• RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    This is the same thing that other billionaire did with his fortune. Gave 3 billion “away” to his own charity so his kids could inherit without paying a penny in taxes.

    I make under 200k and the highest bracket I hit is 51% of my salary. Warren buffet has paid less than 10% taxes on his entire fortune. They’re playing us, the new cool thing is just to say it’s for the climate.

    • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
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      10 months ago

      Bezos pledged 40 billion (maybe 20, can’t remember) I believe in 2019.

      To date he has actually donated less than $200 million of it IIRC to any climate-related funds.

      It’s just a bold face lie, not even taking his own charity scams into account.

      Edit: also side rant: I have gotten a lot of wallstreetbets armchair investors in the past saying “b-b-but muh liquid vs assets, he would crash amazon stock.”

      Bezos has liquidated a minimum of $12 billion per year without even a slight blip in amazon stock. PLENTY to fulfil his pledge. People don’t understand the scale of sold shares. The stock market is completely speculative bs. If he liquidated every stock of amazon in a short time after an anouncement like this, investors would absolutely speculate that it would recover, the price would lower for a week or so while every hedge fund in existence rushes to buy every single stock that they have and voila, it would magically recover within a month and bozo would not be a complete lying scumbag. It would probably cause him to be audited though which is every bilionaire’s nightmare because they have all done such shady things and dodges so many taxes for so many years. At least if the IRS had any balls.

      • RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        It’s tax “brackets”. So from say 20-30k you’re taxed ~21%, the following 30-50k you make is taxed at another amount like 30%, and so forth. The last 30k made from 160-190k is then taxed at 49% (51% because I’m taking a bit more money instead of dumping into my pension fund etc…)

        And yeah it’s Canada, but in the province of Quebec, the most taxed province of all (where education is still heavily subsidized/ free for people born there etc…)…

        I’ve done this whole exercise on /r/theydidthemath years ago on reddit comparing to the US, and with all the medical insurance garbage they have there like co-pays after deductibles, tax credits, dental, daycares, tolls/infrastructure etc… It amounts to roughly the same as the taxation + private insurance in the US. It just “looks worse” because it’s all mostly up front. I know ex-millionaires in the US who were basically homeless because they had a sick baby who needed to stay in the hospital for a year after birth. It cost them 5 million dollars to keep the baby alive without having to go to court with the insurer. This doesn’t happen in Canada.

        I’m fine with it, I just want the rich assholes to pay the same. I live very comfortably, bought a home in February this year and have more than enough.

          • RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Eeee. Youre completing forgetting that he can BORROW against those stocks, and pay a measly interest rate, paying out when it’s convenient through various loops of the tax system. Warren Buffet, even if his worth in billions is not in his pocket, has contributed less than most relative to his income.

        • kbotc@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          The thing you drug up about the US hasn’t been a thing for more than a decade. The individual out of pocket limit is $9,450 this year for an individual, and Pregnancy, maternity, and newborn care are considered “essential health benefits” so as long as it was an actual factual real health plan and not something like a health care sharing ministry, there’s no way you’re going in a millionaire and coming out destitute unless you did something phenomenally dumb like demand an NICU be built into your house. Out healthcare is broken in so many ways, but the bandaids do exist on the system.

          • RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            I have no idea what his situation was, he had full healthcare. There’s the law, and then there’s bringing insurance companies to court over the law. This might have been about a decade ago.

            An out-of-pocket maximum is a cap, or limit, on the amount of money you have to pay for covered health care services in a plan year.

            The key word being “covered health care services”. This also does not cover their own expenses, loss of salary etc… These laws are intentionally complicated so it’s theoretically possible to be covered, but good fucking luck going through the loops.

            You can still find studies that claim that over 500k people file for bankruptcy every year due to accumulating medical costs I’m sure all these people are stupid and had NICUs built in their homes…

      • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        Might be Canada, I’m in a similar situation and GTFOing. No way am I going to continue paying this much in tax but still lack quality education and healthcare for our kids.

        • RedditWanderer@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Are you/your children Quebec citizens? Education and healthcare are very cheap and accessible. If you’re a foreigner here then yeah it might not be as easy. Healthcare is still free and medicine is subsidized to a minimum of 80%. Also medicine potency is regulated, knock off brands of “advil” are guaranteed to be as potent as the brand name, which is a huge plus and keeps medicine costs very low.

          I have a lot of experience with the medical system in canada; my parents both died of cancer, so did my mentor, and were in treatment in the public system the same week they got diagnosed. They didn’t wait months to see specialist like is often thrown around on reddit.

        • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          Yeah instead in the US you get to pay healthcare insurance premiums instead and have the companies try every trick to deny your healthcare claims. And pay who knows how much for your kids education, tens of thousands a year. All so your marginal (not effective) tax rate is what 40% instead? I think you need to recheck your math and your outrage. Don’t forget those expenses are after tax.

  • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    10 months ago

    Unless he’s donating everything tomorrow, this is all bullshit.

    First off he doesn’t have 124 billion. He is WORTH 124 billion, the vast majority of it being the worth of his stakes in Amazon. If he sells all his stakes in it, the Amazon worth would plummet and he’d be worth a fraction of what he’s worth today.

    But lets say he has a 124 billion dollars. If he gives out 10 millions every day it will still take over 300 years. In that time his worth likely would.grow faster than he’s spending it so in 300 years he’d still be worth more than he is today.

    All this charity stuff is bullshit, TAX THE RICH. Taxes will give honest amounts of money to governments who can then use that money for universal healthcare, universal education, universal income…

        • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          I was a favor 10 off but that doesn’t matter, the point still stands.

          No single person should be ever control that much money

        • wolfpack86@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          But while he gives away 3.65 billion a year, his remaining 120 billion appreciated to 130 billion or whatever. Then the next year he gives away 3.65 billion and his remaining 126 billion appreciated to 136 billion…

          As long as he doesn’t give away more than his principal gains, it’s an indefinite loop.

    • SCB@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I’m all for taxing the rich but the rest of this is just pure stupidity.

      Like why did you cap how much he can give away at one time lol

      • Setnof@feddit.de
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        10 months ago

        Try to sell all your stocks at once if you own a big chunk of all available shares. The stock price would fall faster than you were able to sell your shares.

        • SCB@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Bezos already engages in structured stock sell-offs worth vastly more than $10MM

      • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        I didn’t cap anything. There are realistic limits to what you can give to charity. Give a charity that normally gets a few millions a billion and they won’t be able to spend it in any normal way. Breeds corruption, etc.

        Charity shouldn’t even exist, as it is always this patch on holes left by governments. Tax the rich until they are “normal rich” and then use that money for projects that normally would require charity

        Also, his wife actually had the exact same situation I just described. She spent millions over millions and once done she had more wealth than she started with

          • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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            10 months ago

            No.

            If only governments would tax the rich properly they’d have enough money to put good social programs in place. We wouldn’t need charity.

            • SCB@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              There will always be a use of some sort of charity until we live in a post-scarcity world.

  • Neato@kbin.social
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    10 months ago

    No. The government should take it from him as taxes that he avoided. So the people can decide how best to invest it instead of over egomaniac with a history is abusing his people.

    • asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      To be honest, going all toward climate change seems better than what the government would use it for. That being said, he should definitely pay more taxes.

      • ToastedRavioli@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Dude for sure is going to spin up his own charities with lofty mission statements that he “donates” to which exclusively pitch solutions that require a lot of investment in his for-profit endeavors.

        Don’t mistake money laundering for benevolence.

      • puppy@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        You know he’s not really giving it away, right? I bet my bottom dollar that his assets are being transferred to a fund he controls. Because the fund is categorised non-profit, it will receive max tax write-offs.

        His ex-wife on the other hand, has given away butt load of money to actual charities.

      • whome@discuss.tchncs.de
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        10 months ago

        Jeff bezos funds a study how to fight climate change. Study finds humanity needs to decrease their usage of energy drastically and stop consumerism as we are doing it right now. Jeff bezos: (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻)

    • IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      The US government? LOL. How much of the taxes goes to fossil fuel and corn subsidies and to the military industrial complex?

      • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        10 months ago

        The majority of our taxes goes to social programs and healthcare. Military spending is insane, but we have to keep in mind that taxing billionaires will absolutely bring benefits to the common folks.

    • zib@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      I agree in principle, but the government would take the money and allocate 99% of it to the military budget rather than do anything useful with it.

      • CountZero@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        No, the government generally has a plan and definite budget for their money, which includes social programs and infrastructure. You can debate about how good it is, but at least it’s there.

        Giving money to a charity directly controlled by them (or their kids, or one of their billionaire friends) might just make that money disappear.

  • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    pledges

    That weasel word is tiresome.

    unify humanity

    Coming from a techbro vampire, that term is especially creepy.

    Unify how? honk

    UNIFY HOW? big-honk

    • flipht@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      Exactly.

      They aren’t giving their money to other people. They’re giving their money to their own charities, either that they created or that they have some control over the board.

      They get to take a deduction on their personal taxes the year that they move the money, so they move is slowly based on how much they want to limit their tax liability that year. Good year for amazon = move lots of money. Bad year where he can take a business loss = retain direct control over the cash.

      Then when it comes time to spend it, they know what it’s getting spent on. Vaccines for the poor like Bill Gates? Buy up pharma stocks. Climate change initiatives? Buy up stock in carbon capture companies, solar companies, etc.

      They make this money back, and they get a benefit every time it moves.

      • snooggums@kbin.social
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        10 months ago

        All that plus they control even more stuff, which is all they care about at that level of wealth.

  • ColorcodedResistor@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    I pledge to not post this comment…whoops, darn, oh well. I tried.

    bezos is a removedasaurus, I’ll never forget when Shatner was trying to share his feelings about the genuine experience of going into space, and cuck-lord bezo not only interrupts shatner, he sullies the moment by acting like a sore winner

    • rckclmbr@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      I’ve hated bozos since forever, but this right here was unforgivable. Shatner trying to give inspiration after a really being in space, after a lifetime of being an icon? You fucking listen

  • GarbageShoot [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    If he doesn’t do it, don’t give him credit for doing it. If he does, be sure it’s not some incestuous Nonprofit moneylaundering scheme like those foundations usually do.

  • Not A Bird@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    What that means is he will invest that much in energy related projects during the course of his life. He did this the last time as well. He is not giving his money away. We are just used to turd ass quality journalism.

  • orangatang@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    lol, “Pledge” just means, I might do it, so you can write a nice fluff peace on me and then I just conveniently forget to “Pledge” x amount.