Bill Gates pulicly owned (vid) - Ctrl + Alt + Del

[Mr Punch]

Most rich people (as in very rich) are into the new trend of employing glorified accountants and private bankers called wealth managers. It is their job to advise these rich people on the best tax havens, the best yachts to invest in to avoid taxes, the best schooling to invest in etc, in short the best ways to keep their money in their families. It's pretty much a scam, or depending on how much you like your capitalism it's fine because for example the Grand Cayman Islands are very competitive in free market for tax 'services' (read 'evasion').

So if Bill Gates wants to avoid paying taxes (over and above the vast amount he pasy in taxes anyway) by investing billions of dollars in a charitable research foundation to help stop disease fair play to him.

That's without even going into the crooked financial interactions of the multi-million dollar Gulf War and the usual Dyncorp, Blackwaters, Halliwell Burton crap that this admin is up to it's unwashed neck in.

And as for the fifties and sixties, govts and corporations were still literally using slave labour in some countries, and forced migration and land confiscation and all the rest of it in the name of a few bucks, so it may be time to change those rose-tinted specs.

[PangQuan]

i still think this is way more funny.

http://home.epix.net/~tjwagner/gates.html

[David Jamieson]

mmmm pie.

Gates is just a nerd who made good.

He was probably serious as a boy and now he is serious as a man.
He appears to have never developed a sense of humour and can't be expected to have one. Especially not a self deprecating one.

However, it is a truism that if it wasn't for the brain of gates, many of us wouldn't have jobs.

How many use windows and office at work? what's that? most if not all of you? well lordy be!

Linux and mac freaks, please refrain from shouting in the 9% market share seats you hold about how much better your simplified systems and command line expertise is.

lol

[Sifu Darkfist]

Ok i will have you know that i do my homework and exist in the top of my class
be that as it may all of your comments are not current and borderline on false consciousness. Fact America is being blackmailed by a health care system gone rampant (even the mighty Microsoft might have to face this someday) foreclosures have existed at an all time high in recent months (so have sales to unqualified buyers by banks that come up with loans reminiscent of sharecropping (interest only etc)). Fact the United states is supposed to be on the cutting edge of capitalism, but with these fatal errors and many others the cutting edge is a decline into abomination. For instance, what happens when all the cheap labor markets reach the stage of fat and lazy like the US and other western states? the so called bottom line stagnates and destroys the one true constant in capitalism the quest for a larger profit. I am fully aware of the idea behind outsourcing and the increase in total market share, however unless you guys have made overtures to alpha centuri's star system you will reach the end of your rope in less then 50 no perhaps 25 years and then what?
no cheap Chinese labor to fil the isles of wall mart, even the Africans will unite in labor groups to stagnate the system and tell you all to go to hell. Plus it is easy to fatten up poor Americans and make them complacent but try that with 5 billion people and see how far you get (im giving the greedy the benefit of 1 billion in numbers on today’s numbers). This all ends up in the same bull Sh9T cycle we have already seen time and time again. Fact of the matter is as a historian i can tell you history does repeat itself and it always will unless we change as human beings in a fundamental way. its time to pull together accept our weaknesses and put everyone to work to their own capacity and pay them according to their own output. let the chips fall where they may

[YuanZhideDiZhen]

Ok i will have you know that i do my homework and exist in the top of my class
be that as it may all of your comments are not current and borderline on false consciousness. Fact America is being blackmailed by a health care system gone rampant (even the mighty Microsoft might have to face this someday) foreclosures have existed at an all time high in recent months (so have sales to unqualified buyers by banks that come up with loans reminiscent of sharecropping (interest only etc)). Fact the United states is supposed to be on the cutting edge of capitalism, but with these fatal errors and many others the cutting edge is a decline into abomination. For instance, what happens when all the cheap labor markets reach the stage of fat and lazy like the US and other western states? the so called bottom line stagnates and destroys the one true constant in capitalism the quest for a larger profit. I am fully aware of the idea behind outsourcing and the increase in total market share, however unless you guys have made overtures to alpha centuri's star system you will reach the end of your rope in less then 50 no perhaps 25 years and then what?
no cheap Chinese labor to fil the isles of wall mart, even the Africans will unite in labor groups to stagnate the system and tell you all to go to hell. Plus it is easy to fatten up poor Americans and make them complacent but try that with 5 billion people and see how far you get (im giving the greedy the benefit of 1 billion in numbers on today’s numbers). This all ends up in the same bull Sh9T cycle we have already seen time and time again. Fact of the matter is as a historian i can tell you history does repeat itself and it always will unless we change as human beings in a fundamental way. its time to pull together accept our weaknesses and put everyone to work to their own capacity and pay them according to their own output. let the chips fall where they may

you're either a twelve year old who has never worked; a thirty something who has never held a management position; or are a fairly liberal college junior who happens to think marxism is the answer america is looking for; or, even worse, a mindless conservative who repeats the jargon of televangelists and conservative-appearing newsmen as if it were gospel.

the bandits of the us medical 'system' are the lawyers.

the current interest only loans you are describing were developed to offer a credit increase to the really poor and elderly of this country: if they could pay the interest and keep it up to date they could qualify to refinance at larger amounts with smaller payments.

everything else you've raved about are called 'market factors' and are part of the calculus of the statistics which define the economic trends of this and every nation. we and china are in distinctly different economic cycles and environments. take a few classes before you reply.

[Sifu Darkfist]

its funny how the other side resorts to personal attacks when their arguement is weeeeeeeak.

[Sifu Darkfist]

opps almost forgot and offers the mysterious explanation of calculus and market factors to cover blatant exploitation. Those that do not care about their brothers and sisters will reap the long term rewards. France, Russia, China all have suffered the wrath of the poor. By allowing someone to pay huge amounts of interest and only interest you do not help the poor. they are better off being held to the harsh realities of true money lenders and told the truth instead of stabbed in the back with a smile from the bank. it matters not because your time will come as all corrupt governments do. another one will take its place and slowly become rotten and corrupt. Just because it is does not mean it always should be. just by you admiting the Lawyers are a problem shows the weakness in your arguement of the perfect system. None of us are dumb enough any longer to accept the scapegoat excuse. When i said health care was blackmailing i was stating a fact, it recently almost shook general moters to its knees not to mention the hundreds of now dead companies from feeding the multifaceted conglomerat of never satisfied hmos pharmaceutical and insurance companies along with hospitals and all that goes along with it. To stay consistant i will say they are only the tip of the real problem the problem is insatiable greed in all endeavors. When is enough enough?

[YuanZhideDiZhen]

When is enough enough?

when you realize that exploitation is what makes the world go 'round. it provides jobs. it provides taxes. it provides for the development of legal code and penalties. face it: as a communist you exploit the labours of industrious people to support your own laziness.

it will be 'enough' when the general percieved affluence of the world is such that communisms and socialisms will not need to exist to provide justice both legally and economically. but remember: resources are limited and stratification must be allowed to sate the desires of each individual by his own ability.

[norther practitioner]

ive got news for you one of the benefits of using outside slave labor is the lack of any matching income taxes. Also it is well known that most corporations get welfare and tax breaks in the USA esp Gates. However i am not narrowing it down to him my point is simply that in the 50's 60's 70's corporation owners had a deep sense of personal connection to the USA and wouldnt dream of weakening it for an extra billion. If you asked them to invest in other nations they would laugh and say they might buy a piece of the nation but investing would be treason. The only thing i am saying is that these big *****s should be consistent
either live here and support the USA with jobs etc or move to where they are creating jobs so those poor people can see who is profiteering of their blood.
Also Mercenaries dont kill unless paid by corporate PR1cks this i know.

Who do you buy your oil products from, what type of shoes do you wear, what type of car do you drive.....
.

[Sifu Darkfist]

i guess ill go one more round "ding ding"

to answer oil from amoco shoes made in texas (cowboy boots), i also have chinese tennis shoes that i chose for their martial quality. and for cars i drive a 2000 impala detectives car, my wife drives an aztec from pontiac. i know all these things except the boots have chinese or foriegn parts. The fact is however that the foreign parts are forced on us. Ill prove it,,,,, For example if you go to buy laredo boots (famous name) they still cost exactly the same as a year ago, however the manufacturer has stopped production in the states and has begun purchasing the boots from china. China doesnt even make much of them on land, they pick up the raw material with super tankers and in the hull is a manufacturing facility that creates the product effectively removing break of bulk price and only loading and unloading once. Sounds like fair business right? well then why did the same exact boots not drop in price? Isnt the arguement that "americans want to pay less"? here we lie again American companies want to pay less so they can pass the savings to their pockets not to the consumers.
so i bought boots made by hand in texas for 30 dollars more and ****ed on the laredo franchise. Now had they sold the boots even at a 20% discount i would understand all of your so called logic. you can throw insults at me and call me red pinko or whatever you like it wont change the fact that our leaders in all areas have sold us to the highest bidder. Some things are not for sale in my eyes such as my patriotic blood hell i dont even profit off of my teaching in martial arts simply because everytime i find a worthy student they are the unfortunate as far as money is concerned the best students are the hungry ones. the ones that dont have a pot to p1ss in. As to my personal work ethic, if you cant tell how prolific i am at life in general by the amount of casual writing i do aside from all of my real writing (this si for the commie comment how it makes people less productive). So i can be whatever you want me to be 12years old, 30years old, fat lazy red and never held a managers position (except 2 companies i started). regardless of your feelings on me it remains that we grow fat lazy and unable to produce the mass products needed for sustained military engagment in this once great country. it sounds like rome all over again
BTW i am going to cremate the dead horse honorable moderators. i know this is not the time or the place for this debate

[HanRen]

all this bashing aint do nothing to Bill Gates, he is still living in his multi million state of the art home with a pool that plays music while you in it. He only needs to lift one finger, million of people out of jobs, or, make someone disappear from face of the earth he really wanted to. Want to fight rich and powerful? be rich and powerful yourself. BTW I also dislike how Microsoft do bussiness, but what you going to do? fight him when you can't even make 80,000 a year? government aint going to do nothing. well, this is the reality in the world.

[David Jamieson]

I don't really have a problem with the playing field being leveled on a global basis.

Why should other countries have sweatshops to give us pants that we pay too much for and then a select few get the rest of the profits?

fug dat mang.

everyone, on an open market system, no protectionism and straight up work for your dough period.

Too long the haves have been having due to the have nots who have been providing.

almost 2 billion people on this planet in all countries are in some form of endentured or outright slavery.

relativism doesn't hold water anymore. It is not ok to not be transparent and it is not ok to wear a pair of 200$ shoes made by a 12 year old in the phillipines or thailand or china.

at least gates still pays his people good dollars and a good chuck of them live and work in redmond still.

which is a lot more than can eb said for Nike or Adidas or Levis Strauss and so on and so on.

Capitalism has some good points, but it also has some very very bad points. The main one being "exploitation of developing nations populations"

But if everyone knew exactly where goods were coming from, there would be a few more corporations going down due to boycotts on their products.