bill gates, phoney philanthropist, cheap labor importer, monopolist, attacks teachers' pensions

[Hannah Bell]

Getting Schooled in Aspen
Bill Gates attacks "fraudulent" accounting that hides the cost of teacher pensions.

Ever since its inception in 2007, the Aspen Ideas Festival has been a proving ground for thinkers who want to break with liberal orthodoxy on certain subjects. One is education. The event, sponsored by the Aspen Institute, has been a annual refuge for Democrats who would like more choice and competition in K-12.

"The education system is built on the three pillars of mediocrity: lockstep pay, lifetime tenure and seniority," was Joel Klein's assessment at this year's Festival. He ought to know -- he's the chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, the nation's largest school system.

John Fund discusses Robert Gibbs's comment yesterday that GOP could take the House. Also, Joe Rago discusses President Obama's meeting with business leaders.
.This year, Mr. Klein also had some backup from a friend (and former rival in the Microsoft antitrust case), Bill Gates, who has devoted much of his time to education since stepping down from full-time work with the company in 2006. Undermining public education, he said, is a system that channels too much money to pensions for retired teachers. He predicts that state and local governments will have to lay off 100,000 active teachers in the next couple of years. "I'm very much against that," said Mr. Gates who noted that many of the teachers who lose their jobs will be younger, more motivated teachers at the bottom of the seniority system.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704288204575363100367240836.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLESecond

[cali]

1. One may disagree with where Gates has chosen to give

but that doesn't make him a phony philanthropist.

[Hannah Bell]

2. it sure does when the primary purpose of the "philanthropy" is to benefit the

philanthropist & his kind.

[cali]

3. if you're talking about benefitting financially

how come he supports the estate tax? why pledge to give away half his fortune?

It stretches credulity to believe that Gates is giving away vast sums to benefit himself and other billionaires.

[Hannah Bell]

4. he supports the estate tax because he puts his into his tax-free investment & policy-directing fund

the inheritance tax is for the lowly people who want to pass on appreciated acreage & small businesses to their kids.

his kids will have 7 figure jobs managing his tax-free investment & policy fund.

[cali]

5. wow. what a crock. No, the inheritance tax is not

"for the lowly people who want to pass on appreciated acreage & small businesses to their kids."

That's a wholly false repuke meme.

[Hannah Bell]

6. whatever you say, cali. 1 million = 50 acres at $20K/acre.

$1 million = 1 regional construction business, or 1 local car dealership, or a couple of dinky restaurants.

the super-rich!

bill gates' heirs will never pay a dime of inheritance tax.

bill gates is a sick fuck.

[cali]

7. really? You know that Gates' heirs will never pay

inheritance taxes?

Nah, just more Hannah making shit up.

And no, the statistics about how it's bullshit that small business owners are crushed by inheritance taxes couldn't be clearer.

but it is amusing to see you siding with the corporatists.

[Hannah Bell]

8. lol. because we all know bill gates is no corporatist: why, he's for the little guy!

everyone knows that!

gates' heirs won't pay a dime.

[cali]

9. actually, hannah, the bulk of inheritance taxes have historically

been paid by the very wealthy. And that's as it should be.

[MedicalAdmin]

11. Cali and Hannah

Cali, Bill hasn't supported the estate tax - but his dad does ... at least on paper.

Hannah - the estate tax actually exempts most small biz and family farms, etc. But you are correct on your analysis of most new philanthropy. the administrative costs of said charities are scam artist high.

[cali]

12. Actually, Sr. has done quite a bit more than supporting the estate tax on paper and

supporting greater taxation on the rich.


Gates’s Dad Says Rich ‘Aren’t Paying Enough’ in Taxes (Update1)
May 20, 2010, 1:24 PM EDT
More From Businessweek

By Peter Robison

May 20 (Bloomberg) -- Bill Gates’s father wants the Microsoft Corp. co-founder to pay more in income taxes.

Bill Gates Sr., a retired Washington state lawyer, supports a proposed ballot initiative that would require the state’s highest earners including himself and his son to pay an income tax. Washington now collects no personal income taxes.

“Poor people and middle-income people are paying too much to support the state and rich people aren’t paying enough,” Gates Sr. said in an interview yesterday in Seattle. “That’s the starting point for me.”

The proposed tax on individuals earning more than $200,000 a year and couples earning more than $400,000 would raise $1 billion a year to fund education and health care. While targeting the highest earners, the measure would ease the burden on homeowners with a 20 percent reduction in state property levies and eliminate the business-and-occupation tax for 80 percent of enterprises in the state, backers say.

<snip>

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-20/gates-s-dad-says-rich-aren-t-paying-enough-in-taxes-update1-.html

I thought Gates had endorsed his father's views on the estate tax, but a cursory search did not turn anything up. I apologize for the error.

Oh, and I suggest that you check out the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to see if their admin costs are unconscionably high.

[Hannah Bell]

13. didn't exempt the ones i know. they had to set up trusts to keep them.

[cali]

14. personal anecdotes

do not make a valid argument.

[Hannah Bell]

16. check back when gates finally kicks the bucket.

though he may never do it, but be kept bionically alive with injections of his various gmo patent drugs.

[MedicalAdmin]

10. The blue screen of death

How's that again? We should listen to the guy who gave us the worst, least secure OS in history.

Yes! The blue screen of death is coming to public education.

[WinkyDink]

15. Why would a young person be "more motivated" to work in a field where his future is grim?