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

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

#251

Post by tlogan »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #222
tlogan wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason is because he is a narcist. And since he is narcist, he wants to be in the news all the time. However negative news sell more. And somehow he made more enemies than Trump: Trump will not be booed in Oklahoma but Elon will be booed both in Oklahoma and San Franscisco.

What makes Musk more of a narcissist than any number of other celebrities and influencers who spend all their time online and post provocative tweets, videos, Tiktoks, etc.? What's your definition of a narcissist? I'm also curious why Elon Musk would be "booed" in Oklahoma (where I'm from, by the way). Is it because of his industrial achievements, or his libertarian and free speech leanings, or because he hails from…

A narcissist is a person who has an excessive interest in or admiration of themselves.

A lot of people who make movies on TikTok are just trying to get noticed and maybe land some job. Not narcissist at all: just trying to survive.

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

#252

Post by memish »

JumpinJack_Cash wrote: post #227
memish wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he's not, he's certainly close. The point is he produces more than he consumes and does so at high scale. You can measure the impact of Tesla and SpaceX with the number of cars and rockets produced. Payload to orbit and so on. That would not have happened if he hadn't spent most of his time and money there for the past 20 years. Who would you say is the most productive?

> That would not have happened if he hadn't spent most of his time and money there for the past 20 years. It would have happened just like that, only the person doing the signing off (because that's what CEO do, they sign off stuff built by others) on those projects would have been called say "Mlon Eusk" a Swedish entrepreneur who moved to California, and right now you'd be worshipping him instead. It's the same for…

You don't luck into the theory of relativity or into building a rocket company. Both took serious effort way beyond the norm combined with a higher than average IQ and determination, those parts you can attribute to luck of birth. They shouldn't be worshiped. No, but encouraged and recognized, yes.

Einstein could have just done his 9-5 at the patent office. Elon could be hanging out on a yacht.

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

#253

Post by twodave »

makeitdouble wrote: post #149
twodave wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I see the big problem here. Our government has decided that if you want to dedicate your resources to an approved cause that it won't hinder that cause by taxing those contributed resources. We don't place limitations on who is allowed to run a charity, and the range of valid exempt purposes[0] leaves a lot of potential for those resources to be used. Just because someone is a billionaire or not shouldn'…

Parent's point is probably that their government should change opinion on the matter and tax contributions to your own organizations. Musk's behavior being currently legal or incentifized is kinda beyond the point.

I'm aware of that. I'm adding on that just because Musk has a lot of money shouldn't have anything to do with the laws. In my opinion, if he's not allowed to benefit indirectly from his charitable contributions then neither should the average churchgoer.

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

#254

Post by c22 »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #246
c22 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It goes like this: I want to lower my tax liability by donating to charity > as long as I'm doing that I want to make sure I'm supporting something I agree with > I'll start my own charity to ensure that's the case. Frankly I'm much more concerned about the billion dollar roth IRAs and 529 plans which seem to have a much lower chance of helping anyone else.

Roth IRAs aren't supposed to benefit anyone else. That's not why they exist

They're also not meant to hold billions of dollars (the annual contribution limit is like $6000). Yet somehow this happens [0].

[0]: http://www.propublica.org/article/lord-of-the-roths-how-tech...

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

#255

Post by twodave »

yunohn wrote: post #162
twodave wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I see the big problem here. Our government has decided that if you want to dedicate your resources to an approved cause that it won't hinder that cause by taxing those contributed resources. We don't place limitations on who is allowed to run a charity, and the range of valid exempt purposes[0] leaves a lot of potential for those resources to be used. Just because someone is a billionaire or not shouldn'…

> Our government has decided Who exactly is this perfectly unbiased, disconnected, non-influencable group of people you call “our government”?

Are you suggesting that the concept of a charitable contribution is only for rich people? My understanding and personal experience is that many people benefit from this mechanism, most of them not rich by any local standard.

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

#257

Post by JumpinJack_Cash »

memish wrote: post #252
JumpinJack_Cash wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That would not have happened if he hadn't spent most of his time and money there for the past 20 years. It would have happened just like that, only the person doing the signing off (because that's what CEO do, they sign off stuff built by others) on those projects would have been called say "Mlon Eusk" a Swedish entrepreneur who moved to California, and right now you'd be worshipping him instead. It's the same for…

You don't luck into the theory of relativity or into building a rocket company. Both took serious effort way beyond the norm combined with a higher than average IQ and determination, those parts you can attribute to luck of birth. They shouldn't be worshiped. No, but encouraged and recognized, yes. Einstein could have just done his 9-5 at the patent office. Elon could be hanging out on a yacht.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

And specifically: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias#Highly_compe...

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

#258

Post by RhysU »

giantrobot wrote: post #169
SamBam wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and these "charities" can pay out to their owners from tax-exempt gains on the back-end. I pretty certain that legally these charities can only give to causes that furthers their exempt purpose. [1] E.g. a charity claiming to be devoted to saving children's lives in Africa can only spend money on exactly that, governance costs and fundraising. The charity may be paying the owners as employees, and/or the owners may…

But there's few restrictions on fundraising and administrations. So if the billionaire wants to throw a party, the charity throws the party. There's all sorts of shady bullshit billionaires do with their charities. So long as they turn in receipts and don't funnel the money directly into their pockets it's typically completely legal.

Plenty of normal folks go to parties to which they contributed via a 501c3. Go to the orchestra or the ballet to see it in action. This isn't billionaire-only stuff.

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

#259

Post by IncRnd »

kgwxd wrote: post #199
IncRnd wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is Bill Gate's Press Release for 2022. "With the support and guidance of our board, we plan to increase our spending from nearly $6 billion per year today to $9 billion per year by 2026. To help make this spending increase possible, I am transferring $20 billion to the foundation’s endowment this month." Jul 13, 2022 [1] [1] https://twitter.com/BillGates/status/1547235386560155648

Yes, OP link was a press release by Gates too. I meant Musk didn't do a press release.

Ah. Thanks for the explanation.

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

#260

Post by c22 »

yunohn wrote: post #157
c22 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he's probably optimizing for both. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Ah of course, “the game”. Which part of the game do you play and succeed at? Do you also get to make the rules? If not, don’t simp for billionaires.

I'm playing the same game everyone else is and so far I've found moderate success. I have some small say in the rules, just like I hope you do and I agree that in a lot of cases the rules are completely whack.

Rather than "simping for billionaires" the intent of my comment was to cause the reader to introspect upon the part they play in crafting the rules and allowing the game to exist as it's currently played.

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