Billionaires Should Pay after Republicans Defund Public Broadcasting

I’m not in the habit of spending other peoples’ money, but for the duration of this opinion piece, that’s exactly what I will suggest. The point: to keep public broadcasting on the air—even as Republicans act to defund it.

And to make my case, for the next few paragraphs I’m going to pretend that I’m one of the billionaires in the Bloomberg and Forbes 2025 surveys.

Ready?

A Billionaire's Lifestyle And How Much Is Left Over

As a billionaire, I own:

• Los Angeles estate: $40 million

• NY Park Ave. apartment: $15 million

• Hamptons summer home: $15 million

• Southern France Villa: $15 million

• Gulfstream Jet 550 (new): $60 million

• Yacht (300 ft): $200 million

• Fine art collection: $100 million

• 2 Bugatti cars, 2 Rolls-Royces: $15 million

• Miscellaneous stuff: $100 million

Total: $550 million

My annual living expenses include maintenance of my homes, the jet, the yacht, additions to my art collection, insurance, lawyers and accountants and the money that pays for my travel and other billionaire style living expenses. That adds up to $100 million a year. My taxes run about $200 million (I pay 20% of my billion dollar annual income from interest and dividends. (That’s 5% of my invested $20 billion).

So my annual expenses and taxes total $300 million. I still have about $700,000 million left over. Lucky me. What should I do with it?

The Real Cost of Defunding Public Broadcasting

Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress just zeroed out the $550 million the federal government had already approved as its annual contribution for public media. I could easily cover that shortfall and keep PBS, NPR and 1,500 local media outlets on the air without costing me a dollar of my $20 billion fortune.

Now, back to reality.

I don’t have that $20 billion. But lots of people do.

Just to name a few, according to the latest Bloomberg survey, Elon Musk is worth $421 billion, the Walton family is worth $362 billion, Mark Zuckerberg $263 billion, Jeff Bezos $220 billion, Warren Buffet $157 billion, Bill Gates $155 billion. The Mars family (candy bars and pet food) $100 billion+.

A few other notables with major billions:

McKenzie Scott (Jeff Bezos’ former wife) $40.5 billion

Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys owner) $15.7 billion

Ralph Lauren $14.3 billion

George Lucas $8.92 billion

Mark Cuban $8.63 billion

Too Rich to Care About Public Broadcasting?

Expect those fortunes to increase as a result of the Republican Congress’ new tax giveaway to billionaires and millionaires.

How realistic is it to expect people who have far more money than they can possibly spend to toss a few coins into the public media tin cup?

The other day, the Washington Post published a front page story about  Patriotic Millionaires, a group that collectively says it doesn’t need or want the new tax breaks. Maybe they could organize to pool their members excess money for public media.

Or,

Back in 2010, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett created the “Giving Pledge,” a promise to give away their fortunes. Since then, more than 200 others, mostly billionaires, have signed that pledge, including Musk and Zuckerberg. Notably, all still have most of their fortunes left to distribute. A $550 donation from any one of them would simply be a rounding error on their spreadsheet. And they could deduct it from their taxes!

How much, really, does a person need even if they covet everything? In my fantasy budget above I’ve listed multiple homes, jets, yachts and lifestyle where one would be hard pressed to find anything else to buy.  And that totaled a mere $550 million.

What do you do with the rest of your $10, $50, 100, 200, 400 billion?

Give much of it back. Like to public broadcasting. No strings attached. Before they turn off the lights.

Comments? Criticism? Contact Joe Rothstein at jrothstein@rothstein.net

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