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by AlexGood 1793 days ago
I am not excited about having a vote on how to spend anybody's money, particularly if they spend it researching vaccines for malaria, like Gates did. Our system of government strictly limits which decisions are subject to democractic choices, for good reasons
2 comments

It's not "anybody's money".

Just because you've successfully created a wildly successful business, does that imply that you should now also be the person to decide how all that money is spent? Why would society agree to this? We can acknowledge that you might be a brilliant business person without simultaneously and implicitly agreeing that you're just the smartest person around and should clearly get to control where all that revenue flows to.

Hence, the 1950s & 1960s idea of taxation: you can earn boatloads of cash, but we'll tax a lot of it away from you. You'll still have enough to be crazy rich and lead a life everybody else can only dream of, but you're not going to control the disposition of (say) US$20B.

Obviously, what really makes a person deserve to control the distribution of $20B is living in a low population density swing state.
I only mean that how 'well' billionaires personally decide to spend their money might not be a solid barometer for how tax laws should be written.

Point taken tho