Question

Answer one of the questions please

During 2010, two of the richest people in the world (Warren Buffett and Bill Gates) initiated a movement in which billionaires would commit to giving at least one-half of their wealth to charity or to serve the public good. Is this a good idea or is it merely a way to avoid to keep the government from taking their wealth in taxes? Should this idea be extended to include people of lesser wealth? Should the estate tax be abolished forever, permitting families of successful, wealthy individuals to retain their wealth without government interference? Why or why not?

Answer 1

People like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are ultra rich and are a part of top half of the 1% richest people alive in the world). According to my personal opinion, initiating a movement like this to serve the public is a good idea. Philanthropy sounds like a great idea as rich people are trying to make the world a better place but according to an estimate only 9% of these donations make it to the communities of color.There are many major loop holes which help rich people give away their cash in a way that benefits them. Rich donors play less income and capital gain tax. There's a thing called Donor advised funds which let people put the money in and make a donation which immediately gets a tax write off for the full amount they donate but the catch here is that the money is donated to actual charities much later. This way they don't need to pay the charities immediately but they get tax write off and a good image in public. If you see, rich people even after donating half of their wealths are still in the list of the world's richest people. According to author of the book 'Winners take all' by Anand Giridharidas, billionaires are bribing the society at large. So, i think donation making is great if it goes from hand to hand instead of making 'donations' to the charity. This idea should be extended to lesser wealth people if they donate money from hand to hand instead of making grants and benefitting from policy loopholes.