If your dad is Bill Gates, you’re probably not getting a Starbucks gift card for graduating college.

In 2018, Jennifer Gates walked off the Stanford stage and onto a 124-acre, $15.82 million horse farm in North Salem, New York. According to Architectural Digest, the lavish estate was a graduation gift from her billionaire parents—and came complete with rolling pastures, three parcels of land, and proximity to New York City for her future studies.

But in case that sounds too much like the plot of “Succession: Equestrian Edition,” Melinda Gates would like to remind everyone: their kids were absolutely raised “middle class.”

  • SleafordMod@feddit.uk
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    8 hours ago

    I know people want to hate on Bill for being rich, and I can understand that, but I still prefer him to a certain South African billionaire.

    Maybe some people will say that’s like comparing a giant douche to a turd sandwich though.

      • SleafordMod@feddit.uk
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        6 hours ago

        At least Bill gives away a lot of his money, and his stance on politics seems relatively sensible and measured. Whereas the South African billionaire gets a kick out of being stupid and damaging to the US (and beyond the US if you look at his comments on foreign politics).

          • x00z@lemmy.world
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            2 hours ago

            If you still control how it is spent, are you really giving it away?

            Actually yeah. You can’t just give a billion to an organization. Most of the organizations that receive money have the capacity to handle millions at most. Anything above that would just sit on their bank accounts because they’d have to scale up massively.

            The amount of money the Gates Foundation is handling requires so much managing that they have 2000 employees.

            I suggest to read up on what they are actually doing:

            It’s quite altruistic in nature.

              • x00z@lemmy.world
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                24 minutes ago

                I literally explained why it is set up like that. Except for the part where they use money of the foundation to make more money for the foundation.

                Gates is in full control of what he “gives” away.

                And rightfully so. The foundation is always looking for organizations to give grants to. You can’t just give it all away randomly. To give away so much money you need to put it somewhere where it can be distributed fairly. Which is exactly what the foundation is doing.

                The only real argument you can have against Gates is whether or not he should be giving even more. But that is not the best argument because he still is giving away much more than people more wealthy as him.

          • SleafordMod@feddit.uk
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            6 hours ago

            He spends quite big sums on healthcare I think? I’m not saying he’s a perfect guy. Maybe the world would be better if taxes were such that nobody could be a billionaire. I just think I prefer Bill Gates to other billionaires, especially the prominent South African one.