The non-profit I work for is currently involved in a capital campaign to raise $1.8 million to purchase a building for our operations. The Board of Directors has assembled a great group of VERY wealthy people in this community to help us raise the money (and hopefully make sizeable contributions themselves.)
So we have been meeting with these people to discuss our services and the campaign. What this means is that I have spent the last few weeks meeting with some of the most wealthy people in the Twin Cities area. I find this interesting because its not a crowd I spend time with. As you can imagine, most of them are Republicans – but very involved in charitable giving.
Today I met with a man who is probably one of the 20-25 most wealthy people in the state. As we were talking, he mentioned that he had gotten rather large tax cuts in the last few years and as a result he has increased his charitable giving by $300,000.00 per year.
I had very mixed feelings hearing this. First of all, its wonderful to hear that someone donates so much money to charitable causes. I don’t know how much he gives annually – but its recently been INCREASED by $300,000. I would imagine the total is more than half a million.
But my other reaction was that he was letting us know that his tax cuts totaled over $300,000!!! I don’t know about you, but as someone who is very comfortably middle class – if I got a tax cut, is so miniscule that I can’t tell the difference.
So if anyone ever tries to pretend that the tax cuts went to all Americans – thats bullshit!! I know this is nothing new to anyone who will read this. It was just rather jarring for me today to hear a specific example.
To finish the circle, this means that medicaid, student loans and child support programs will be cut so this man can have an extra $300,000. And the people that go without have to depend on his good graces to have a safety net for their basic needs.
As I mentioned elsewhere today, I used to work for a small law firm. Along with the probate law we did, my boss was also a tax attorney, so I did a lot of tax preparation both for wealthy individuals as well as for estates. In general terms, the charitable giving of our wealthy clients — by which I mean people with a net worth of approx $70 – $100 million — was about $20K per year.
I applaud this guy for his charitable giving, and I wish it were were a more popular activity in his class. But even if that were the case, I’d still support governmental programs over individual charitable giving for the precise reason you note in your diary. While programs like Direct Loans and Medicare sure have their share of problems, these will only be made worse by leaving charitable giving in the hands of individuals who are accountable to no one but themselves. Government (at least until the W years) is accountable to all of us.
Seething Anger.
I’m so glad I don’t have to meet with them. I wouldn’t be able to hold back my vomit. You’re a better person than me 🙂
Let’s see. The year my husband’s job was moved overseas and we were all awaitng the severance checks only to find that BushFuck deemed those severance checks as bonuses and therefore they were taxed at bonus amount… over 54% tax take away. Uncle Sam gave the companya 20 million dollar INCENTIVE to move to Malaysia and our family got TAXED on it.
Last year we for the first time PAID taxes. We made LESS than we had as civilians (nefore my husband was in the military and had crappy wages but we still managed a return) and this last year we had to pay.
Oh while making $20,000 a year in the Navy, we always had money to give to three charities in the CFC. Combined Federal Campaign.
…. the rich get richer
Vomit? I’d have just told that egomaniac to STFU and pay his taxes, after I told him what I had to live on–SSD/I.
And, if looks could kill, he’d be pushing up daisies after I told him that!!!!!!!!
Progressive tax structures are the only way to go. The higher your income the more of a percentage your taxed. If your making income from interest or dividends they should be considered income and taxed as such. Anything else is criminal since the top 1% get 40% of the dividends. We need to make bridges safe, water clean, food and drugs need to be inspected and our children need to be educated from this money. Ours is a greater purpose then the individual. Our money needs to pay our bills and build our bridges. Not wage imperialistic wars and use debt to finance rich peoples taxcuts.