pharma during a worldwide pandemic, … no, absolutely NOT Robin Hood.

            • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              Small Fraction?! It’s been over 90% of income for decades, recently he’s vowed to distribute 99% of not just income but total wealth.

              • utopiah@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                “Forbes magazine ranked him as the world’s wealthiest person for 18 out of 24 years between 1995 and 2017, including 13 years consecutively from 1995 to 2007. He became the first centibillionaire in 1999, when his net worth briefly surpassed $100 billion. According to Forbes, as of May 2025, his net worth stood at US$113 billion, making him the thirteenth-richest individual in the world.”

                Wake up. Not Robin Hood.

      • diffaldo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        3 months ago

        Gates has history of lawsuits against open source projects. And he actively donates against any real systemic change. For example he has invested heavily in carbon capture technology which is useless to making impact to climate change.

      • ludicolo@lemmy.ml
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        3 months ago

        Motherfucker met with Epstein multiple times. That should be enough to say he is just as bad as Elon.

        He is also buying up farm land for pennies on the dollar for himself. His education reform was such a painful failure we continue to pay for it. The gates foundation thought they knew mkre than educators and spent a shit ton of money to run an experiment.“aimed at making teachers more effective” my ass. How do you make people more effective when you don’t listen to their needs? Time and time again bill turned educators away or straight up didn’t listen to them when they expressed concerns. Kinda reminds me of doge raiding the department of education now that I think about it. Bill just fucked shit up in a more clean non obvious manner.

        He continues to hoard his wealth and placate everyone with his “i am going to donate a lot, don’t worry fellas” statements. Bill why are you waiting til 2045 to donate $200 billion? Why not fight elon now if you are so worried? Because he isn’t.

        He is evil just like the rest of them. He has just done a better job at reorganizing the skeletons in the closet over the years to stop people questioning.

        • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          The Gates Foundation backpedaled that stance shortly after. Their initial objection was over quality assurance.

          • Chastity2323@midwest.social
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            3 months ago

            The Gates Foundation backpedaled that stance shortly after

            can you provide a source for this?

            Their initial objection was over quality assurance

            Who is he to decide this? He is not an epidemiologist or a public health expert or a leader of a low-resource nation or even a health professional. He’s a tech billionaire. This is exactly the problem.

            Many large US companies, including pharmaceutical drug retailers, directly invest in the Gates Foundation Trust, creating a massive conflict of interest which is rarely talked about.

            https://healthscienceandlaw.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Public-Interest-Position.WHO_.FENSAGates.Jan2017.pdf

            https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/science/16malaria.html

            • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              The Gates Foundation backpedaled that stance shortly after

              can you provide a source for this?

              Literally the first search result LINK

              Who is he to decide this?

              He was cohosting the multinational committee event for Gavi, a vaccine alliance which includes the WHO ans UNICEFF. He is widely respected there because he runs an organization which spent decades of providing medicines and vaccines across the globe.

              • Chastity2323@midwest.social
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                3 months ago

                Literally the first search result LINK

                This appears to be just a statement of support for “narrow” patent waviers during the pandemic. This is not the same as open licensing the Oxford vaccine and calling this “backpedaling” is misleading at best.

        • MajesticElevator@lemmy.zip
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          3 months ago

          Question is, how many vaccines would those countries have got if it wasn’t patented?

          AstraZeneca sold the vaccines without making a profit

  • DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Musk is doing other things. He’s a mass polluter having launched thousands of rockets each burning a shit load of fuel, distributing heavy mentals into the statosphere, q and punching holes in the Ozone layer.

  • whaleiam@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Got banned for saying this on Reddit . Also uhh fuck you Billy boy

  • ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    like that time bill gave mone to warren buffet for “investment”. warren buy cheap food in africa, food price soar, kids die, melinda foundation to the help, bill begging for nobel peace award.

    anyway, americans are just greedy pigs no matter what. even if they drown in money to hang out with epstein to abuse children they scumbag as much as possible.

    bill gates maxed out the harm to children; starving them in africa, abusing them on epstein island.

    get fucked americans!

  • thatradomguy@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I really do think it would be fun to compile all of the billionaires in the world and just have them fight to the death in a gladiator kind of rig. Would be awesome.

    • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I feel like the only way it would work is if they got to keep the money of whoever they killed as long as that person had over a billion dollars… and I would almost be OK with that.

      I like to imagine it would reduce the collateral damage the rest of society faces when these people have a dick waving contest.

      Roided out billionaires with their hearts exploding out their chests from experimental steroids would really mix things up in a good way. He’ll maybe we’d get some truly sick cybernetic out of it too.

      • SippyCup@feddit.nl
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        3 months ago

        Y…yeah … sure. Yeah totally. The last one standing totally gets to keep everything and will absolutely be leaving the arena alive. Yup. That’s how we’ll do it.

      • jsomae@lemmy.ml
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        3 months ago

        Wealth concentration is bad, so multiple billionaires is better than one super-duper-billionaire.

    • minkymunkey_7_7@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Kat and Kropp get in an argument over the war as they rest from an hour’s worth of drill (occasioned by Tjaden’s not saluting a major properly). Kat believes the war would be over if leaders gave all the participants “the same grub and the same pay,” as he says in a rhyme. Kropp believes the leaders of each country should fight each other in an arena to settle the war; the “wrong” people currently do the fighting.

      Erich Maria Remarque - All Quiet on the Western Front 1929

  • Tm12@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    I was promised Bill Gates would give me 5G’s with a vaccine.

  • Glitterbomb@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Bill gates is always spending his money eradicating diseases. Maybe he can eradicate this musk disease too

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    3 months ago

    Sounds more like someone has seen the world turning on the worthless shit that are billionaires NOT that someone has seen the light and wants to make the world a better place…

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      The Gates Foundation has been donating medicine, food, and water to the world’s poorest regions for over almost 30 years, Bill Gates alone has contributed over 100 Bn USD and intends to donated an additional 100 Bn in the next few years.

      This isn’t just some 11th hour last minute PR stunt.

      • zbyte64@awful.systems
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        3 months ago

        We don’t don’t need princes or kings doing PR. If we taxed billionaires out of existence we could fund that and so much more. This guy doesn’t get to make up for whatever he was doing on Epstein’s plane, at least not without coming clean first.

          • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            It was on the Kamala Harris campaign website that she supported an unrealized gains tax for amounts over $1 Million USD.

            Conservatives were freaking out that it might “destroy the economy which relies on foreign investors to prop up the value of USD” lmao.

            • Aux@feddit.uk
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              3 months ago

              Everyone should freak out, because it’s an utter lunacy.

              • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Compared to the Republican Shitshow destroying the economy anyways and the infinitely stacking Billionnaire wealth hack it sounds like a dream come true.

                The Chinese would figure out a way to get their stock market fix, the USA ended up loaning their gains from the transactions to struggling countries anyways so China divesting in the USA would just cut out the middleman.

            • Aux@feddit.uk
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              3 months ago

              I have no clue who are “we” in your case, but we don’t tax property.

                • Aux@feddit.uk
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                  3 months ago

                  These are not actually property taxes. Stamp duty is like VAT, it’s a transaction tax and its rate is very low. You don’t pay stamp duty while owning a property. Council tax is a weird abomination and while it is linked to property value in theory, in practice you’ll pay the same amount if you live in a £1m house or £50m mansion. Business rates are for business, and property owners don’t pay them, only those who rent.

                  There are no property taxes in the UK. The current government is thinking about land tax, but we’ll see if it ever comes to fruition.

        • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          I think you can simultaneously be pro-tax and acknowledge Bill Gates is a good person in a sea of villains.

        • Viper_NZ@lemmy.nz
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          3 months ago

          We could do so much more, but would we? USAID was just shuttered. There’s every chance that money would go into the military industrial complex or something equally unpleasant.

          Not defending billionaires as a concept (they shouldn’t exist, and most aren’t as philanthropic as Bill), but I will acknowledge he’s doing a lot of good with his money.

          • 13igTyme@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            If we had been taxing billionaires for the last 50 years, the education system wouldn’t be where it is now and USAID would have never been under threat. In fact USAID would have probably never had to operate within the US.

            • zbyte64@awful.systems
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              3 months ago

              It’s also worth mentioning Gates has made our public education system worse by introducing us to the voucher system. Billionaires are part of why we don’t spend our tax dollars on things like universal healthcare or free college.

        • Auli@lemmy.ca
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          3 months ago

          So if we tax them on wealth they doesn’t exist. Do we tax regular folk on the cost of their houses also? I mean they are worth billions but not till they sell.