Featured Image Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Bill Gates, Money
Jake Massey
Bill Gates has said that very rich people should pay 'a lot more' in taxes.
The billionaire - who co-founded Microsoft in 1975 - recently took part in his 11th Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Reddit, and naturally, the topic of conversation moved to money.
The 67-year-old was asked why he was buying up 'so much farmland' and whether he thought this was a problem associated with billionaires and how much they are allowed to acquire through their wealth.
Advert
And in response, Gates said that he felt taxes on the rich need to rise sharply, adding that his job nowadays is giving away his money.
"I own less than 1/4000 of the farmland in the US," he responded.
"I have invested in these farms to make them more productive and create more jobs. There isn't some grand scheme involved - in fact all these decisions are made by a professional investment team.
"In terms of the very rich I think they should pay a lot more in taxes and they should give away their wealth over time. It has been very fulfilling for me and is my full time job."
That being said, he wasn't prepared to say that billionaires shouldn't exist at all.
"Being rich can easily make you out of touch," he explained. "The incentive to create new companies is still a good thing I think.
"Even if taxes go up I still wouldn't ban anyone from being worth a billion but that is just one opinion. I have been very lucky."
Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft in 2000 to focus more on his philanthropy work, before leaving his full-time role in 2008 and completely cutting ties in 2020 by dropping his seat as board director.
Obviously, a lot of time has passed since his days as CEO, and so people wanted to know if there's anything he'd change if he could go back.
One question read: "Mr Gates, with the benefit of hindsight regarding your years of involvement with Microsoft, what is the single biggest thing you wish you had done differently?"
"I was CEO until 2000. I certainly know a lot now that I didn't back then," Gates replied.
As for the biggest thing he would change in retrospect, he said it would be letting 'Android win' by not going forward with Microsoft phone operating systems.
You see, even though the company's desktop operating system was a key fixture of Microsoft's long-running history, it missed out on being the second-biggest mobile operating system provider after Apple, leaving Android to take the spot.
Done alright for himself though regardless, hasn't he?