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"... crimp spending on student aid or faculty research, but wealthy individuals can make the same argument: Higher taxes would reduce the amount of money they c

"... crimp spending on student aid or faculty research, but wealthy individuals can make the same argument: Higher taxes would reduce the amount of money they can invest in tech start-ups or other economically productive ventures." Clearly this is not the same argument at all. Student aid, and academic research are not the same as funding a startup. The difference is that colleges, or large grant-making foundations provide, and even exist, for the public good, rather than private profit. They should perhaps be forced to use more of the wealth for grants, to support poor students, etc, but that's not the same argument as that they should be charged the same taxes as ultra-wealthy idividuals.

bradleyjg 6y ago
We already have a method for determining what to spend money on for the public good. Why have a parallel method that gives only rough guidelines to private, unelected parties? If people want to donate money to charity, they ought to donate their own money not foregone taxes.
- jacknews 6y ago
  You make a better argument than the article, but the implications are that you'd shift charitable activity from the private sector to government. That's not necessarily bad, but having a diversity of aid organizations is better, imho.
  - bradleyjg 6y ago
    What you’d lose in diversity, you’d gain in focus. They are flip sides of the same coin. Some donor thinks a museum of modern architecture is charitable, which is fine but I don’t want tax money diverted to that.
anonymoushn 6y ago
If an ultra-wealthy individual decides to become an endowment for a college and spend a small portion of their earnings each year administering the college, are we no longer supposed to tax them?
Clewza313 6y ago
In theory, yes... but did you know that IKEA is owned by a charitable foundation "to promote and support innovation in the field of architectural and interior design"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stichting_INGKA_Foundation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stichting_INGKA_Foundation Said foundation had an estimated endowment of $36 billion in 2006 (undoubtedly much larger now), yet it only donated $159 million in 2017, or only 0.4% assuming the endowment had zero growth.
- jacknews 6y ago
  I agree, there should be more scrutiny and requirements to operate as a charitable foundation.

bradleyjg 6y ago

We already have a method for determining what to spend money on for the public good. Why have a parallel method that gives only rough guidelines to private, unelected parties? If people want to donate money to charity, they ought to donate their own money not foregone taxes.

jacknews 6y ago
You make a better argument than the article, but the implications are that you'd shift charitable activity from the private sector to government. That's not necessarily bad, but having a diversity of aid organizations is better, imho.
- bradleyjg 6y ago
  What you’d lose in diversity, you’d gain in focus. They are flip sides of the same coin. Some donor thinks a museum of modern architecture is charitable, which is fine but I don’t want tax money diverted to that.

anonymoushn 6y ago

If an ultra-wealthy individual decides to become an endowment for a college and spend a small portion of their earnings each year administering the college, are we no longer supposed to tax them?

Clewza313 6y ago

In theory, yes... but did you know that IKEA is owned by a charitable foundation "to promote and support innovation in the field of architectural and interior design"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stichting_INGKA_Foundation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stichting_INGKA_Foundation Said foundation had an estimated endowment of $36 billion in 2006 (undoubtedly much larger now), yet it only donated $159 million in 2017, or only 0.4% assuming the endowment had zero growth.

jacknews 6y ago
I agree, there should be more scrutiny and requirements to operate as a charitable foundation.