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The Chan-Zuckerbergs stopped funding social causes. 400 kids lost their school.
(www.washingtonpost.com)
this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2025
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This is why as much as I appreciate the philanthropy of the ultra wealthy, it's NOT a substitute for taxation
Philanthropy is pure BS, if you have millions to give to something that needs funding, then you have millions you could pay in taxes.
and charitable donations being tax deductible? it's basically letting billionaires dictate tax policies.
Beyond just deciding when they want to stop at any time they dictate what’s worth the money.
Can you imagine being able to say “nah, I won’t pay this tax because it’s not for something im passionate about”
Actually, the IRS is experimented with a psychological means of making people feel like they’re donating to certain things, Apparently, in focus groups, it makes people suddenly a lot less pissed about paying income tax if they can say “this goes to national defense” or “this goes to education.”
Problem is you can’t actually give people a choice, just the illusion.
Oh for sure, it makes heaps of sense.
If it worked like that for everyone, and somehow had the less exciting things covered too it could be a great system. But it’s mad that these people campaign against paying taxes then want the social praise for paying a fraction of it and getting social praise.
Libertarian types tell you all the time that this is what philanthropy is for.
No. No this is not what philanthropy is for, because the philanthropist can pull the plug anytime they want.
And charities can decide who to help. That's probably the worst of it, and what makes libertarianism a thinly-veiled disguise for racism, or at the very least a caste system.
My idea of "perfect philanthropy" is something like the Carnegie Hall. While I think it is the government's role to provide places for art, I don't begrudge a city for having a more modest venue. So having a world class, tour de force concert hall is a pretty neat philanthropic project IMHO.
Sure that's great if a rich dude wants to set up a trust and run a theater or a museum or whatever after they die.
But the problem comes in when you have an NFP running a museum that's beholden to one or two key benefactors who want to decide everything, and they gotta listen or else there's no more money.
That reminds me of this Tom Scott video, which shares a somewhat similar idea.