Pay taxes.
The least impactful way to spend $300M?
11–20 of 291 posts
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#12I don't think one donates money to Harvard just for the sake of a plaque. I guess there is some sort of indirect benefit to be had after such a donation, like an entry pass for a child, an entry pass for a PhD, or something of that vein?
He has 3 children. Aged 15, 13 and 11.
If I was one of the kids, I would have taken $100m directly.
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#13It’s his money and he can do whatever he wants. But I can also form whatever opinions I want: That man is chasing after something that he will never find.
A lower tax bill? People sucking up to him every time he goes to Harvard? The ability to get anyone he wants admitted?
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#14This was the plot of Brewster’s Millions https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088850/
I thought buying a really rare stamp, then mailing it thus destroying its value, was pretty cool :)
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#15Could this be some tax and investment dance?
Perhaps the money will be used by Harvard to buy a security he holds or has options on washing his hands clean of SEC oversight.
Then he executes on the predictable market move, makes the money back and writes down the donation for taxes. Meanwhile, Harvard is still holding whatever long term position they opened so they too are happy.
Their cover story is some rather cheap commemorative plaque they put on a wall "thanking" him.
I'm not saying this IS what happened but the facts are a hedge fund guy "donating" lots of money to a tax deductible nonprofit that has a giant investment portfolio with rather lax regulatory oversight.
Also if I was working for Harvard, I'd absolutely think of offering services like this to court donations.
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#16I don't think one donates money to Harvard just for the sake of a plaque. I guess there is some sort of indirect benefit to be had after such a donation, like an entry pass for a child, an entry pass for a PhD, or something of that vein?
He has 3 children. Aged 15, 13 and 11. If I was one of the kids, I would have taken $100m directly.
He is worth like $40B - that $100m would be nothing compared to what they'll likely inherit
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#17[flagged]
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#18I don't think one donates money to Harvard just for the sake of a plaque. I guess there is some sort of indirect benefit to be had after such a donation, like an entry pass for a child, an entry pass for a PhD, or something of that vein?
He has 3 children. Aged 15, 13 and 11. If I was one of the kids, I would have taken $100m directly.
They'll never have want of money their entire life. But a prestigious education... well that's something that's worth more than a lot of money to those who have almost limitless wealth.
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#19Invest it in a beverage company whose customer base is conservative, frat boys, and the working class then aggressively rebrand it with everything they oppose front and center. Proceed to lose six billion dollars of capitalization in six days.
Re: The least impactful way to spend $300M?
#20This article very briefly encapsulates everything wrong with Effective Altruism: a boneheaded assumption that this money is being donated for its societal impact, an unwillingness to try to actually understand what's going on, instead choosing to engage with the Harvard endowment on its own terms by taking the university "mission statement" seriously, and a screenshot of an Excel spreadsheet purporting to identify better ways to donate based on character sheet style min-maxing.