Should billionaires actually be a thing?
That was one of the first questions Stephen Colbert put to Bill and Melinda Gates during their appearance on The Late Show on Tuesday, where they spoke about philanthropy and taxing the wealthy.
"I think you can make the tax system take a much higher portion from people with great wealth," responded Bill. "These great fortunes were not made from ordinary income, so you probably have to look to the capital gains rate and the estate tax if you want to create more equity there."
They were clear that the wealthy should be taxed more than they currently are, but less sure about a specific upper tax rate.
"There have been many times where you're in France where they'll say, gosh, we wish we could have a Bill Gates, we wish we could have a vibrant tech sector," said Melinda. "But the taxes have been done there in such a way that it doesn't actually stimulate good growth."
Topics Politics
