Editor’s note: If you would like to submit a letter for possible publication, please email it to editor@rationalist.com.au. See our Publishing Guidelines.
Dear Editor,
Regarding the Productivity Commission’s report on charities and schools, I’ve just been reading Rob Reich’s book, Just Giving: Why Philanthropy Is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better, on philanthropic foundations.
One of the issues he discusses is whether “charity” involves transfer of wealth from the rich to the poor, and found only a small percentage of it did that. Most of it was transfer from wealthy donors to wealthy recipients favoured by the upper classes, such as private schools and art galleries and universities.
In the book, he provides a list of 15 large foundations in his home state of California, and where their money goes. Some of it funds individual wealthy schools.
Transfers from the rich to the rich does not satisfy the usual definition of ”charity”. But they all bring the same tax benefit to donors, whether they are really “charities” or just supporting wealthy institutions.
Reich recommends radical change to tax concessions for donors.
Robert Bender
God saved Donald
Dear Editor,
Trump is grazed by a bullet; someone else is killed – god saved Donald! (RSA Weekly, 16 August 2024).
Same mentality as, "I just knew I shouldn't get on that airplane, and it crashed killing 300 children, women and men. Thank god."
The stupidity of this mentality is staggering, and seems to be true fo...
Blog
Tags:
Related Posts
14
Dec
Can reason survive in a sea of emotion?
We are facing the growing challenge of how to respond incisively and effectively to curb the movements away from rational thought and t...
06
Dec
The Jacaranda bloom-bust parallels life
Editor’s note: If you would like to submit a letter for possible publication, please email it to editor@rationalist.com.au. See our ...
12
Nov
The white God problem in politics
As ‘ex-vangelicals’ around the world deconstruct the faith of their formative years, one topic repeatedly comes up – that of white GOP ...
10
Nov
Recognising the right to have no religious belief
Editor’s note: If you would like to submit a letter for possible publication, please email it to editor@rationalist.com.au. See our ...
03
Oct
Agnosticism the ‘only rational choice’
Editor’s note: If you would like to submit a letter for possible publication, please email it to editor@rationalist.com.au. See our ...
11
Aug
Sotomayor’s dissent and the future of a republic
This article is part of our ‘Mulling over America’ feature series, with contributors providing Rationalist perspectives on what ...
07
Aug
When all meaning is thrown overboard
Editor’s note: If you would like to submit a letter for possible publication, please email it to editor@rationalist.com.au. See our ...
23
Jul
Andrew Leigh and Labor squander opportunity to fix inequality in schools
Giving is in a tough spot in Australia. A declining proportion of us donate to charities, and fewer of us are registering as ...
17
Jul
Thomas Matthew Crooks was wrong to pull the trigger, but right to be afraid of Trump
This article is part of our ‘Mulling over America’ feature series, with contributors providing Rationalist perspectives on what ...
05
Jul
Do religious schools still have a place in modern society?
Editor’s note: If you would like to submit a letter for possible publication, please email it to editor@rationalist.com.au. See our ...
03
Jun
Are renewable energy projects destroying our environment?
Editor’s note: If you would like to submit a letter for possible publication, please email it to editor@rationalist.com.au. See our ...
25
May
Time to take religion out of Anzac Day services
Plenty of non-religious Australians have fought, and have died, in war for our country.
While the insulting line that there are “no at...