Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Beijing time on January 12 morning news, according to reports, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates recently responded to people's doubts about his purchase of a large amount of farmland, saying that he simply wanted to increase production and create more jobs.

Gates is best known for founding Microsoft, but little known for being the largest private landowner in the United States. Gates owns about 275,000 acres (1100 square kilometers) of farmland in the United States. By comparison, the United States had 895.3 million acres of farmland in 2021, according to a 2022 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

For this reason, Gates has also been questioned by people. Last year, Congressman Dusty Johnson of South Dakota also asked Gates to explain why he bought so much farmland in the United States while urging Americans not to eat meat.

On Wednesday, Gates attended Reddit's annual AMA (Ask Me Anything) interactive event. During the interaction, a Reddit user asked Gates: "Why buy so much farmland, is it because of your wealth? "

Gates responded,"I own less than 4,000 times the farmland of the United States. I invest in these farms to increase their productivity and create more jobs. There is no grand plan involved; in fact, all these decisions are made by a professional investment team. "

Gates continued: "For those who are very rich, I think they should pay more taxes. Over time, they should donate their wealth. It's very fulfilling for me and it's my full-time job. "

This is not the first time Gates has called for higher taxes on the wealthy. Back in 2020, Gates wrote in a blog post: "The rich should pay more taxes than they do now, including me. "

Gates is known as one of the founders of the Giving Pledge. The Giving Pledge calls on the world's richest people to donate most of their wealth to charity, a pledge he launched in 2010 with his then-wife Melinda French Gates and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett.

Last year, Gates promised to donate almost all of his wealth to the charity he runs with Melinda. In the Reddit AMA interaction, Gates also said he would sell assets he owned and donate the money to the foundation.

Gates is currently ranked sixth on the world's richest list, with a net worth of $111 billion (currently about 751.47 billion yuan), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Gates has been asked about buying farmland before. At last year's Reddit AMA event, a Reddit user asked, What are you going to do with all the farmland you buy?

Gates responded at the time: "My investment team bought the farmland. It's less than 0.1 percent of all farmland in the United States because ownership is so diverse. We invest in farms to increase production. Some farms are close to cities and may eventually have other uses. "

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