I don’t know if any of you buy lottery tickets, but I don’t. I suppose my logical brain tells me that the chances are so low that I shouldn’t waste my money. Still, when the jackpot goes up high, I can’t help my thoughts wander to odd fantasies of what I would do if I had that much money.
I’ve often heard that we need billionaires because they create wealth for everyone. In the financial terms, this notion of trickle down economics is rooted in the idea that over taxing the wealthy will do more harm than good. Forbes magazine poses this very question and ask famous billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates about the consequences of a wealth tax. The answer may surprise you.
This article is a vocabulary rich text, appropriate for intermediate to advanced learners.
Pre discussion
- What would you do if you were a billionaire?
- Which billionaires are philanthropic (use their fortune to better the world)?
- Do you think billionaires are a good thing or a bad thing?
The article–Forbes Bill Gates gets why people are doubting billionaires
- Pull out the economic related vocabulary
- Do a Tell Back of what Gates says about over taxing billionaires
The article is pretty intense, so I will leave it at those two points for now, but if you have a question suggestion, please don’t hesitate to add it to the comments.