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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

#321

Post by ancapsfascists »

hbrn wrote: post #171
ancapsfascists wrote: post #114

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.

There's always somebody out there who knows how other people should spend their money.

I'm spending mine on reforestation of hundreds of acres of land formerly logged and protecting it into old growth.

I also spend mine on offering sliding scale, below market rent to those in need in the house I own.

These things provide mutual aid and material benefits to others. Believe me, if I could afford to build apartments, I would be.

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

#322

Post by ancapsfascists »

solumunus wrote: post #159
ancapsfascists wrote: post #114

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.

If you were to do any of those things it would make the most sense to do them through your own charitable foundation... I'm not saying that's what he's going to do with the money, just that reading this story and then responding how you did makes no sense. Half the people in this thread seem to have absolutely zero understanding of what's going on here.

I'm aware of how trusts and foundations work. Elon Musk has done nothing to suggest he's got charitable intent. The dude is barely one step above a con man, egomaniac, and compulsive liar.

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

#323

Post by micromacrofoot »

93po wrote: post #318
micromacrofoot wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He gets to donate money to "charity" and still controls who benefits from it. The donation reduces their tax burden and they still benefit from the power of wielding said money, with some additional strings.

You really think the richest man on the planet is doing weird little non-profit loopholes to wield power? You think having $6 billion in his non-profit has any impact whatsoever on his ability to influence things with his money? None of this puts him ahead financially and there is zero benefit to him doing this for "tax avoidance" if his main motive is maintaining as much money (and resulting power) as possible. I fi…

my dude why do you think he bought twitter? had a video of him being boo’d removed? had the guy posting public jet info banned? he’s as thin skinned as any other mortal, the guy offered a flight attendant a horse in exchange for sex

every billionaire has a non-profit like this, trump was so stupid he actually used his for real fraud instead of the typical wankery

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

#324

Post by richbell »

93po wrote: post #317
richbell wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where's the equal or louder negative attention for billionaires who profit off death and destruction? That use actual slave labor for their projects that result in tens of thousands of deaths? That wreck the environment without consequence? That promote harm and violence to disadvantaged groups? That exploit child labor? The sad reality is that these egregious human rights violations often fly under the radar becau…

Literally everything you're saying is wildly biased hyperbole or just outright unsubstantiated. I can't take this back and forth seriously if you're going to come it in such bad faith

> Literally everything you're saying is wildly biased hyperbole or just outright unsubstantiated. I can't take this back and forth seriously if you're going to come it in such bad faith

It's "wildly biased hyperbole" to point out Elon's unsavoury behavior?

The fact you're claiming I'm wildly biased but won't so much as acknowledge anything I've mentioned that paints him in a bad light is laughable.

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

#325

Post by bane »

jcheng wrote: post #309
bane wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes a charity "fake"? If I start a charity, make myself chairperson and CEO or President or whatever, I "deserve" a reasonable salary. If my fundraising events bring in my salary + event expenses + what I can use for charitable activities, what does it matter if what actually goes out the door is 5% of all donations? I have to pay staff salaries and I have to pay event hosting fees. In other words, for most of…

Doesn't the CEO (i.e. yourself) pay income tax on the $200K? What was the point of this again?

So? It's free money.

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

#326

Post by coliveira »

93po wrote: post #319
coliveira wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You didn't think this through. There is little charity in a private foundation: besides the immediate tax breaks the billionaires receive, the foundation is required to spend only 5% of its endowment on things that are remotely related to charity. The rest of the money is used like always: to buy assets, like stocks. These assets are in practice still controlled by the owner of the foundation. For example, Gates has…

Let me get this straight. Elon donated $6 billion in Tesla shares to his non-profit... so that his non-profit could buy Tesla shares to prop up his stock price? This makes zero sense.

He will get a tax break and he doesn't even need to sell the shares immediately. And he still controls the shares through the foundation, just for starters. Don't you think this is a sweet deal? Every aspect of the "charity foundation" created by billionaires is designed to benefit them the most.

If I told you that you can control your wealth, diversify your holdings, and pay only 5% of assets per year (in the way you personally decide) instead of 15%, 20%, or 25% in taxes, would you think it is a good or bad deal?

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

#327

Post by TuringNYC »

hcknwscommenter wrote: post #299
boringg wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh but most people think how it works is you give away all your money and if you don't do that you aren't very charitable. However the smart way to donate is keep principal alive and any money that money makes it goes to the charity therefore ensuring money in perpetuity. You bring up the challenge in the current environment.

"smart"? I'm not so sure. That assumes doing good deeds later (forever later really) is more valuable than doing them now/soon.

>> "smart"? I'm not so sure. That assumes doing good deeds later (forever later really) is more valuable than doing them now/soon.

I can see both sides of the argument here. I think we can at least appreciate many instances of endowments. A great example might be universities...some of which have been around for hundreds of years c/o endowments.

It also allows individual programs and facilities to be funded forever so they do not need to fight yearly for budgets.

https://www.harvard.edu/about/endowment/

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

#328

Post by SamBam »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #239
jcheng wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not taking any equity is a pretty important distinction.

Even if they did take equity, I'm not sure that would be a problem. Charities and non-profits can make investments. For example, foundations have huge market investments. The distinction is that the owners can never cash out and put the money in their pocket. At most, they can take a salary with justification.

The company can invest. The charity owner itself certainly can't take equity using the charity's money.

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

#329

Post by Apocryphon »

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.

I don't think those are achievements you attain through luck, but any field involves many studying it. Jules Henri Poincaré and Hendrik Lorentz were so involved with the effort that some have accused Einstein of plagiarizing their work. While that is certainly of dubious claim, it illustrates that he was far from alone in his field.

https://www.straightdope.com/21343699/was-einstein-a-plagiar...

As far as building a rocket company goes, yes, SpaceX has certainly achieved much, not least with reusable rockets. But again, Musk is hardly the only one in that space. Richard Branson has been at it since 2004, for instance, and at this point it's very trendy. Even Steve Wozniak started one.

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

#330

Post by fareesh »

richbell wrote: post #217
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 ove…

It's a comment on the timing which this reply does not address
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