[News] Is donating 8% of your wealth when you’ve still got $120bn left really that generous?

[Gabbiano]

Is it really that generous a gesture?

When you look at the number of people in the world living in poverty, and then you see one man with more wealth than half the countries on earth, a single person should not be able to accumulate so much wealth.

Bezos earns money at an astonishing rate - $100,000 every minute or so it is speculated. As they say, you use money to make money at a certain point. Amazon employees don’t seem to see very much of it, and I have only heard bad things about their working environment and benefits.

Bloomberg is rumoured to have recently spent $300m trying to influence the US election, but then he is worth more than $50bn. If you have £500 in the bank and you buy a bus ticket, you have spent more of your wealth than he did with his $300m.

Its not a sliding scale, Bezos should be doing far more. It sounds ridiculous to say $10bn is tokenistic, but, well, it is.

 

[portlock seagull]

I assume all those being churlish about it have donated more than 8% of their wealth ? Well done if so.

Missing point, rather spectacularly I might add along with others. 8% of many peoples wealth on NSC would be a negative sum!

 

[portlock seagull]

Is it really that generous a gesture?

When you look at the number of people in the world living in poverty, and then you see one man with more wealth than half the countries on earth, a single person should not be able to accumulate so much wealth.

Bezos earns money at an astonishing rate - $100,000 every minute or so it is speculated. As they say, you use money to make money at a certain point. Amazon employees don’t seem to see very much of it, and I have only heard bad things about their working environment and benefits.

Bloomberg is rumoured to have recently spent $300m trying to influence the US election, but then he is worth more than $50bn. If you have £500 in the bank and you buy a bus ticket, you have spent more of your wealth than he did with his $300m.

Its not a sliding scale, Bezos should be doing far more. It sounds ridiculous to say $10bn is tokenistic, but, well, it is.

Brilliantly articulated.

 

[nicko31]

It’s a generous start.

Anyone that pisses off Trump and stands up to the bully is alright by me.

Can only welcome it, climate change threatens our very existence. Who knows might give it all away in the end

 

[Billy the Fish]

These threads always bring out the jealousy. Anyone on this thread could give 10% of their net worth to charity and still have more money and live a life that the homeless on the streets could ever dream of. So why haven’t you done it?

Spot on. Honestly, how can anyone try and take a negative view of this?

He could quite easily just sit on the background and do nothing. The publicity is good, it might encourage others to do the same.

Also I'm assuming he hasn't got $120b dollars sitting in a bank account, it's an estimate of his net worth so most of it is probably assets.

 

[Nixonator]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51539321

Is it? Really? Or just relatively cheap PR?

Discuss...

He'll make that back in 6 months, so no.

 

[Nixonator]

These threads always bring out the jealousy. Anyone on this thread could give 10% of their net worth to charity and still have more money and live a life that the homeless on the streets could ever dream of. So why haven’t you done it?

Because for most of us giving up 10% of our net worth would mean life-changing implications. I thought that would be fairly obvious. Also, most of us won't have the ability to earn it back (passively) within a year.

It's all about quality of life, once you reach a certain point in wealth accumulation it's not possible to increase QOL further. Most of us will fall some way short of that in our lifetimes. This bloke reached it several hundred billion ago.

 

[Gabbiano]

The überrich use charitys and foundations to play with tax relief laws. Usually when I say that we should kill the 0,00001%, someone says "oh they do much more than you, look at the money the donate". Well, ****ing look at the harm they make.

They should be killed? Oh do grow up. Why don’t you volunteer to go and murder them yourself?

There is a certain immorality to hoarding so much wealth when so many others are struggling, but a fairer taxation system might be the first step, no?

And besides, you kill Bezos, who do you think inherits the money, Oxfam?

 

[Whitechapel]

Maybe the bellend should just pay his taxes

 

[southstandandy]

At least he gives something. My wife and I give £200 a month to 2 different charities but thats all we can afford. Suspect if we earn't more we'd give more, but as others have said he doesn't have to give anything so 8% will still do significant good at his earning level.

 

[jamie (not that one)]

Of course it's generous. It's all totally relative, like if you donate 10 quid a month to whichever charity you like. Could you donate more of your savings, yes, but you're still making a difference.

 

[JBizzle]

I remember the thread on here when Bruno only donated 1% of his salary, the selfish b******. Oh wait, there was (rightly) universal praise...

I wonder what this thread would look like if Bezos was a well-known Brighton fan? Or if Bloom donated 8% of his worth? I think we know the answer to that one.

 

[NooBHA]

Spot on. Honestly, how can anyone try and take a negative view of this?

He could quite easily just sit on the background and do nothing. The publicity is good, it might encourage others to do the same.

Also I'm assuming he hasn't got $120b dollars sitting in a bank account, it's an estimate of his net worth so most of it is probably assets.

The negative side is that around the World. His company has avoided tax in almost every country.

If that tax had been paid it could have been put to whatever use or services that country needed to support its population.

Instead he avoids paying those taxes. Pays to Charitable Organisations which allows his companions to pay even less tax.

He donated to whatever cause suits his own end.

And what cause has the "biggest momentum " amongst younger consumers.? Climate Change of course. So he has chosen Charitable Donations which in the long run is essentially a Marketing Tool.

He should just pay his taxes and let Governments decide where those taxes should be spent

 

[Billy the Fish]

Because for most of us giving up 10% of our net worth would mean life-changing implications. I thought that would be fairly obvious. Also, most of us won't have the ability to earn it back (passively) within a year.

It's all about quality of life, once you reach a certain point in wealth accumulation it's not possible to increase QOL further. Most of us will fall some way short of that in our lifetimes. This bloke reached it several hundred billion ago.

QOL is surely subjective? What is an acceptable QOL? You say most of us will fall short but if you're referring to NSC most of us have jobs, a roof over our heads and the ability to browse football forums. We live in one of the most affluent parts of the planet. In terms of human history we must all be pretty high up in the QOL scale.

Money doesn't = happiness. You don't need money or things to be happy, you need friends and family. The only time money or material things cause a problem is when you start stressing about what other people have got, that's one of the many ways social media messes with peoples minds. Hand on heart I honestly don't believe Jeff Bezos is any happier then I am just because he's got money, he's just got a different set of problems.

 

[dazzer6666]

Missing point, rather spectacularly I might add along with others. 8% of many peoples wealth on NSC would be a negative sum!

Nope, it’s all relative. It’s a generous thing to do IMO. Stupid to compare it with anyone with a negative net worth.

 

[Brovion]

Because for most of us giving up 10% of our net worth would mean life-changing implications. I thought that would be fairly obvious. Also, most of us won't have the ability to earn it back (passively) within a year.

It's all about quality of life, once you reach a certain point in wealth accumulation it's not possible to increase QOL further. Most of us will fall some way short of that in our lifetimes. This bloke reached it several hundred billion ago.

Indeed. Fair play to him, but he CAN afford it - we can't. And as you say having enough money to provide for your family and buy all the material comforts you could possibly want is one thing. Anything above that and 'money' just becomes an abstract concept.

People could do worse than reach for their Bibles and read either Mark 12:41-44, or Luke 21:1-4. The story of the widow's mite.

 

[beorhthelm]

The überrich use charitys and foundations to play with tax relief laws. Usually when I say that we should kill the 0,00001%, someone says "oh they do much more than you, look at the money the donate". Well, ****ing look at the harm they make.

growing a business worth billions and hundreds of billions for economic growth is certainly more than you seem to have acheived.

 

[Billy the Fish]

The negative side is that around the World. His company has avoided tax in almost every country.

If that tax had been paid it could have been put to whatever use or services that country needed to support its population.

Instead he avoids paying those taxes. Pays to Charitable Organisations which allows his companions to pay even less tax.

He donated to whatever cause suits his own end.

And what cause has the "biggest momentum " amongst younger consumers.? Climate Change of course. So he has chosen Charitable Donations which in the long run is essentially a Marketing Tool.

He should just pay his taxes and let Governments decide where those taxes should be spent

You're comparing mutually exclusive events. All of those things have already happened whether he does this or not. He wants to take on a specific cause so good luck to him. All the governments in the world can't agree what to do about CC and the biggest ones are actively denying it. Hopefully some more of the super rich will get involved off the back of this, if the likes of Elon Musk start putting their minds to it they might be able to make a real difference.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Indeed. Fair play to him, but he CAN afford it - we can't. And as you say having enough money to provide for your family and buy all the material comforts you could possibly want is one thing. Anything above that and 'money' just becomes an abstract concept.

People could do worse than reach for their Bibles and read either Mark 12:41-44, or Luke 21:1-4. The story of the widow's mite.

I'm going to check that out.

I very much like the Buddhists outlook on this subject. Modern Buddhism is free on kindle, it's good but not the easiest read. I've been meaning for ages to read The Art of Happiness by the Dali Lama, in fact this has inspired me to download it today

 

[CheeseRolls]

Bit of a vipers nest this one, specifically due to Amazon's tax status in the UK. I am going to set that one aside for a minute, although I am sure someone will be along soon to put me right on this one.

The US has long had a culture of low taxation, high philanthropic giving, when compared to other advanced nations. From a personal perspective, I think this slants spending, towards populist causes and away from some of the tougher areas of funding, government can and should pick up on. It is also entirely voluntary, which means misers don't pay. Museums, art galleries, top universities are examples where funding is often generous.

The UK has also arrived at a generous tax regime for the very wealthy, but does not appear to have the same culture of philanthropy. Some of this is wrapped in the old fashioned view of "old money versus new money" and to somehow discuss the topic is vulgar. In the modern world, this just feels like a convenient excuse.

Bezos has made his own money, not without taking advantage of large numbers of low paid workers it has to be said. It is an obscene level of wealth. My personal view is that only a tiny amount of this wealth should be inheritable and that both taxation and philanthropic giving should be encouraged through legislation and social pressure.