On Mar 22, 8:46 am, "josh fickler" <j...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> "Rex Ballard" <rex.ball...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>
> news:ed2aabd6-02d2-4253-ab06-adc6b4296522@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> > On Mar 21, 3:25 pm, Tim Smith <reply_in_gr...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> How come when Dell and Microsoft join PRODUCT (RED), that's proclaimed
> >> as evil Microsoft using AIDS to make money, but no one said a thing
> >> about Motorola making Linux-based phones available as part of PRODUCT
> >> (RED)?
>
> > Maybe because Microsoft and Bill Gates didn't get philantrathropic
> > until tax free dividends threatened to put Bill under alternative
> > minimum tax, which rwould have meant a huge tax bill on several years
> > of income and capital gains.
>
> News for you. Bill has had a HUGE tax bill for a long, long, long time.
> There were no "new tax bills" that would have changed any of that.
Actually, there was. The Bush administration eliminated the tax on
dividends and Microsoft paid out a $3/share dividend, worth about $30
billion in hard cash to Billy. The problem was that because it left
such a small percentage of his income being taxable, it would have
meant that he would have been subject to Alternative Minimum Tax,
which in 20% of your income with no deductions of any kind. Had Billy
not given the dividends to his favorite charity (himself), he would
have been hit with a huge bump in tax under AMT.
This was about the point where Gates formed the Bill and Melinda Gates
foundation, which gave Billy the ability to shelter his taxes,
continue to leverage investments outside of Microsoft, and wield the
power of his billions from a fully protected tax shelter.
Bill isn't the first to do this, and won't be the last. However, he
was the least subtle about what he was doing, and seems to be quite
willing to make "charitable contributions" to charities reccomended by
his political friends, many of which are shells for Political Action
Committees or are funding pro-Republican media outlets such as Focus
on the Family, Christian Broadcasting Network, and several of the
"Jack Abramov" charities. Remember, Jack had his "contributors"
contribute to charities that were trying to preach that gambling was
evil and should be banned in Texas, so that his contributors in the
Oklahoma Indian territory casinos would continue to have people drive
up from Houston rather than stop at a nearby Casino in Texas (on the
way to the Indian casinos).
The Gates foundation does many good things with their money, but even
then, it's only the minimum required to maintain it's status as a non-
profit organization. Often, these contributions have some strings
attached, mostly related to investments made by the Gates foundation.
> > Even then, Bill's generousity as a
> > percentage of his income is almost an insult.
>
> Do the math and post the figures. My bet is that as a percentage of his
> income, he gives away a lot more than you ever have.
Assuming that his net worth is around $56 billion, interest
> > He's been soaking
> > hundreds of millions of PC users for billions of dollars per year
>
> You seem to have Bill Gates and Microsoft confused. Last I checked he
> doesn't work there anymore. And back when he did work there... he was an
> employee. What the company earns isn't his to keep.
>
> > paying lower than industry average wages to employees, to make sure
> > that his personal fortune is maximized.
>
> You should tell the thousands of millionairs at Microsoft that they are
> being paid lower than average wages. You work for IBM... they pay even lower
> wages than Microsoft.
>
> > And the money he "Gives" has more often been methods to leverage the Gates
> > Foundation investments,
>
> Examples?
>
> > making it more like a tax exempt holding company and bribery fund,
> > than a legitimate charitable interest.
>
> Yet every major philanthropic organization in the world praises the Gates
> Foundation. Heads of state and worls leaders have praised Gates and the
> foundation. The only people criticizing them are linux idiots. So who do you
> think knows more about charities and philanthropy??? Philanthropic
> organizations or typical cheap-skate linux users who have never donated a
> nickel to charity. Schestowitz for example has never had a job in his life.
> Hans Reiser was too cheap to hide his car from the police and was too cheap
> to clean the carpets in his car. These people are certainly in no position
> to give to charity.
>
> > Dell on the other hand has been generous almost since the begining,
> > recycling computers, sending lease returns to third world countries,
> > and low income families, and encouraging the resale of Dell PCs
>
> Gee... just a few months ago Dell was the incarnation of the devil. But now
> that they sell an Ubuntu machine they are heavenly.
>
> > through computer fairs and even refurbished computer stores in low-
> > income neighborhoods. Most of these old and cheap computers were sent
> > out with version of Linux
>
> I'm sure you have a link to back this up. (I didn't think so.)
>
> --
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