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(33,041 posts)dalton99a
(81,073 posts)dragonlady
(3,577 posts)PeeJ52
(1,588 posts)You never pick me anyway. At least if you pay your taxes, I get some benefit from it.
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)to his charitable foundation, and he's promised to give the vast majority of what he has left to the foundation at his death.
Also, he's in favor of a wealth tax on top of a higher income tax. So, as billionaires go, he's not one of the worst.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/21/bill-gates-has-paid-10-billion-in-taxes-and-says-he-should-pay-more.html
"I've paid more taxes, over $10 billion, than anyone else, but the government should require people in my position to pay significantly higher taxes."
Gates' comments came on the heels of a criticism of 2017's GOP tax reform.
"It was not a progressive tax bill, it was a regressive tax bill," he told Zakaria. "People who are wealthier tend to get dramatically more benefits than the middle class or those who are poorer. It runs counter to the general trend you'd like to see, where the safety net is getting stronger and those at the top are paying higher taxes."
USALiberal
(10,877 posts)PeeJ52
(1,588 posts)He stole what Microsoft owns. He's not really that admirable. I've been in computers for quite a while. I wasn't an adopter of Microsoft until I was forced to be. I experienced them sabotaging DR DOS so Windows wouldn't run on it. I experienced them them coding Windows so WordPerfect wouldn't run on it. Oh they fixed it so they eventually would work, after they drove most of the market away from them.
MicaelS
(8,747 posts)He stole anything, which I do not believe just on your word, the statue of limitations probably expired a long time ago. People have choice other than Windows. The fact that Apple and Linux have such a small market share is proof people want to use MS products.
PeeJ52
(1,588 posts)You have to give your client Word, or Excel documents. Do some research on the evolution of DOS it's interesting.. go down the rabbithole...https://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/07/kildall_unforensic_ieee_smear/
MicaelS
(8,747 posts)The corporate market has chosen Windows a long time ago. Complaining now is like a DVD-HD fan complaining about Blu-ray.
So precisely what is your answer to the problem?
PeeJ52
(1,588 posts)Don't talk stupid to me with squishy toys. Bill Gates isn't God. He isn't a rags to riches story. He's a cut throat business man. More power to him. Just pay your taxes, so all benefit and not only those that you pick and chose. That's all I'm saying.
hunter
(38,264 posts)I don't buy Microsoft products for personal use. I don't buy Apple products for personal use. I don't buy new computers for personal use.
When I first joined DU in 2002 I was using a very minimal and highly modified installation of 98SE on a salvage computer. That was to run my favorite browser, Opera. When Opera came out with a Linux version I was done with Microsoft. Before Opera I was a BSD, Atari and DR-DOS user. Since then I've been a Debian and BSD guy.
Bill Gates is a shark, but I've never lived in his ocean.
All billionaires are "thieves" to some extent, some much more than others, but I don't include Gates among the vile billionaire class, maybe because I've never felt any coercion to use his products. And he seems to have an optimistic inclusive vision for the future, not some Zardoz dystopia.
flyingfysh
(1,990 posts)If you hate running Windows, you can run on Microsoft Azure (cloud), and never touch Windows. They support several versions of Linux. Hate SQL Server? They support several open-source database systems. They will even run Oracle for you (part of what you pay in that case goes to Oracle, of course).
Microsoft is happy to make money off anybody.
hunter
(38,264 posts)And Microsoft isn't the monster in the cloud, Amazon is.
Even competitors like Netflix are served from Amazon Web Services.
Loki Liesmith
(4,602 posts)Find a better target to piss on.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)Response to Blue_true (Reply #25)
PeeJ52 This message was self-deleted by its author.
Tipperary
(6,930 posts)Just fyi.
PeeJ52
(1,588 posts)Tipperary
(6,930 posts)Goodness gracious.
PeeJ52
(1,588 posts)I was posting to the topic, not attacking another poster.
PeeJ52
(1,588 posts)I'm commenting on the philanthropy thing so many billionaires like to justify. They pick an choose who they help. Taxes help all. Not just me. Taxes help build roads, schools, supply clean water. Yes, it's about me, it's about you. It's not about their favorite charity as we saw tRump give his money too, his paintings of himself. So why not get off my ass.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)You are 100% right. I apologize, I misread your post as you being selfish, but instead, you were referencing larger societal needs.
madinmaryland
(64,920 posts)pbmus
(12,418 posts)USALiberal
(10,877 posts)Brawndo
(535 posts)he should use his limitless fortune to buy controlling interest in Faux Noise, shut it down, replace it with programming designed to educate the public and deprogram them from anti-science propaganda.
pbmus
(12,418 posts)Brawndo
(535 posts)If they really want to use their fortunes for benevolent ends I can think of no more effective measure than to buy up and end right-wing media's poisoning of our society.
pbmus
(12,418 posts)JudyM
(29,122 posts)pimpbot
(937 posts)You propose Bill Gates pay Rupert or whoever controls FoxNews a ton of money so he can shut it down. What do you think Rupert is gonna do with all the cash? Build out a new network of disinformation of course.
Brawndo
(535 posts)After shutting down Fox/Rush the re-institution of the Fairness Doctrine should be lobbied for, that would help to end the cycle. I'd give up MSNBC if it meant that Fox would be gone too.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)would have to contain a non-compete clause. But, someone not part of the deal would be free to start a Faux Fox.
exboyfil
(17,857 posts)Right now the Disney merger means he has got even more resources and more time to with his toy.
Maybe his kids will want the cash, but Foxnews allows them to leverage the political situation. It is almost a perfect mechanism for rent seeking.
Brawndo
(535 posts)One thing you wont lose money on is betting on republican greed to win out over all else. They'd even give up their propaganda machine if the price is right. I say we use their greed against them.
exboyfil
(17,857 posts)He gets Disney shares for the entertainment portion, but he won't have any management control at Disney. He has the cash though.
What he does have is a reduced organization where Fox News is a much larger portion of the remaining organization.
Downtown Hound
(12,618 posts)to be shut down.
Quackers
(2,256 posts)Then you can do all the illegal operations you want without getting shut down.
watoos
(7,142 posts)I thought Gates was a smart guy? The goal is to bring emissions to a net zero. Bill, you can squeeze your squeaky toys just plant a tree.
Bill is a big depopulation guy, he wants less poor people on earth.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)The issue that I have with depopulation is that historically, humans have set upon eliminating "others", and depopulation most likely will turn out to be that on steroids.
Think about it, if we depopulate, who gets to have babies to sustain the human race? Do procreation gets limited to couples that have "made it?" Will poor couples be allowed to reproduce? Do people get paid not to reproduce, if so, how will who get paid be decided?
So Gates is going into a dark area with depopulation. Everytime selection of people has happened in history, it has turned into a murderous situation. Better to let people happily keep having sex and focus on another way to deal with climate change.
BTW. I like your ideal about planting a tree. I would add, plant a tree and as many succulent plants (aloe, agave, ect) around it's base as possible. The succulents can act as a water storage facility for the tree to make drought periods less damaging to the tree, and the succulents take in and convert CO compounds and VOCs into nutrients for themselves and they release Oxygen 24/7 during that process.
Leith
(7,802 posts)Did he make that video for elementary school students?
Does he have some kind of accent that makes him pronounce "gigantic" like that?
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)and the majority of Americans, who didn't make it past high school?
Let people rise to being treated like intelligent adults. They know most of the big words, even if they don't use them.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Or, you could... you know, do something on your own instead of empty criticisms that mean nothing and accomplish even less.
Seems we invest more time in tearing down what others do than building up our own accomplishments.
But I get it... one is much more convenient, and allows us the opportunity to advertise our own pretense of wit at the expense of others.
So yeah... I get it.
Leith
(7,802 posts)Gates made a video that was too simplistic. I said that I would not treat someone who does not believe in climate change like they were incapable of understanding English.
There were no empty criticisms, I was not trying to be witty, and I said nothing that tore down anyone else. "Some others" (ahem) are more guilty of that than I was.
littlemissmartypants
(22,418 posts)jalan48
(13,798 posts)world of limited resources. We're not ready to change our lifestyles but it's probably going to be forced upon us by necessity. Socialism is coming one way or another.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)In particular the fastest growing populations ARE NOT capitalistic, and THAT is a big part of the problem. It has been shown over and over that women in advanced societies have fewer babies, helping with the population and resource use issues.
Gates has a point, to deal with the issue of climate change, we are going to need some bigtime innovation. As one poster pointed out, we can also do simpler things like plant trees and other CO compound using plants. I will add that we can stop destroying our oceans, which are responsible for 70% of carbon compound reduction on Earth.
jalan48
(13,798 posts)2015 per capita carbon dioxide emissions from fuel combustion (metric tons)
Saudi Arabia 16.85
Australia 15.83
US 15.53
Canada 15.32
Also,
The United States, with less than 5 % of the global population, uses about a quarter of the world's fossil fuel resourcesburning up nearly 25 % of the coal, 26 % of the oil, and 27 % of the world's natural gas.
WE are a big part of the problem because of our incessant need to consume, not the 3rd world. Capitalism is based on consumption. If you don't consume you don't make money. The current capitalist system will not be able to function as it has if we are to reduce Co2.
https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/science/each-countrys-share-of-co2.html#.XG9yK4hKgrI
Igel
(35,197 posts)Doesn't mean there is really just one, but let's define it that way.
"I declare that there is only one problem."
See. Now overpopulation, the increase in standards of living for 7 billion people, their increased use of energy and consumption of things like meat, poof. Gone. Defined away.
Notice that the increase is carbon dioxide can be detected back to the neolithic cultural revolution. It's not just a new thing. And it's not the US per se that's bad, it's the US population at the average standard of living that Americans enjoy. The other 7 billion people may only use 3/4 of the other resources, but that's as long as they're either in poverty or if they only use renewable energy resources. Like that's going to happen.
But they're not a problem. I said so.
The current capitalist system was set up with a base that is different from today. That's the problem--it's hard to separate culture from economics. If you have an individualist culture, socialism is difficult because it's collectivist. You change the culture that had capitalism--even if it was just the cultural ideas that a significant subpopulation didn't abide by well--and you change the nature of the system. It's convenient to pretend there is no linkage between the two. But only because we declare it to be so.
jalan48
(13,798 posts)simple. Carbon emissions started going up during the industrial revolution when the internal combustion engine was invented. The way we are currently living will not work, energy is going to be rationed for future generations. That will definitely change the culture. No more driving when we want, no more mass consumption (driven by advertising). What we take as our freedom to consume today will no longer exist for future generations. We are living at the end of the capitalist, Disneyland fantasy era.
radius777
(3,624 posts)and innovates it's way out of problems, what Gates was alluding to, that it can be a partner w/the gov't in creating green energy, which helps to solve the problem.
jalan48
(13,798 posts)Climate change should be the #1 story in the news each and every day. It should be the #1 issue in the upcoming primaries as well, let's see how much air time it gets on the campaign trail.
Mosby
(16,168 posts)The top co2 producer in the world is China. They produce almost twice as much as we do. Rounding out the top five in pollution is India, Russia, Indonesia and Malaysia.
China and India are in the business of building coal fired power plants in other countries so they clearly don't give a shit.
Best thing to do now is prepare.
This isn't exactly news, here is Fareed Zakaria from 11 years ago
https://www.newsweek.com/global-warming-get-used-it-104789
jalan48
(13,798 posts)grandkids and great grandkids say if we do nothing? I think per capita does matter. What it tells us is that the US, for its size, is a major carbon emitter. Just because China is bad does mean it's OK for us to do nothing.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)us.
pansypoo53219
(20,906 posts)littlemissmartypants
(22,418 posts)They have more money than brains.
Please take a moment to learn about the toxic birth control they peddle, Essure.
https://essureproblems.webs.com/home
Original Post.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=11760180
Doremus
(7,261 posts)Eschewing meat is one of the easiest, most effective ways we can help the environment.
With the added benefit of improved health. Win-win for all involved.
sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)Sapient Donkey
(1,568 posts)Yeah, it's simplistic and basic, but it seems geared toward kids or something. I'm sure with a bit effort we can find some blog post, paper, or whatever from Gates that goes into this topic in a more "mature" and detailed way.
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/My-plan-for-fighting-climate-change
A quick search of the term "climate change" on his site gives lots of results from him. I dunno, I'm not going to hate on him delivering a positive message just because Windows ME sucked.