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.
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.