Buy Me a Chair: The wacky world of university endowments

Post by jimnotgym » Sat, Aug 19, 2023, 10:21 AM UTC

beefield wrote: post #50

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…

> 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 sho…

Post by Loughla » Sat, Aug 19, 2023, 10:46 AM UTC

tempodox wrote: post #51

musicale wrote: post #15

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> The juxtaposition felt Kafkaesque and a bit sleazy How surprising that Carnegie[1] Mellon[2] University would honor a businessman and financier who donated a small fortune to the school! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Mellon

Those guys were rich and powerful, but were they also self-centered and vain?

Post by dahfizz » Sat, Aug 19, 2023, 11:28 AM UTC

jimnotgym wrote: post #59

fsckboy wrote: post #56

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I don't know if there's an easy answer, the question is how valuable to society is it for large donations to be made to all the things that qualify as non-profits? The public likes the idea of philanthropy, and the type of elites who have access to political networks like these types of institutions. My goal/interest here is simply to be transparent about how it works; how it works could be a good thing, I don't know…

I have really enjoyed your comments on this thread fsckboy. > The public likes the idea of philanthropy I think that may be because very rich donors can afford good PR. Also there are few politicians strong enough to say, "sure x spent 100m on postgrad study of his niche interest, but if the treasury had got it instead it could have spent it on teaching everyone's kids to read and write". I think a (real) cap on tax…

Post by hn_throwaway_99 » Sat, Aug 19, 2023, 12:22 PM UTC

endisneigh wrote: post #29

audibahnbacks wrote: post #5

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

What? It’s very easy to be in the 50% range all in. Live in Manhattan and make a million in W2 wages, boom there you go. Despite all the heeing and hawing, rich people do pay a ton of taxes. It’s mainly the one percent of the one percent you hear about that can structure both their income and lifestyle in a way where they pay less than say someone making 50k in taxes as a percentage.

Post by kaashif » Sat, Aug 19, 2023, 1:20 PM UTC

Epa095 wrote: post #48

monero-xmr wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…