j.r. leonard

To be a leftist right now is to believe that the US government is and has been a force of net evil in the world but to also believe that the most ethical thing to do with your money is to give the US government more of it

Seriously, How does that equation balance? Where is the inflection point after which we’ve given the government enough revenue that it magically becomes a force for global good?

Lol fair. But I think the (accurate) perception is that it will be capitalists giving more money to the US gov’t and they don’t do good stuff with it anyway. And also that the US budget for imperialism and war is infinite regardless of taxation.

I don’t know. Bill Gates is trying to eliminate malaria and convince other ultra wealthy people to pledge their fortunes for philanthropy. And even he becomes a target of opportunity

Oh sure, he's a very nice guy, I just think neither Bill Gates nor Elizabeth Warren would remain nice people for long given absolute power over directing all of society's resources.

In the meanwhile, pooling Bill Gates' money with other billionaires' to massively reduce suffering here in the US, while also allowing him to continue giving away money to do other good things, seems like a net positive to me!

I just go back to my original point. The federal budget is a public document. And as a matter of policy, it is formulated separately from any new revenue measures. I’m not sure how many lines in the federal budget do more to alleviate suffering than what Gates is doing.