The Masters of the Universe are as clueless as Trump
by digby
Can you believe anyone would so lacking in self-awareness that he would say something like this:
“If I had to pay $20 billion, it’s fine. But when you say I should pay $100 billion, then I’m starting to do a little math about what I have left over.”
Update: He apparently said after the quote, "I'm just kidding" so he isn't quite a clueless as I thought. But that doesn't really mitigate the fact that he's whining about this wealth tax like it's really going to cause some kind of suffering for people like him.
You'll have to excuse me for a couple of minutes while I go and drink a triple shot of Herradura. And it's only 9 am.
That was one of the richest men in the world whining that if he has to pay $100 billion in taxes he'd have to do some math to figure out how many billions he'd have left! Do they not hear themselves? Even as a joke?
Anyway, here's the story:
Wall Street has not been shy in expressing reservations over Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) presidential candidacy — given her desire to install a wealth tax. Now, you can add one of the world’s richest people to the list of those who are less than thrilled by the prospect of a Warren presidency.
Speaking at a forum in New York with New York Times writer Andrew Ross Sorkin, Microsoft founder Bill Gates came off as far from enthusiastic about Warren 2020. Speaking about the wealth tax, Gates said there’s a limit to what he would be willing to pay.
“If I had to pay $20 billion, it’s fine,” Gates said. “But when you say I should pay $100 billion, then I’m starting to do a little math about what I have left over.”
Sorkin asked Gates if he’d consider sitting down with the Massachusetts senator.
“I’m not sure how open minded she is — or that she’d even be willing to sit down with somebody who has large amounts of money,” Gates said.
Then, Sorkin posed a scenario which, for the moment, is a hypothetical — albeit one which appears to have more of a chance of happening by the day. The Times writer asked Gates who he would back in a general election: Warren or President Donald Trump.
And despite being a vocal Trump critic in the past, Gates would not commit to supporting Warren to defeat the president.
They are all a lot more like Donald Trump than they realize, at least when it comes to whining.
He did say he would vote for the most professional which clearly means he would vote for Warren but this whole conversation is disgusting. These rich assholes whining and crying again over how unfair it is to be mean to them makes me sick. While they've been busy counting their money, income inequality is destabilizing the whole planet. Maybe they think they can retreat to their beautiful compounds in the Pacific Northwest and it won't touch them but they have another thing coming. The consequences of their behavior will end up electing more ignoramuses like Trump. I don't think I need to elaborate on why that's a very, very bad thing.
These guys should be welcoming Warren's ideas and working with her to try to mitigate the growing public unrest. But they're dumb. Obviously. Look at what one of the smartest men in the world just said.
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