Bill Gates is in news saying something like, I have already paid $10 billion in taxes, "more than anyone else," and you can have 10 billion more if you want, but if you want all of the 100 billion, I got a problem with that.
Now the media being what it is (they want a fight!) all sorts of brand name media outlets (this is not yellow, tabloid journalism, this is mainstream media, the kind that informs heads of state early in the morning) are saying Bill Gates prefers Donald Trump over Elizabeth Warren. After all, he is just another rich guy.
First off, Warren has never proposed taking all of Bill Gates' money. Her 2% wealth tax means Bill Gates would pay two billion, which is less than the 10 billion he has already offered to pay.
Second, someone who might be super smart in one niche might or might not be equally informed in another niche, or in the same niche in another era. We think Tesla was so smart, Elon Musk has named his most famous company after him, and Musk is today, and Tesla was indeed smart. But Tesla never bought into whatever Einstein was proposing. Tesla was a pre-relativity kind of guy.
Bill Gates is a PC-era guy. No tech entrepreneur who starts in 2020 can not buy into the idea of a Universal Basic Income (which I have never defined as American Basic Income). UBI is to the fourth industrial revolution what electricity was to the second and what the internet has been to the third. It is basic. It is infrastructure.
In all fairness, I did not hear Bill Gates say anything about UBI. I'd be very surprised if he was opposed to it. But if he is saying, you have already taken 10 billion from me, take 10 billion more, but don't take away the entire 100 billion, because I have a foundation to run.
Only the mainstream media can interpret that as an attack on Elizabeth Warren, or the idea of UBI. I can't.
I actually subscribe to Bill Gates' newsletter. So he has a tendency to show up in my inbox. He is a smart interesting guy doing good work, although it is my firm conviction 100 Gates Foundations will not be able to solve the problems of the world, what we need is a world government.
Bill Gates, Elizabeth Warren, And Andrew Yang https://t.co/emjXtgTwCV @BillGates @ewarren @SenWarren @AndrewYang @AOC @reshmasaujani @iam_preethi @deepikapadukone @priyankagandhi @priyankachopra @IlhanMN @RashidaTlaib @RepPressley @sunrisemvmt @VarshPrakash #UBI— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) November 8, 2019
Hillary Clinton called the wealth taxes proposed by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren "unworkable" and said they would be "incredibly disruptive" if enforced. pic.twitter.com/BOJPZJokSX
— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) November 8, 2019
This whole “let’s all dunk on Bill Gates” thing is infuriating. Yep, dude is mega rich. But he’s also one if the greatest philanthropists the world has ever seen.
— Matt Galligan (@mg) November 8, 2019
Dollar for dollar I’d wager his philanthropic investments are dramatically more efficient in their return vs. gov. https://t.co/efyBJWkkzO
