razoloto999Apr 26, 2024

Is Bill Gates technically still the richest person in the world? Can he use his foundation's endowment money any way he chooses?

https://sh.itjust.works/post/18410145

Is Bill Gates technically still the richest person in the world? Can he use his foundation's endowment money any way he chooses? - sh.itjust.works

If you look here: https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/ [https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/] Bill Gates is only the 5th richest. …but the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/foundation-fact-sheet] has an endowment total of $75.2 billion. So, his wealth ($149 billion) + foundation ($75 billion) = $224 billion. So, my question is…can he spend that foundation money any way he wants instead of spending his personal money? If he wants a jet can he just use the foundation money? If so, then he is still the richest person in the world even though he does not get labeled as such in the news anymore.

Show threadDessertStormsApr 26, 2024

he does not get labeled as such in the news anymore

That's because the philanthropy is working exactly as intended - to white wash his reputation, and make him out to be "the good billionaire".

Moving down from no. 1 to no. 5, at that scale of wealth literally has no impact on him, but rather it's money well spent to take the heat and attention off of him so he can continue exploiting an hoarding in peace.

Show threadfine_sandy_bottomApr 27, 2024

I genuinely don’t understand why this perspective is so popular.

He spent a boatload of cash vaccinating kids which has undoubtedly saved 10s of millions of lives.

Fuck him right? What an asshole.

Yes he gets a tax deduction for money contributed to the foundation, but it’s still a net loss to him.

Yes the foundation probably pays for jets and flights but its audited regularly so it can’t be used as a personal slush fund for private purposes.

Yes I’m sure there were some unintended consequences and failed projects, but solving problems and helping people particularly in impoverished nations is hard.

Are other billionaires doing a better job of saving the world ?

Show threaddependencyinjection

My issue is that we allow people to amass these massive fortunes to then choose what problems they fix.

Not to dissuade from anything good BG has done, that doesn’t excuse all the terrible things he did to amass this fortune.

Apr 27, 2024 at 3:22pmWeb
Show threadfine_sandy_bottomApr 27, 2024

Sure. Microsoft was a scumbag company in the 90s with some pretty aggressive corporate practices, and gates was the beneficiary of that.

I also agree that billionaires just generally shouldn’t exist.

That said, I guarantee that 99% of commenters in this thread have pension funds holding investments in infinitely worse scumbag companies.

Also, Gates more or less just stopped. He still has a 1% holding in Microsoft or something, but he’s not grinding away burning baby dolphin oil for personal gain.

There’s plenty of hatred for terrible corporate practices to go around, but I don’t understand why Gates is targeted more than anyone else.