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> Yet nonprofit organizations are frequently the exact opposite of what they appear to be. As a consequence of the benefit of the doubt provided to nonprofits,

> Yet nonprofit organizations are frequently the exact opposite of what they appear to be. As a consequence of the benefit of the doubt provided to nonprofits, there is rarely enough oversight to guarantee that they are doing what we pay them to do. This type of unaccountable grift is common in Seattle. During the height of BLM, the city gave lots of money and even public property to random organizations. Taxpayers hard earned money was not just diverted away from core city needs but not really tracked. The same has been true of unaccountable programs to combat homelessness (the “homeless-industrial complex”), with little in terms of metrics to understand what was happening. A lot of this happened because most citizens are too busy to keep track of these things, while activists push for spending on their ideological pet projects, and activist city leaders respond by handing out checks without any competitive process (picking sole winners of contracts) or real public input (hearings are swarmed by activists and held at inaccessible times and the general public isn’t even aware they’re happening). Some example sources to read more: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/state-auditor-finds-bare-minimum-of-accountability-for-seattle-city-councils-black-brilliance-project/ https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/state-aud... https://sccinsight.com/2021/07/29/the-black-brilliance-research-project-beginning-to-end-part-4/ https://sccinsight.com/2021/07/29/the-black-brilliance-resea... https://roominate.com/blog/2016/anatomy-of-a-swindle/ https://roominate.com/blog/2016/anatomy-of-a-swindle/

kreelman 2y ago
This happens in Australia too. The nursing home industry here seems a little like what the article outlined for the United States. Like anything, there are good and bad examples. Seems inevitable that there is some corruption in the spirit of it. Don't know how you'd police that.... TLDR on the article. I'll markov summarise it and see if it thought of some ways around the bad players.
hiddencost 2y ago
Meh. I don't believe you. I serious doubt a bit of money for black people is breaking the bank for a city the size of Seattle.
- blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
  Well you might view it like that, but to me our taxed money is earned by hard work and seeing it wasted on someone’s political goals or activism or grift is offensive to me. And the city doesn’t have money - it’s about to close like 20 schools because of it. And much of the city is ridden with potholes and missing basics like sidewalks. The police force is less than half the size it is supposed to be. The fire department is heavily staffed by volunteers. https://komonews.com/news/local/seattle-public-schools-sps-elementary-schools-2025-2026-100-million-annual-budget-gap-65-percent-capacity-student-teacher-ratios-final-recommendation-superintendent-brent-jones-utilization-consolidation https://komonews.com/news/local/seattle-public-schools-sps-e...
  - vaidhy 2y ago
    Your disagreement with a policy does not make it corrupt. Being part of a democracy involves compromises and often times, you pick the battle you want to win. This article was about explicit corruption where the public funds are transferred into the hands of a few under dubious reasoning.
    - zmgsabst 2y ago
      They’re closing schools but transferred millions to racist grifters on dubious grounds in violation of public funding laws. And that’s ignoring such race-based policies are explicitly illegal under Washington law.
- zmgsabst 2y ago
  This is taking money from hard working black people and giving it to a handful of racist grifters. Further, it deprives their schools, police, EMTs, etc of tax funding from the wider city to enrich grifters — and these are communities that already struggle with funding. Your comment only makes sense if you view “black people” as an amorphous blob, essentially defined by their ethnicity and not as individually distinct people. Yuck.

kreelman 2y ago

This happens in Australia too. The nursing home industry here seems a little like what the article outlined for the United States. Like anything, there are good and bad examples. Seems inevitable that there is some corruption in the spirit of it. Don't know how you'd police that.... TLDR on the article. I'll markov summarise it and see if it thought of some ways around the bad players.

hiddencost 2y ago

Meh. I don't believe you. I serious doubt a bit of money for black people is breaking the bank for a city the size of Seattle.

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
Well you might view it like that, but to me our taxed money is earned by hard work and seeing it wasted on someone’s political goals or activism or grift is offensive to me. And the city doesn’t have money - it’s about to close like 20 schools because of it. And much of the city is ridden with potholes and missing basics like sidewalks. The police force is less than half the size it is supposed to be. The fire department is heavily staffed by volunteers. https://komonews.com/news/local/seattle-public-schools-sps-elementary-schools-2025-2026-100-million-annual-budget-gap-65-percent-capacity-student-teacher-ratios-final-recommendation-superintendent-brent-jones-utilization-consolidation https://komonews.com/news/local/seattle-public-schools-sps-e...
- vaidhy 2y ago
  Your disagreement with a policy does not make it corrupt. Being part of a democracy involves compromises and often times, you pick the battle you want to win. This article was about explicit corruption where the public funds are transferred into the hands of a few under dubious reasoning.
  - zmgsabst 2y ago
    They’re closing schools but transferred millions to racist grifters on dubious grounds in violation of public funding laws. And that’s ignoring such race-based policies are explicitly illegal under Washington law.
zmgsabst 2y ago
This is taking money from hard working black people and giving it to a handful of racist grifters. Further, it deprives their schools, police, EMTs, etc of tax funding from the wider city to enrich grifters — and these are communities that already struggle with funding. Your comment only makes sense if you view “black people” as an amorphous blob, essentially defined by their ethnicity and not as individually distinct people. Yuck.