It’s fucking disgusting. Little more than a manifestation of greed mixed with sociopathic and narcissistic behavior.
The worst part is that there are people who think these deserve that money. This is all on the backs of actual workers. And from a society that they aren’t paying their fair share of.
Should these three individuals be wealthy? Sure. Should they have ever been allowed to accumulate anywhere near this much personal wealth on the backs of literally millions of other people? Fuck no.
This money should have been forcefully spread around to those workers over the course of decades. And a good chunk back to the society that made it all possible.
Instead, these sycophants hoarded more than they could ever need or even want, while keeping wages far too low and paying very little (effective rate) in taxes.
The graphic is quite outdated (2019 for top 3) and the situation got much worse. The latest datapoint on the website I could find was from 2021, indicating a wealth of 683 billions of the top 5 US citizens.
Because despite the reputation he's managed to build for himself as a "great philanthropist", he still only gives around 5% of his wealth to charity (which he must do to maintain the "charity" status of his reputation laundering foundation, which clearly does a fantastic job at distracting people from the other 95% of his hoard).
He earns it quicker than he can spend or give it away
Lol, he could give it all away in a matter of minutes, if he wanted to.
I don't doubt he still gets enough active income to keep him living more comfortably than 95% of society, and if he really really must, he could keep a few mil in the bank to keep living comfortably on the interest until he dies, so the lazy fucker still won't ever have to -shock horror- work for a living!
But there is absolutely nothing stopping him giving a significant chunk of his money away other than his own personal greed.
The idea that these people have "too much money to give away" is the most ridiculous take on why they don't I've ever heard..
And that’s why a progressive tax system makes sense, unless you want wealth to become concentrated.
The US’s tax rate was once truly progressive, with top marginal rates well over 70%, even reaching over 90%. And guess what happened during that time. The middle class exploded and so did the economy overall.
Now the wealthiest pay a LOWER effective rate than most taxpayers. This is a regressive system, favoring the rich and creating more inequality. Allowing for increasing concentration of wealth and a devastation of the middle class.
Money making money does not have to result in the insane concentrations of wealth we see today. People can still get rich and be rich. But effective tax policy and regulations can be used to create a society that’s better for most.
There's a meta problem here: once you make enough money, it becomes increasingly profitable to pay people to find ways to avoid paying taxes via loopholes. Worse yet, you can pay people to rig the system in your favour. A lot of people think this is the inevitable outcome of capitalist systems.
Well I'm sure if they can make themselves billionaires once they can do it again, so clearly the real answer is to just let them grow infinitely and prune their profits every few years.