Bill Gates: Raise taxes on the rich, but don’t crush the American dream

• Bill Gates’ ideal tax system would leave him 62% less, but still a billionaire.
• He warned that excessive taxes would discourage people from starting businesses and reduce economic growth.
• The Microsoft co-founder said the rich should pay higher taxes and give the rest to good causes.

Bill Gates wants higher taxes on the rich — but not so high that he doesn’t become a billionaire or the founder of the next Microsoft doesn’t become one.

“I would set pretty high tax rates for rich people,” Gates said during a recent live taping of the “On With Kara Swisher” podcast.

He has voiced support for a tax system that would take 62 percent of his wealth — but not more than 99 percent, as a tough critic, Sen. Bernie Sanders, has called for on his new Netflix show What’s Next? The future with Bill Gates. “

“You definitely get to the point where you … kill the goose that lays the golden egg,” Gates said, noting that North Korea has “an incredible parity.”

“We’ve created wealth, and I think the system that does that has some elements that we shouldn’t throw away,” he added.

The Microsoft co-founder is the sixth richest person in the world with a net worth of $163 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

He said America is the “envy of the world” as a place to create highly valuable companies, and the economy needs to grow for the government to raise the social safety net as high as progressives like Sanders want.

Gates also said he is a “big believer” in the estate tax and eliminating it would be a mistake because it would protect dynastic fortunes – wealth that is inherited, not earned.

The tech billionaire and co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said the uber-rich should give more money to the government and commit the rest to helping others. He said that “once you have paid those taxes, whatever is left, you should engage in philanthropy.”

Gates’ latest comments suggest he would like to be about $100 billion less rich at about $62 billion. He previously said he would have paid “tens of billions” more in taxes if he had designed the US tax system.