Billie Eilish to billionaires: ‘No hate, but give your money away, shorties’

Billie Eilish wants billionaires to donate more As the Grammy and Oscar winner accepted the music award at this year s WSJ Magazine Innovator Awards on Wednesday night she urged the ultra-wealthy to address more of the world s issues We re in a time right now where the world is really really bad and really dark and people need empathy and help more than kind of ever especially in our country Eilish commented to an audience that included Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan as well as Star Wars creator George Lucas I d say if you have money it would be great to use it for good things maybe give it to particular people that need it Late night host Stephen Colbert introduced Eilish on stage at New York s Museum of Modern Art by announcing that she would donate million of the proceeds from her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour to causes dedicated to food equity atmosphere justice and reducing carbon litter In accepting the award the Bad Guy singer added a polite but direct call to others in the room saying a lot of people especially in the U S could use several help right now Love you all but there s a scarce people in here who have a lot more money than me she reported to a smattering of applause And if you re a billionaire why are you a billionaire And no hate but give your money away shorties Through her Changemaker Campaign Eilish has worked with the nonprofit Reverb for years on its Music Decarbonization Project and its Music Conditions Revolution initiative alongside artists ranging from Dead Company to Harry Styles Chan was also honored at the event receiving the Philanthropy of Science Innovator of the Year award A spokesperson for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Brandi Hoffine Barr mentioned Zuckerberg and Chan have committed to giving away of their Meta shares to philanthropy over the subject of their lifetimes and have already granted out billion According to Forbes Zuckerberg s current net worth is around billion Eilish s comments come as the number of billionaires worldwide continues to grow with new billionaires added in according to a January account from Oxfam International titled Takers Not Makers The summary exposed that the billionaires grew wealthier three times faster in than in pointing to an increased concentration of materials globally Oxfam predicted at least five people will become trillionaires in the next decade up from one person the year before The group called for higher taxes on the rich and other measures to break up monopolies cap CEO pay and require companies to pay living wages The wealthiest Americans have a long history of calling on each other to give away more of their money In the steel magnate and industrialist Andrew Carnegie argued in the essay The Gospel of Wealth that the richest should give away their fortunes within their lifetimes in part to lessen the sting of growing inequality In Bill Gates Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett took up that call by creating the Giving Pledge a commitment for billionaires to give away more than half their wealth in their lifetimes or when they die Fifteen years on chosen billionaires have taken the pledge with of them coming from the U S according to a latest account by the Charity Improvement Initiative of the Institute for Agenda Studies Those U S billionaires represent of the total billionaires in the U S according to the overview revealing the small portion of the wealthiest people who have publicly committed to giving away their fortunes The assessment determined that of the billionaires who have died since taking the pledge only one gave away his fortune before he died Meanwhile only eight of the deceased pledgers fulfilled the commitment by giving away half of their wealth or more at their death though chosen of their estates are still being resolved Chuck Collins one of the authors of the statement and an expert at the Institute for Initiative Studies mentioned Eilish s comments are part of a growing realization that the rules of the market favor those with assets over those who earn wages He thinks the Giving Pledge has created an expectation and competition for the wealthiest to give away their money but the fortunes of various of the pledgers have increased over time meaning they will need to move even more aggressively if they are to fulfill the commitment In the end philanthropy is not a substitute for a fair and effective tax system Collins noted The level of extreme inequality will require specific form of restoring progressivity to the tax system a wealth tax as well as progressive income tax Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives sponsorship through the AP s collaboration with The Conversation US with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc The AP is solely responsible for this content For all of AP s philanthropy coverage visit https apnews com hub philanthropy Source