171–180 of 343 posts
The material improvements he could have gotten for this money... He could have created tens of thousands of homes in apartments and gifted them to municipalities to be social housing, putting a massive dent in homelessness. He could have built and furnished schools. He could have bought public transit vehicles. There's countless things that would have real, immediate, material impact on thousands of lives.
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I saw a comment that was without irony posting how Musk is the new Trump. And I think there is so much truth to that it’s painful, but not in the way some people may think.
Trump is a rent seeker celebrity. Elon is one of the most productive humans.
They are radically different but both break people's brains because they are supposed to be pro-establishment refined elites. Instead they are uncouth and align more with the working poors and dissidents. That's the biggest sin and it's what drives TDS and EDS respectively.
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You're by definitions giving it away. It does nothing to preserve your own wealth even if it goes to a charity you control. It's no longer your wealth and unless you want to do something illegal its not coming back to you and can't benefit you.
You can be employed by your own charity. Your own charity can provide you housing, cars, etc. even your vacation and travel can be paid for by your charity.
is this really true?
Your own charity can pay for your personal vacations and travel?
Do you have a source for that?
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Billionaire's 501(c)(3)s aren't charities in the typical sense. They're tax-exempt piles of money that are controlled exclusively by billionaire and their families (in this case Musk and his brother). The Musk Foundation in particular has donated less than 1% of the "charities" assets (most donations less than $500K, most years less than $1M) and these "charities" can pay out to their owners from tax-exempt gains on…
You have just enough information about foundations to completely misunderstand them. It's true that a major reason for the popularity of foundations is legal tax avoidance: you can donate to a foundation in a year when you have lots of income, get the tax benefit in that year, and not have to make a charitable donation in the same year. The foundations is allowed to sit on most of the money for a long time. However,…
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I don't think it's clear how this contradicts the comment you're replying to.
“However, crucially, when the money leaves the foundation it must go to an approved charity.” They can spend money on expenses and those expenses can benefit you. Having family members work for and be generously paid by such an orientation is a common example. Anytime you control a cash flow you can benefit from that cash flow.
If I had money to donate I'd donate it to the charity I thought would be most effective at helping the cause I cared most about. If I had enough money to create my own charity it would be focused on the cause I cared most about. My giant ego and hubris would make it hard for me to come to the conclusion that a charity I created wasn't the most effective at its goals, even if that didn't happen to be the case.
https://www.axios.com/2022/09/17/the-ultimate-billionaire-ta...
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I don't think it's clear how this contradicts the comment you're replying to.
“However, crucially, when the money leaves the foundation it must go to an approved charity.” They can spend money on expenses and those expenses can benefit you. Having family members work for and be generously paid by such an orientation is a common example. Anytime you control a cash flow you can benefit from that cash flow.
Interesting point. One wonders if, hypothetically, I had $1B to donate to a charity, what those charities might offer up (under the table?) to be a recipient of that money.
I know, crazy conspiracy thinking.
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Is Bill Gates still shorting Tesla?
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While you may love/hate certain classes of people it would probably be helpful for you to refresh how economies work and, not just modern day economies, all economies. There will always be some level of exploitation in every single type of government/economy and there will always be government there to support interest of its people. You might finesse your argument to the fact that you deem the level of exploitation…
You’re standing up for the equality of billionaires? Sure, they’re a minority by definition, but I think we can all agree they’re not a disadvantaged class.
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Billionaire's 501(c)(3)s aren't charities in the typical sense. They're tax-exempt piles of money that are controlled exclusively by billionaire and their families (in this case Musk and his brother). The Musk Foundation in particular has donated less than 1% of the "charities" assets (most donations less than $500K, most years less than $1M) and these "charities" can pay out to their owners from tax-exempt gains on…
Right, I first learned about this when being forced to watch some of the "Housewives of ..." shows by my wife. I couldn't figure out why all these objectively terrible people all had their own personal charities (many of the episodes revolve around the social group of the show going to each other's charity events). It turns out it's a common, but legal, "scam". Take in funds from fundraisers, give away a little, then…
So instead of paying 20% cap gains, they choose to pay 37% federal income taxes + state?