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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

#41

Post by monero-xmr »

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)

It’s exhausting arguing about this on HN or any other forum. You are in a tiny yet crucial minority, at least from the perspective of taxpayers as the 1% pay the majority of all taxes.

The best part about America, and playing by the rules of America and avoiding sketchy offshore nonsense, is that you can trust the law will treat you fairly. That is the simple secret of success for America’s entire existence, along with a decentralized government that makes power diffuse and a paranoid streak that infuses the populace with distrust of authority.

Live quietly, don’t be a public figure, and you can enjoy your (b/m)illions without serious socialist threat.

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

#43

Post by wddkcs »

fsckboy wrote: post #16
wddkcs wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I pursue an investment strategy that would make those tricks highly risky, and or inconvenient. The tradeoff is that I believe I make more money the way I'm doing it, including the taxes I pay.

Yes I'm sure you're too well vested to be caught in the affairs of the world's richest.

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

#44

Post by ta988 »

AlbertCory wrote: post #9

I told the university CS department that I wanted to endow a chair there. Not a professorship -- an actual chair, that you can sit in. They'd heard that joke before, unfortunately. I think they're missing a financial opportunity here :)

Lots of universities sell benches and bricks for a few hundred to a thousand dollars. The reality is that it is all used to siphon money to add more administrators. The money of endowments gets to the real mission of the university and student and state funding can go to the ever growing caste.

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

#45

Post by thwarted »

nraynaud wrote: post #26
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.…

I saw a graduation a few years back, and I had the same feeling, a financial backer got an honoris causa phd and made a speech.

Seems like a pretty good deal for the school. They need to run to kinko's to print out a fake degree (that says right on it that it's fake), and spend 20 minutes listening to a blowhard pontificate. I'd do that for a few million dollars at least once.

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

#46

Post by fallingknife »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #8
fsckboy wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why would they pay a tax on that? You don't.

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

#47

Post by dmoy »

ggm wrote: post #38
flybrand wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My grandparents gave an award for pulp and paper science that is still given out. It’s tiny now, but a full ride for the student. At one point they - the school - were very appreciative, but their enthusiasm has dwindled quite a bit.

There's a point in the life of any endowment below the gigantic where it's rate of "return" (judged in the wide, not just financially) feels to drop below the hassle of maintaining it. I think some economies have laws against "in perpetuity" finances. Anthony Trollope based "the warden" around the consequences of a bequest in medaevil times carried into Victorian English Anglican church politics. If the student(s) st…

> some economies have laws against "in perpetuity" finances.

Indeed, but it's a bit different. A will or trust is limited to some period - say 21 years after the latest beneficiary.

But there's a difference between a trust with very specific rules, and a general endowment. Doesn't seem to work out the same way. Also, there's a lot of variance in state law.

(Side note, did you know that SPY is a trust that will dissolve after certain people die? In the early days of ETFs they didn't... bother figuring out the right legal structure, so they just used a unit investment trust, tied to a dozen or so specific people. So maybe have an exit plan for SPY by like.. 2090-ish, I forget)

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

#48

Post by Epa095 »

monero-xmr wrote: post #41
fsckboy wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

It’s exhausting arguing about this on HN or any other forum. You are in a tiny yet crucial minority, at least from the perspective of taxpayers as the 1% pay the majority of all taxes. The best part about America, and playing by the rules of America and avoiding sketchy offshore nonsense, is that you can trust the law will treat you fairly. That is the simple secret of success for America’s entire existence, along wi…

>as the 1% pay the majority of all taxes.

I am sorry for jumping in the middle of the discussion (which you seemed to want to quit :-P) but this statement seems to weird to not check out.

After looking into it a bit it SEEMS like it's only true under a very certain reading:

- "The 1%" must refer to the 1% with the highest income, and not the 1% richest, since the actual super rich don't really (often) have registerd income at all. So it's not top 1% richest, but the top 1% of the wage receivers. How much does the richest actually tax? No clue.

- Even when it refers to the top % of wage slaves, it is still wrong for "taxes", but true for "federal income tax" only. According to [1] the top 1% made ca 21% of the money, and payed 24% of the total tax burden. So not the majority.

1: https://itep.org/who-pays-taxes-in-america-in-2019/

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

#49

Post by Shaanie »

fsckboy wrote: post #25
darawk wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giving a 50 million dollar donation does not mean you owe zero tax on 100 million of income. It means you owe exactly the same amount of tax on every dime you kept. Deducting charitable donations just means reducing your income by that amount. You still pay tax on all the rest. Secondly, there are annual limits on the amount you can deduct, percentage wise. What the limit is exactly is circumstantially contingent, bu…

giving a 100 million dollar donation allows you to subtract 100 million from your income (assuming you had a lot more income, there is a limit) which at a 50% tax rate means you gave $50 million out of your account and the charity received $100 million into theirs, the rest coming from the govt in the form of taxes you would have given them but they didn't get from you. non-profits accepting donations will allow you…

Seems a pretty obvious solution to this loophole is to reduce non-cash deductibles by what would have been paid in capital gains, and have the non profit pay capital gains when they sell?

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

#50

Post by beefield »

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…

> we do that because everybody loves a philanthropist giving.

Count me out. I have a really unpopular opinion that philanthropy is nothing more nothing less than entertainment for the giver. There is no difference between me buing a movie ticket or giving money to a charity. (Well, other than in the movie case I create jobs, in the charity I foster helplessness)

If society thinks there are some things where money should be allocated without getting anything tangible back, it should be funded via taxes, not charity. No need to subsidize private charities.

(If your government can't be trusted to manage the money, it would be more efficient to use your money to try to fix the government instead of getting yourswlf some feelgood by giving money out to whatever else)

Effective altruism? Go and pay your taxes, that is according to economic theory the most efficient way to be altruistic in all the cases someone may bee freeloading on your charity (see tragedy of commons/prisoners' dilemma)

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