United States Billioner's

[Louwai (Bryan)]

Originally Posted by mbo

It's just another way of asking why the boss is worth millions (not thousands) of times more than the worker.?

Just 1 scenario is;

I guess it's because the boss (owner / inventor / designer) is the one who initially spent a lot of their early yrs putting everything they had into an idea.
They spent every cent of their income from a part time job developing their dream. They had many failures along the way, but 1 of the ideas paid off. They spent every penny they had advancing their idea until the idea had been developed to a point where it could pay for itself.

So why don't they deserve to reap the benefit of their yrs of hard work & foresight?
Why should others automatically expect to share in someone's hard earned wealth??

Everyone has ideas, but only some have the balls to put everything on the line to persue their ideas. Those people are generally wealthy.


This, of course, is aimed at companies created & owned by a single individual.

Companies that take advantage of 3rd world manufacturing are a totally different kettle of fish.

[Rob_K]

Anything that returns money to disadvantaged Third World peoples is good per se, but we must remember that the system which enabled these people to become insanely, obscenely rich is the very one which created disadvantage and poverty. It cannot exist without it. I applaud the 'generous' philanthropy, but I won't be impressed until Buffet, Gates and the rest live in modest suburban houses, on a fair wage, and drive nice family sedans...

Cheers -

[astroron (Ron)]

How many of the critics here give even .00001% of their wealth to charity
If you do Good on you
If they where in the same boat wealth wise as these people would they be any different:quest ion:

[Rob_K]

Originally Posted by astroron

How many of the critics here give even .00001% of their wealth to charity
If you do Good on you
If they where in the same boat wealth wise as these people would they be any different:quest ion:

Well I do Ron, considerably more. And I have no wealth, although I am 'obscenely' rich compared to most people in the world. I'm part of the system that created rich people, and while low in the sceme of things I'm still in the upper echelon of beneficiaries, just because I'm lucky enough to live in the Western world. All I'm saying is remember where the wealth came from.

Cheers -

[TrevorW]

Net taxable income is earnings-deductible expenses(which includes charities)

[astroron (Ron)]

As far as I am concerned they are doing something useful with their money As I said they could leave it in the bank and let make lots of interest, that they choose to donate it to a worthwhile cause is a good thing in my book
End of Story

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by astroron

How many of the critics here give even .00001% of their wealth to charity
If you do Good on you
If they where in the same boat wealth wise as these people would they be any different:quest ion:

I give thousands every year both in cash, time and work for free . I have no idea what I would do if I was super loaded. Probably still work but have more astro cool toys.

[astroron (Ron)]

As I said , if you do
Good on Ya.

[Astrobserver99 (Rob)]

All I can say is...its about time...helping the impoverished when you have that much money should be just plain common sense...though it seems to me that just to accumulate that amount of wealth in the first place seems to require a certain type of "money" mentality...I agree that those amounts are almost incomprehensible in human terms. Also, our capitolist society that encourages such accumulation is less than perfect...

[RobF (Rob)]

Originally Posted by astroron

How many of the critics here give even .00001% of their wealth to charity
If you do Good on you
If they where in the same boat wealth wise as these people would they be any different:quest ion:

Umm, not trying to be smart Ron, but 0.00001% of $1,000,000 is 10cents.....
(I'm not a millionaire BTW )

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by RobF

Umm, not trying to be smart Ron, but 0.00001% of $1,000,000 is 10cents.....
(I'm not a millionaire BTW )

What I am saying is that most people give nothing
We where talking about BILLIONERS not Millioners

[richardda1st (Richard)]

There are some who will automatically put down & criticize, and others who will automatically admire and praise, it’s so easy to do.

These US billionaires may have worked hard in the past to earn their wealth, and may have even done so without taking advantage of others, just maybe, it is possible.

I prefer not to judge as I can’t be bothered doing the research on these individuals to ascertain their bonafides.

They accumulated this wealth, which is a fact, regardless. They are putting this same wealth to some good now, which is also a fact.

Cheers
Richard

[mbo (Pat and Kirk)]

Originally Posted by Louwai

Just 1 scenario is;

I guess it's because the boss (owner / inventor / designer) is the one who initially spent a lot of their early yrs putting everything they had into an idea.
They spent every cent of their income from a part time job developing their dream. They had many failures along the way, but 1 of the ideas paid off. They spent every penny they had advancing their idea until the idea had been developed to a point where it could pay for itself.

So why don't they deserve to reap the benefit of their yrs of hard work & foresight?

Yes, great effort deserves great reward, I just think it has to be a somewhat ratonal reward. Bill left University in 1975 to start Microsoft, he basically retired in 2006, lets call that 30 years of full slog working, 14 hours a day everyday. What should this pay you per hour? Doctors are very smart, hard working, and take on a very weighty responsibility, say they earn $250 per hour. A huge remuneration might be $1000 per hour. Do the sums on Bill and you get about $313,000 per hour for 35 years. He didn't work / suffer that much? Something doesn't make sense with the system. At least Bill Gates did something tangible, others like Warren Buffet just get rich by moving money about, essentially siphoning it off to themselves.
Anyway, it's always a contentious topic, everyone is entitled to their opinion, so I'm going to back out of here

[DavidU (Dave)]

Buffet lives very modestly with an old car.(he is the exception in the billionaires world).

Originally Posted by Rob_K

but I won't be impressed until Buffet, Gates and the rest live in modest suburban houses, on a fair wage, and drive nice family sedans...

Cheers -