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re [1][2]: It's not clear to me how donating 10s of millions of dollars to prestigious universities in order to secure a grand total of 2 spots for his kids ha
by harryh 6y ago
re [1][2]:
It's not clear to me how donating 10s of millions of dollars to prestigious universities in order to secure a grand total of 2 spots for his kids has made the world worse.
- scottlocklin 6y agoYou know, if you're going to make a comment on links, you should really read the damn things. Do you think faking achievement in your (apparently useless) crotch fruit offspring is acceptable behavior? Do you think forcing your underlings to use hand signals to communicate with you in case you're on the phone with the Dalai Lama is reasonable behavior for a member of the human race? Did you read about how he treats the help? "Those who didn’t measure up suffered the consequences. Meriwether, who joined Shaw staff as a 22-year-old Yale graduate, was fired after forgetting to put snacks — bottled water and Asian pears sliced a quarter of an inch thick — into the car that picked the children up from school, according to two people familiar with the incident." Shaw is human refuse. No amount of accumulated money or bribery will ever change that.
- trhway 6y agoA Yale graduate going for a job of packing snack just to be near a rich and powerful because that is how one climbs to the top...
- kaesar14 6y agoHelping perpetuate a system that deepens inequality and is a waste of money.
- sokoloff 6y agoIn the scheme of inequality, his kids attending any specific university is possibly less than a rounding error. Disclaimer: I worked at a DESCo company from 1997-1999
- stale2002 6y agoOn the contrary, a donation of 10s of millions of dollars allows more people to go to those universities, not less, and actually helps reduce inequality, by increasing the amount of people who can go to these places.
- lotsofpulp 6y agoA donation does. But paying a university for admission for your children isn't a donation.
- stale2002 6y agoYou are engaging in a not useful sematics argument. Money coming from that is still money. And 10s of millions of dollars being paid to the university would still allow them to fund more things, and accept more people.
- lotsofpulp 6y agoIt’s clear to me that the message that a sufficient amount of money let’s you subvert the rules weakens trust in society and increases justification for an every man for himself strategy.
- dehrmann 6y agoSeems like it just weakens the reputation of these universities. It'd be nice if someone like US World and News Report made a public point of dinging schools doing some of these things.
- lotsofpulp 6y agoThe reputation of the top universities are already a place where the talented and motivated can mix with the well funded. All of this is well known in the circles that it matters in. You want your kids to mingle with the best and brightest, or the most well funded, as both traits provide enormous utility.
- akarma 6y agoSubverting the rules doesn’t equate to making the world worse. Assuming just $10m for 2 of his children to be admitted? That’s enough to fully fund the education of ~50 low-income students [1]. I personally believe we should turn these quiet donations into a public bidding process instead to maximize what colleges can receive and ensure it’s done in as fair of a way as possible, but that’s separate. [1] It’s important to distinguish that the donations went to the university, not a corrupt official at the university. This is actually productive.
- FiberBundle 6y agoThose two spots could have gone to students who actually were more qualified and talented. If this is done on a large scale many gifted students cannot get the education they deserve and need, so the world loses out on lots of talents hence making the world worse.
- Rotten194 6y ago