As said in the title, the world does not need billionaires.
If a person starts a business for example, and they fairly pay all their workers for their labour and the business' net worth grows to a billion – billions, thats totally fine
If a person starts a business for example, and they poorly pay their workers, treat them poorly on the job, all while making millions – billions in profits, that is NOT fine at all.
Look at some billionaires today such as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and even Bill Gates
Jeff Bezos net worth is $190 billion (2022), yet Amazon is infamously know for poorly treating their workers. Even in recent times, Amazon Paid $0 Federal Income Tax in the year 2018 (https://youtu.be/qNg55JDMDHM). He has the power to pay his workers at least $35 an hour for their labour, yet he doesnt
For Elon Musk, his net worth is $278 billion (2021), Elon Musk made $36 billion in a single day on Tesla’s historic stock surge Elon Musk's one-day wealth gain surpassed that of entire countries (https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/elon-musk-made-36-billion-in-a-single-day-on-tesla-s-historic-stock-surge/ar-AAPXFkC#:~:text=Elon%20Musk%20made%20%2436%20billion%20in%20a%20single,that%20of%20entire%20countries.%20msnback%20to%20msn%20homemoney), yet Elon Musk’s Car Company Tesla Faces Allegations Of Racist Discrimination Against Black Employees . Another example of how poorly a billionaire treats their workers
And finally, Bill Gates. His net worth is $138 billion (2022). Saying “Bill Gates didnt do anything good in the world” is a tough debate. We all how how Bill Gates “generously” donates money to other countries to at least help them out, but most likely, he's doing it with hidden motives.
- In the US, by donating money to an approved charity, anybody can reduce the amount they give in taxes to the Government by reducing the amount of money theyre being taxed on. For the average person, that number is usually limited to around 60% of our gross income. For the ultra wealthy, charitable deductions can be applied to stuff thats not money, and that only the ultra weathy has enough of laying around to just give away (such as real estate properties, stock options, capitol gains, that kind of stuff). On these assets, the value of which has never ever been hyperinflated and always definitely represents whats its worth, the ultra wealthy can give to charity in amounts that are trivial to them, but that can end up reducing their taxes by up to 74%. And thats on top of the other tax avoidance strategies, that the ultra rich people take on the corporate side of things (such as tax haven companies, or pandora and paradise papers). It means for every billionaire “giving a dollar to charity”, you pay 74 cents of it. Between 2010 and 2014, the amount the rest of us took on was $246.1 billion, and that number has certainly only gotten bigger in recent years as charitable donations increase in size and deduction laws become more favorable to the ultra wealthy.
- When you hear of a guy like Bill Gates giving away a large sum of money to the Gates Foundation, only 5% of that money will actually go towards charitable causes, the absolute minimum required by law. The 95% thats remaining goes into the foundations' investment portfolio of course, you cant run a good charity without hoarding money silly. Source to those articles : https://www.philanthropy.com/article/whats-so-special-about-5/), (https://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-gatesx07jan07-story.html), https://www.pfs-llc.net/blog/the-5-rule-explained/) and (https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/5/1/21242144/billionaires-foundations-giving-money-coronavirus-fight).
- By playing with massive sums of money, by deciding where that money goes, and where it doesnt go by taking money away from governments, billionaires decide on policies without actually getting democratic approval. Billionaires have effectively created their own side government that does whatever they want. They get to be their own little dictators, but because their intentions are oh so benevolent, we really just let them do it. Billionaires put money wherever they want to, to do whatever they please. Bill Gates' decisions are entirely his own or those of the people he decides to hire, and we dont have a say. The results of giving a few guys who played the system as much say as they want on who gets money and who doesnt are never good. They already do enough of that in the workplace, in the stock market, during the hiring process, in the rest of the economy, and now in charitable donations. Of course the Government cant do everything, but one guy or just a few guys pretending that they can is far far worse. Billionaire philanthropy is a scam
Link to all the 3 points I listed : https://youtu.be/i8w3qPwpzZA
Thanks for reading my Ted Talk