Stop the world! Progressive billionaire Bill Gates won’t commit to voting for Senator Elizabeth Warren. Although he is willing to pay more taxes. Isn’t that rich, I mean, funny?

On November 6, the failing New York Times sponsored a day long group of speakers. It’s called the DealBook Conference. The website describes it as:

This November, an exceptional group of innovative thinkers and business leaders will take the stage for a day of riveting discussions with celebrated Times journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin in the spectacular setting of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room at the Time Warner Center in New York City.

This year, along with Gwyneth Paltrow, Hillary Clinton and Valerie Jarrett, the afternoon session featured Microsoft founder Bill Gates. According to Vox.com, Bill Gates isn’t opposed to voting for President Donald Trump and won’t commit to Elizabeth Warren. Gates is superfine with paying higher taxes: a higher income tax, higher capital gains tax, and higher inheritance (death) taxes.

But Gates is concerned about proposals like Elizabeth Warren’s landmark wealth tax plan, which would assess a 3 percent tax on every dollar over $1 billion in net worth. He says that American innovation could be at “risk” if taxes get too high.

“I’ve paid over $10 billion in taxes. I’ve paid more than anyone in taxes. If I had to have paid $20 billion, it’s fine. But when you say I should pay $100 billion, then I’m starting to do a little math about what I have left over,” Gates said, eventually adding that he was “just kidding.”

I know that Bill Gates is a tech genius, but like most tech geniuses, he doesn’t understand human behavior. Investors choose where and how to invest their money. If capital gains are taxed at a higher rate, the money will move elsewhere. Plus, here is a simplified explanation of the downside of higher capital gains taxes from the Tax Foundation:

Second, the capital gains tax is merely part of a long line of federal taxation of the same dollar of income. Wages are first taxed by payroll and personal income taxes, then again by the corporate income tax if one chooses to invest in corporate equities, and then again when those investments pay off in the form of dividends and capital gains. This puts corporations at a disadvantage relative to pass through business entities, whose owners pay personal income tax on distributed profits, instead of taxes on corporate income, capital gains, and dividends. One way corporations mitigate this excessive taxation is through debt rather than equity financing, since interest is deductible. This creates perverse incentives to over leverage, contributing to the boom and bust cycle.

Estate taxes are a real bugaboo for me. If what you built your fortune on is intellectual capital, like Bill Gates, it’s easier to carve it up and send it to the government. If your fortune is built on plant, property or equipment, like say, the family farm, you must liquidate in order to pay the inheritance taxes. That is decidedly un-American. Besides that, it’s your money you earned it and you can decide where it goes when you go toe up.

More from the article:

Warren could very well be the Democratic nominee, and Gates seemed to be wrestling with what he would do if that ended up the case. Gates has not hidden his distaste for Trump, but he also evinced some dislike for Warren on Wednesday, as well.

“I’m not sure how open-minded she is,” Gates said when asked if he would meet with Warren, “or that she’d even be willing to sit down with somebody who has large amounts of money.”

Why would Gates think that Warren wouldn’t be willing to meet with him? Vanity Fair has the answer:

Her campaign has reportedly turned down every arrangement, from casual gatherings where no money changes hands, to family-centered events with kids involved. Multiple supporters expressed “frustration” to Recode that the campaign is cold-shouldering them for the mere crime of being loaded and well-connected.

Elizabeth Warren really hates anyone with a nickel to their name. Watch this brief video on the “rigged” system:

Makes me want to pound a shiv through my ears and eyes. Elizabeth Warren doesn’t understand…life. In Warren world, all wealthy people are Bernie Madoff.

A late update to the Vox article states that Warren would be happy to meet with Gates.

And a little note to anyone who thinks he/she doesn’t pay enough in taxes, the Treasury Department will accept all the money you want to donate.

Photo Credit: Severin Nowicki/World Economic Forum/CC BY-SA 2.0/cropped