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Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

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Re: Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

#3

Post by TheAtomic »

I went to a graduation a few years ago at Carnegie Mellon. Some hedge fund guy was making his biggest donation yet and gave the commencement speech. It was endlessly about him and the new building to be named after him and how he was about to own an NFL football team. There was a Nobel Prize winner seated next to him on stage. I don't think she got to say anything, but was recognized for her work in cancer research. The juxtaposition felt Kafkaesque and a bit sleazy.

Re: Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

#4

Post by fsckboy »

TheAtomic wrote: post #3

I went to a graduation a few years ago at Carnegie Mellon. Some hedge fund guy was making his biggest donation yet and gave the commencement speech. It was endlessly about him and the new building to be named after him and how he was about to own an NFL football team. There was a Nobel Prize winner seated next to him on stage. I don't think she got to say anything, but was recognized for her work in cancer research.…

to be fair, if she had finished the job and cured cancer, she could buy a Premier League team* (*cuz academics == soccer)

There is a natural tendency to diminish money as a measure of anything good, but money really is the yardstick by which we jointly measure all things, trading off time with kids, family, travel, leisure against other priorities, and being rewarded by the rest of society for our contributions to what they want to spend money on, their tradeoffs.

Turns out that there are a bunch of very skilled highly educated people who want to spend their time researching cancer (which cure they could sell for a lot of money), compared to those who are most capable of and interested in, financially restructuring companies.

That hedge fund guy's donation to CMU is tax-deductible; we do that because everybody loves a philanthropist giving. His tax bracket is let's say 50%, so, where he would have owed $50 million to the government on that $100 million income, by giving it to CMU, they get the full $100 million and the guy owes no tax; of course leaving it to the rest of the tax payers to cover that $50 million in the state and federal budgets... but that's a good deal because a private elite university got more money? (And if hedgie donated appreciated securities rather than income, the bracketed tax savings get amplified that much more...)

There are plenty of places where "the market" chooses the wrong winners (by some important measures) but most of the complaints about the market don't go in that direction. Talk about how important money is, instead of socially devaluing it, then it would be easier to focus people's attention on cartel and monopoly pricing, negative externalities, etc.

Re: Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

#5

Post by audibahnbacks »

fsckboy wrote: post #4
TheAtomic wrote: post #3

I went to a graduation a few years ago at Carnegie Mellon. Some hedge fund guy was making his biggest donation yet and gave the commencement speech. It was endlessly about him and the new building to be named after him and how he was about to own an NFL football team. There was a Nobel Prize winner seated next to him on stage. I don't think she got to say anything, but was recognized for her work in cancer research.…

to be fair, if she had finished the job and cured cancer, she could buy a Premier League team* (*cuz academics == soccer) There is a natural tendency to diminish money as a measure of anything good, but money really is the yardstick by which we jointly measure all things, trading off time with kids, family, travel, leisure against other priorities, and being rewarded by the rest of society for our contributions to wh…

“His tax bracket is say 50%”

Even for HN this level of delusion is rare.

Re: Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

#6

Post by fsckboy »

audibahnbacks wrote: post #5
fsckboy wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

to be fair, if she had finished the job and cured cancer, she could buy a Premier League team* (*cuz academics == soccer) There is a natural tendency to diminish money as a measure of anything good, but money really is the yardstick by which we jointly measure all things, trading off time with kids, family, travel, leisure against other priorities, and being rewarded by the rest of society for our contributions to wh…

“His tax bracket is say 50%” Even for HN this level of delusion is rare.

Sorry, dude, but am an UHNW individual, my income comes from investments, and year in year out I pay about 50% in tax (don't forget state and city income tax, and alternative minimum wipes out long term capital gain favoritism)

Re: Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

#7

Post by wddkcs »

fsckboy wrote: post #6
audibahnbacks wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“His tax bracket is say 50%” Even for HN this level of delusion is rare.

Sorry, dude, but am an UHNW individual, my income comes from investments, and year in year out I pay about 50% in tax (don't forget state and city income tax, and alternative minimum wipes out long term capital gain favoritism)

You need to get more money, then youll be able to avoid those taxes, seems to be the point.

Paradise Papers leak reveals secrets of the world elite's hidden wealth https://amp.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/paradise-papers...

Re: Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

#8

Post by quickthrower2 »

fsckboy wrote: post #6
audibahnbacks wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“His tax bracket is say 50%” Even for HN this level of delusion is rare.

Sorry, dude, but am an UHNW individual, my income comes from investments, and year in year out I pay about 50% in tax (don't forget state and city income tax, and alternative minimum wipes out long term capital gain favoritism)

Surely the most wealthy are not paying 50% income tax on their annual increase in net wealth (see what I did there)? When there are so many ways to avoid it.
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