Ok, I’m getting a feel of how you come to your conclusions.
My perspective here comes from public choice theory.
Any good reads to learn the basics?
It seems to me that if one could leverage more than one’s own share of taxes, then that would constitute a unilateral use of power, because the state is using force to collect taxes, and directing other people’s tax money essentially means you’re forcing them to spend their money in a way that you want. But if you’re only leveraging your own share of taxes, then it just means that the state is not forcing you to spend money the way that it wants.
That’s just another way to describe the same facts. I call it everyone’s tax money because in my mind, taxes are pooled. When the state refunds someone, it scoops money from that pool without regard from whom it comes from. You see it as a bank vault with separate boxes for each taxpayer. In your view, it’s true that the billionaire only leverages their own tax money; but by doing so they escape taxes, and the critical point is that they do so more that the layman. Different perspective, same result.
But maybe by “use of power” you mean something besides “use of force”? If so, what? (The only other thing I can think of is “use of money or other resources” but that seems to cover way too much.)
I did mean the latter, as RR did when he said : Philanthropy can be an exercise of power, and even if it’s unsubsidized philanthropic power, we still are required to scrutinize its deployment.
Also he said “independent of a tax break [...] potentially to be rejected if it’s not.” Do you know what he meant by “rejected” here? Just “criticized”, or something stronger like “banned”?
I think the latter. Considering his example just above, it interpret it to the effect that the rule forbidding citizens to send money to the police or the army should be extended to philanthropy in some cases, especially when those cases should be or used to be the duty of the state (like the example he gives about schools).
I think there’s a crucial test that could be performed, relative to your ideas (in this thread) anyways – how much of the ‘against billionaire philanthropy’ do you think is due to the tax rebate/refund? I think it’s close to zero.
(And I don’t have a problem with criticizing any philanthropy but I don’t have a problem with billionaires giving large amounts generally.)
That’s a good question. Or, rather, of the several ways I can interpret it (ha), each seems interesting.
I interpret your answer as being honest and in good faith. I’d default to the same were Reich to answer, if he were to answer like you did. I’d expect most other prominent public critics to deflect in some way.
More generally, I’d interpret similar answers from others writing ‘against billionaire philanthropy’ as weak-moderate evidence of the same.
As to how to more precisely test that, I admit that it’s probably very tricky and thus I downgrade how “crucial” a test it really is. Here’s one idea:
Some billionaire, one of those previously criticized in the manner under discussion, announces that, for every philanthropic donation they make, they’ll make ‘matching’ donations to the relevant federal, state, and municipal treasuries to ‘offset’ the tax rebate/refund effect of the donations.
I’d expect that, mostly, this would result in heavier criticism and increasing suspicion. I’d expect you, if asked, to moderate your own criticism or praise the offsetting directly.
‘Ideally’, we’d ask The Simulators of the Universe, to re-run the universe simulation and ‘magically’ have some kind of tax law passed that removes the refund/rebate at some point before some portion of billionaire philanthropic donations and we could measure the number and ‘sentiment’ of criticisms.
Realistically, we could probably much much more crudely approximate something similar, but any comparisons would inevitably be confounded by all kinds of other things.
Ok, I’m getting a feel of how you come to your conclusions.
Any good reads to learn the basics?
That’s just another way to describe the same facts. I call it everyone’s tax money because in my mind, taxes are pooled. When the state refunds someone, it scoops money from that pool without regard from whom it comes from. You see it as a bank vault with separate boxes for each taxpayer. In your view, it’s true that the billionaire only leverages their own tax money; but by doing so they escape taxes, and the critical point is that they do so more that the layman. Different perspective, same result.
I did mean the latter, as RR did when he said : Philanthropy can be an exercise of power, and even if it’s unsubsidized philanthropic power, we still are required to scrutinize its deployment.
I think the latter. Considering his example just above, it interpret it to the effect that the rule forbidding citizens to send money to the police or the army should be extended to philanthropy in some cases, especially when those cases should be or used to be the duty of the state (like the example he gives about schools).
I think there’s a crucial test that could be performed, relative to your ideas (in this thread) anyways – how much of the ‘against billionaire philanthropy’ do you think is due to the tax rebate/refund? I think it’s close to zero.
(And I don’t have a problem with criticizing any philanthropy but I don’t have a problem with billionaires giving large amounts generally.)
I can only reply for myself: around 60%.
Now you could contact RR and ask him the same question.
In any case, how do you interpret the answer?
That’s a good question. Or, rather, of the several ways I can interpret it (ha), each seems interesting.
I interpret your answer as being honest and in good faith. I’d default to the same were Reich to answer, if he were to answer like you did. I’d expect most other prominent public critics to deflect in some way.
More generally, I’d interpret similar answers from others writing ‘against billionaire philanthropy’ as weak-moderate evidence of the same.
As to how to more precisely test that, I admit that it’s probably very tricky and thus I downgrade how “crucial” a test it really is. Here’s one idea:
Some billionaire, one of those previously criticized in the manner under discussion, announces that, for every philanthropic donation they make, they’ll make ‘matching’ donations to the relevant federal, state, and municipal treasuries to ‘offset’ the tax rebate/refund effect of the donations.
I’d expect that, mostly, this would result in heavier criticism and increasing suspicion. I’d expect you, if asked, to moderate your own criticism or praise the offsetting directly.
‘Ideally’, we’d ask The Simulators of the Universe, to re-run the universe simulation and ‘magically’ have some kind of tax law passed that removes the refund/rebate at some point before some portion of billionaire philanthropic donations and we could measure the number and ‘sentiment’ of criticisms.
Realistically, we could probably much much more crudely approximate something similar, but any comparisons would inevitably be confounded by all kinds of other things.