Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments - a credit card and financial services company - thinks billionaire philanthropy is "one of the biggest scams of capitalism."
Price told MarketWatch that the average billionaire donates a smaller chunk of money to charity each year than the average non-billionaire.
As evidence, Price cited a recent ranking of the largest charitable contributions of 2020, which included donors like Jeff Bezos. Critics of wealth inequality have pointed out that billionaires have become even richer during the pandemic, but the contributions they have made to charity represent a small part of their growing wealth.
Price was prompted to discuss the issue as Washington is proposing to create the first state tax on people whose net worth is over $ 1 billion. Price said one of the most common criticisms he has heard of the proposal is that "billionaires do not need to pay taxes because they donate to charity."
"In reality, the amount they donate is a fraction of what they would pay if their tax rates were in line with the working class," he said.
Billionaires pay the lowest tax rate, Price added. In Washington state, the richest pay 3% of their income on taxes, while the poorest pay 18%, he said.
Bezos was the No. 1 donor in 2020, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. He pledged $ 10 billion to set up the Land Fund, but only a fraction of that money went to charity last year. The fund distributed $ 791 million in grants to environmental groups in 2020. Bezos also donated $ 100 million to Feeding America, a food distribution network.
Meanwhile, Bezos' net worth reached about $ 188 billion by November 2020. Using these figures - which have been on the rise - Bezos gave about 0.47% of its net worth in 2020.
Dan Price gained attention in 2015 after announcing that he would pay every employee in his company a minimum of $ 70,000 a year.
Price does not think "the world needs a billionaire philanthropist" because an unfair system has been created, he added, adding that he prefers a system of "justice and integrity" and companies that care about their employees.
