Hi, I'm Kirsten and I like both the Steve Rogers type of dinosaur and the Old Lace type of dinosaur. - This perfect description brought to you by johnjanuarius.
sorry this was going to be a tags addition because I only get to use my coated pantone swatchbook like 6 times a year when i have a new enamel pin to design, but…
Billie Eilish donated 11.5 million dollars to environmental causes.
She asked why billionaires are billionaires—encouraging them to donate more money.
People are saying her net worth is much more than $11.5 million and she should give away all her money before criticizing billionaires about wealth hoarding.
This is stupid for a number of reasons.
Billie has an estimated net worth of $50 million. These figures are often highly speculative and as accurate as astrology. They do not represent easy-to-access liquid assets. So 11 million is a huge sum for her to donate.
Beyond that, she can actually donate *more* money over time if she does not give it away all at once. Her money makes more money.
Yes, she could give away $50 million in one lump sum, or she could donate much more than that over a period of 10-20 years.
That is sustainable philanthropy.
Or, ya know… how taxes work.
And lastly…
Billionaires are currently hoarding about 16 TRILLION dollars. And even if that money is held in stocks, they are still hoarding massive amounts of money that they absolutely have access to. It is not “all tied up in their businesses.” Elon seemed to find $250 million for Trump without much trouble. It’s just more painful to access due to penalties. It is better to hoard wealth and use it as collateral for credit and loans than to actually spend it.
Even if Elon Musk or Bill Gates only have access to a small percentage of their wealth, that is orders of magnitude more money than Billie has.
Billie Eilish isn’t even a drop in the bucket.
She is a molecule of water.
I don’t even want them to donate. I just want them taxed out of billionaire-ness. I want them to bolster and improve our safety net so we don’t have to rely on the charity of the wealthy. I want them to reduce the wealth disparity between themselves and their lowest wage earner.
I at least want them to actually spend their money instead of hoarding it. A good economy needs money to circulate. If they don’t spend it, we should spend it for them.
It’s worth noting that the reason the beaver wants the water to be deeper in the first place is that the Beaver is using the deep water as a pantry:
All summer and fall, beavers gather up branches with the leaves they actually eat, and store it in the deep end of the Pond, where the cold water and limited oxygen keep the leaves fresh all winter, so when it’s negative 20 outside, a beaver can take a dip out of it’s lodge, grab some refrigerated leaves in the (relatively) warmer water and go back to it’s cozy little nap hole while everything else is out there suffering and eating bark or the like.
So it’s less “there’s a leak in my house” and more “OH SHIT THE FRIDGE!!”
ALT
