I have a few friends that say “ppl like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Bill Gates could end world suffering & they actively choose not too.” Even though Jeff Bezos (as an example) donated $10 billion to charity, which is more than most other ppl ever would.

So, my question is, why do people feel like billionaires should be required to give up most/all of their wealth, even though they earned it?

I’m genuinely curious about this & do not know, so someone please enlighten me. Thanks

Yes

They didn’t earn it, that wealth was created by their employees

Ignore the neolibs itt

They should be taxed fairly

Every economic activity has winners and losers, the government should fill in where the market fails to deliver desirable outcomes

I'm not against billionaires existing, I'm against a lack of funds for welfare, education and infrastructure development

Ignore the marxism in this thread btw, it's bunk

We can use land value tax to put a cost on hoarding assets such as housing for example, or even a wealth tax

I will also point out this is mostly in assets which wont necessarily always be worth that much. This is not an argument to not tax billionaires higher, I'm just trying to illustrate some difficulty. Therefore tax should be aimed at the value of the assets

They become billionaires on the back of people that work hard with terrible wages. It’s not about what they have and don’t have to do. They never address these issues, or any issue in labor (like Tesla’s child labor) in their supply chains. It’s about being a good human. Bezos donated 10 billion to his own foundation, who knows whats happening with that 10 billion.

These people have the power to change the world with the money they have.

This.

It shouldn’t even have to come down to citizens demanding they give back. The system in place is just flawed.

Thrilling counterargument

Thank you

The labour theory of value isnt really regarded much anymore, not defending billionaires, I'm just saying it isnt a good thing to base an argument off

They got their wealth from pure luck and peoples tastes + the situational context, not saying workers are irrelevant but it isnt the full story

Either way we agree on taxing to reduce socioeconomic inequality

yes. they literally have no use for all the money they have nor will they ever spend/use it to its fullest in their lifetime

to charity? lol

i dont want them to contribute more to charity

I want their wealth, assets and companies to be taken from them and redistributed.

I mean, their product and operations are entirely from their workers. If every Amazon factory worker stopped working, Amazon would deliver 0 packages

Bezos established the organization of those workers, but it’s way more of a reach to attribute the value to him than it is to the workers

cnbc.com/2020/02/04/amazon-had-to-pay-federal-income-taxes-for-the-first-time-since-2016.html

cbsnews.com/news/amazon-taxes-1-2-percent-13-billion-2019

look i get i’m biased, i’m the annoying leftist whatever. but if you see how much amazon pay/don’t pay in taxes, political affiliation doesn’t matter. Jeff Bezos should be paying more in taxes.

shouldn’t even be an argument tbh. and yes i understand these corporations make jobs and there is fair tax breaks companies can do, but f*** off if you think the above statistics is a fair “free market”

You are absolutely correct here, no cap. But the worth of Bezos assets itself (the thread is about billionaires, if it was about corps youd be right), is from people believing they are worth that much due to consumer demand.

Workers obvs play a role in this being the case in the first place but ir isnt totally from them

Plus a huge chunk of amazon revenue comes from their web services, which are just big mainframes and servers people rent from them

The worth of those assets is working on the assumption of a functioning business anyway. I mean, the actual number is pointless sure. And those servers are assembled and maintained by workers as well lol

Yeah this is true

Yes

It is ok to demand but it’s also ok for Bozos to not give to charity

Just like it’s the peoples choice to financially support his company, it’s his choice whether or not he wants to give it back

Yeah love that my tax dollars go towards Amazon subsidies. I have the excellent choice between supporting them or going to jail for tax evasion

It dont matter. Taxes americans pay goes to support wars and other billionaire supreme lords

f*** u got me there

I should’ve clarified, when I say “charity” it’s
Really an all-encompassing term to redistribute the wealth in various productive ways

Hey great answer & very insightful. Ty

Such good points. Ty for the education

It's unfathomably wild we have niggas starving in this country where billionaires exist.

that's just my take on this.