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Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

bloomberg.com

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Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#211

Post by bushbaba »

chollida1 wrote: post #173
bushbaba wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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?

It’s not a vacation. It’s a mission trip. It’s not a plane ticket to Vegas. It’s a ticket to a charity summit. It’s not a club table fee, it’s a team building event.

Lots of ways to get what you want through qualified, albeit non frugal, business expenses.

Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#212

Post by fareesh »

Hillary Clinton - Clinton Foundation = Good

Barack Obama - Obama Foundation = Good

Bill Gates - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation = Good

Mark Zuckerberg - Chan Zuckerberg Foundation = Good

Warren Buffet - Buffet Foundation = Good

ELON MUSK SATAN'S ACOLYTE WHO WROUGHT UPON THE WORLD THE REMOVAL OF HEAVENLY DAUGHTER VIJAYA GADDE NOBLE DEFENDER AGAINST THE LIES OF THE DRUMPF = Mystery foundation = EVIL

The overall zeitgest is just reaching because he is saying heterodox things.

Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#213

Post by Archipelagia »

andrepd wrote: post #195
memish wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only insofar that they are anti-establishment and the media uses them for ragebait, and they troll the media. 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 i…

>Elon is the most productive human I need to take a break from this website.

OP didn't say "the", they said "one of the". Don't manipulate.

Not a fan of Musk myself, but yeah, he actually seems to be an extremely productive person. Whether this productivity is applied in the right place is another discussion.

Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#214

Post by trs8080 »

mrep wrote: post #180
bane wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> then pay yourself a ridiculous salary for running the organization with the rest of the money So instead of paying 20% cap gains, they choose to pay 37% federal income taxes + state?

Yes, because pocketing money directly from fundraising activities for a 501c3 is illegal, regardless of if you pay capital gains on it.

Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#215

Post by the_only_law »

fareesh wrote: post #212

Hillary Clinton - Clinton Foundation = Good Barack Obama - Obama Foundation = Good Bill Gates - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation = Good Mark Zuckerberg - Chan Zuckerberg Foundation = Good Warren Buffet - Buffet Foundation = Good ELON MUSK SATAN'S ACOLYTE WHO WROUGHT UPON THE WORLD THE REMOVAL OF HEAVENLY DAUGHTER VIJAYA GADDE NOBLE DEFENDER AGAINST THE LIES OF THE DRUMPF = Mystery foundation = EVIL The overall zeitges…

It’s ok, you don’t need to have an emotional outburst. Try taking a breather.

Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#216

Post by chollida1 »

bushbaba wrote: post #211
chollida1 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

It’s not a vacation. It’s a mission trip. It’s not a plane ticket to Vegas. It’s a ticket to a charity summit. It’s not a club table fee, it’s a team building event. Lots of ways to get what you want through qualified, albeit non frugal, business expenses.

Ok, sure, then this is no different than your own company paying for "business" trips.

So no benefit or difference here. You just need to be willing to relax your morals and hope you don't get caught by the IRS.

Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#217

Post by richbell »

fareesh wrote: post #212

Hillary Clinton - Clinton Foundation = Good Barack Obama - Obama Foundation = Good Bill Gates - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation = Good Mark Zuckerberg - Chan Zuckerberg Foundation = Good Warren Buffet - Buffet Foundation = Good ELON MUSK SATAN'S ACOLYTE WHO WROUGHT UPON THE WORLD THE REMOVAL OF HEAVENLY DAUGHTER VIJAYA GADDE NOBLE DEFENDER AGAINST THE LIES OF THE DRUMPF = Mystery foundation = EVIL The overall zeitges…

> Hillary Clinton - Clinton Foundation = Good Barack Obama - Obama Foundation = Good

> Bill Gates - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation = Good

> Mark Zuckerberg - Chan Zuckerberg Foundation = Good

> Warren Buffet - Buffet Foundation = Good

> ELON MUSK SATAN'S ACOLYTE WHO WROUGHT UPON THE WORLD THE REMOVAL OF HEAVENLY DAUGHTER VIJAYA GADDE NOBLE DEFENDER AGAINST THE LIES OF THE DRUMPF = Mystery foundation = EVIL

> The overall zeitgest is just reaching because he is saying heterodox things.

This is a vapid comment. Other billionaires' charitable foundations and ventures are regularly scrutinized and criticized — hell, there's a rather large subset of Americans that believe the Clinton Foundation is a cover for clandestine operations.

Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#218

Post by trs8080 »

rvz wrote: post #79
codeulike wrote: post #39

So in the same way that Bill Gates donates to his own foundation? https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/13/bill-gates-donates-20-billio...

Yes. Billionaires do this all the time and many of the Musk rent-free brigade on HN are realising and admitting that this isn't the 'gotcha' many of them had hoped for.

You realize that those of us who aren't Musk fans also dislike other billionaires, right? This is a class issue, not a personal one.

Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#219

Post by tootie »

synergy20 wrote: post #200
c22 wrote: post #8

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.

isn't Bill Gates, Zuck, Bezos are all doing similar things. If I had that money, I will certainly donate to my own charity or some charity I firmly trust. The only exception is Buffet, who donated lots of his money to Bill Gates' charity, Buffet seems has no interests to manage that on his own. It's your money, make your call.

It's a perfectly valid thing to do and can be done for the right reasons, but for a counterpoint you can look at the Trump Foundation. Trump and his family gave money to the foundation and the foundation bought things from Trump (ie hosting events at Trump properties). There's loads of small foundations like this that exist for self-dealing, nepotism and tax evasion. That's also not really unique to self-funded foundations. Something like the Gates Foundation is a huge operation that is doing a lot of big, expensive and highly visible projects. What Musk is doing with his foundation is less clear. Could be real charity, could be fraud.

Re: Musk’s $5.7B Mystery Gift Went to His Own Charity

#220

Post by varnaud »

boringg wrote: post #179
yunohn wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Standing up for billionaire? Nope. Pointing out that the complaint is poorly structured in how the world works with a goal is to help strengthen arguments and promote better conversation on here.

We'll never make the world perfect, but we can try and make it better. Less exploitation seems like a good thing to do. Don't you agree?
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