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AMA: Bill Gates

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Re: AMA: Bill Gates

#101

Post by radiator »

trophycase wrote: post #97
creato wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I skimmed the AMA for a few minutes, and saw him say that: - He thought nuclear weapons, bioterrorism, and climate change were the biggest threats to humanity. - He thought paying $10B in capital gains taxes was not enough and he should have paid more. Maybe those are platitudes but it's real enough for me.

Funny how we complain that politicians are bought but the former richest man in the world apparently can't figure out how to use his massive fortune to influence policy.

Could it be that he never really was the richest, or far from it?

Re: AMA: Bill Gates

#102

Post by anonytrary »

tptacek wrote: post #16
elektor wrote: post #2

Do people derive pleasure from these AMAs? Gates seems to reply with the same platitudes and non-answers to the point where its hard to tell if it’s him or the BMGF publicist.

You think the BGMF publicist decided to say Gates watches American Vandal and has a trampoline room in his house?

I'm not saying I think it was the BMGF in the AMA, but you think a publicist wouldn't say this? "Client watches X show and plays Y sport" would be a typical line to make someone appear more relatable. Politicians say these things all the time. It is not surprising that a publicist would try and make their client/employer seem normal.

Re: AMA: Bill Gates

#103

Post by jonluca »

thatguythatname wrote: post #74
m23khan wrote: post #66

is there a way to be notified about upcoming AMAs on reddit?

Here is a link to a Google calendar created by the IAmA team. Not sure how often it's updated, I assume as they get arranged https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=amaverify@gma...

IAmA mod here - we have a bot that updates it every time a guest schedules a new AMA, so it should always be up to date. We also manually add events in as they come from other sources.

Bill likes to do his AmA's as "surprises", though, so we don't usually schedule those!

Re: AMA: Bill Gates

#104

Post by EpicEng »

briandear wrote: post #50
pwthornton wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because micro solutions to macro problems never work. Gates could pay his entire net worth into the treasury and it does not fix a fundamentally broken system. Gates is commenting on how the ultra rich like him make most of their money from capital gains, which are not taxed at normal income tax rates. If capital gains were simply taxed like income taxes, it would be a huge blow against income inequality this country…

Bill Gates writing billion dollar checks is not exactly micro.” He could lead by example and encourage other billionaires to write checks as well. He could start the change he wants to see. When these kinds of billionaires start actually writing checks, then maybe I’ll take their platitudes seriously. It’s like Al Gore flying in a private jet while telling everyone else that flying commercial is killing the planet. I…

>Bill Gates writing billion dollar checks is not exactly micro

US GDP was $19.39 trillion in 2017. 0.01% is micro on any scale. He could write those checks again and again and it would never solve systemic problems.

Re: AMA: Bill Gates

#105

Post by beatgammit »

jonas21 wrote: post #22
kome wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in other words, war is dangerous and he pays too little tax. i think too they are platitudes.

And yet... how many other billionaires do you see going out and saying that the capital gains tax rate is too low and climate change is the biggest threat to humanity.

A lot? I know Warren Buffett has similar views, and I've seen other very wealthy liberals claim taxes and climate change were big concerns. When people get very wealthy, they seem to think less about their finances and more about their legacy and public perception, and honestly when you're that wealthy, you have so much that taxes don't really matter anymore.

There are a lot of very wealthy philanthropists, and I think that's because people seek meaning in their life once they no longer get benefit from earning more.

Re: AMA: Bill Gates

#106

Post by EpicEng »

reaperducer wrote: post #51
creato wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I skimmed the AMA for a few minutes, and saw him say that: - He thought nuclear weapons, bioterrorism, and climate change were the biggest threats to humanity. - He thought paying $10B in capital gains taxes was not enough and he should have paid more. Maybe those are platitudes but it's real enough for me.

He thought paying $10B in capital gains taxes was not enough and he should have paid more. I'm always annoyed when rich people say things like this. I had one say almost this exact thing to me in an elevator once. There's nothing stopping him from paying more. He just writes a check to "Department of the Treasury" and sends it off to D.C. Problem solved. But then he doesn't get to passive-aggressively whine about all…

>Problem solved

If the problem were "if only we had $2B more we could solve so many system problems." Of course, it's not, so no, no problems were solved even hypothetically.

Re: AMA: Bill Gates

#107

Post by worble »

crumbshot wrote: post #25
Causality1 wrote: post #7

I wonder, if Gates was still driving Windows development would Windows 10 still spy on users and restrict their ability to control updates like it does with Nadella at the helm?

Automatic updates are a good thing, otherwise far too many machines would be lagging behind on security fixes.

Can we stop this tired rhetoric? Yes ideally everyone would keep their system up to date 100% of the time, however it is not a good thing that users have that control stripped away from them, especially when these updates can actually have _adverse_ effects on their systems cough randomly deleting files cough.

I may disapprove of users not updating their systems, but I'll defend to the death their right to not do so.

Re: AMA: Bill Gates

#108

Post by mywittyname »

gist wrote: post #46
metabagel wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gates apparently flied coach until about 1997. I'm not his biggest fan, but I find that interesting about him.

I remember that. That is a technique that is often used to impose frugality and get savings [1] out of the rest of the execs by setting an example. If he flies coach well then so do a hundred others. [1] I knew a guy who owned a small company and bought a low end car until he had locked up his union contract. He knew if he was seen with a nice car it was going to cost him a boat load. Likewise in my old school compan…

I think some people are naturally frugal. I always go out of my way to save money on business trips even when there's no benefit to doing so, and no drawback to spending the money.

I'll take Uber pools, walk, or take public transit even though I'm technically no restriction on my transportation spending. Likewise, unless I'm taking my team out to dinner, I'll usually grab a $10 gyro or something instead of going to a nice restaurant.

Re: AMA: Bill Gates

#109

Post by [deleted] »

phkahler wrote: post #59
jonas21 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet... how many other billionaires do you see going out and saying that the capital gains tax rate is too low and climate change is the biggest threat to humanity.

Well his buddy Warren Buffet also says he should pay more taxes. I find his stance refreshing - he's going to pay only what's required while advocating changing the rules so that everyone pays more. Lots of people say "well he's free to pay more if he want's to but he's not". Some call it hypocrisy. Some call it humility.

[deleted]

Re: AMA: Bill Gates

#110

Post by trumped »

elektor wrote: post #2

Do people derive pleasure from these AMAs? Gates seems to reply with the same platitudes and non-answers to the point where its hard to tell if it’s him or the BMGF publicist.

Is that a real question? I guess you couldlook at the upvotes
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