Readit NewsFor example, the typical tax structure is to put assets into a foundation. That allows the assets to grow and earn income without being taxed. The only requirement is that 5% of the asset pool has to be used on the stated goal of the foundation. That might sound good but it also includes costs like "administration" so, say, having your family as employees. There are limits to this but it's still somewhat of a slush fund.
That charity can be used for political influence. A foundation can't donate to candidates or PACs but can instead, for example, fund a think tank from which policy is created or influenced. That think tank will employ people while their party is out of the White House and otherwise nurture people who will go into the administration when their party returns to power.
Also, a large foundation such as this wields influence just by its size, by choosing what to fund and where. It can exact generous conditions from governments. Those conditions can extend to companies the foundation's benefactors have an interest in.
All of this is about influence. Governments are accountable to their people. Outsized private foundations are accountable to no one.
Columns are words/karma, words, karma, name.
3.5 308431 88008 mooreds
4.1 307127 75567 stavros
4.3 314850 73503 minimaxir
4.3 575909 133629 ColinWright
4.5 429663 96135 walterbell
5.5 320283 58461 wallflower
5.9 463540 78823 paxys
6.1 298839 49063 paulpauper
7.1 450573 63823 cperciva
7.1 685484 97028 simonw
7.2 415385 57466 mpweiher
8.8 435188 49452 Waterluvian
9.4 912601 97058 steveklabnik
9.5 484782 51089 pavlov
9.5 514233 54028 nkurz
9.6 738986 76912 jedberg
9.9 538580 54533 pavel_lishin
10.5 523765 50113 wmf
10.5 562066 53697 kibwen
11.1 649587 58521 pmoriarty
11.2 554531 49316 petercooper
11.3 626706 55613 sp332
11.3 674598 59635 tyingq
11.3 997305 88154 ceejayoz
11.4 774926 67711 davidw
11.8 892827 75358 hn_throwaway_99
12.5 652216 52309 duxup
12.5 627078 49987 Someone1234
12.6 1999366 159310 Animats
13.3 1168121 87843 userbinator
13.5 1425286 105817 pjc50
13.5 771686 56994 lisper
14.1 1143293 81306 crazygringo
14.2 698215 49002 JoshTriplett
14.3 867103 60494 saagarjha
15.4 1628467 105619 toomuchtodo
16.2 787659 48722 amelius
16.3 1285245 78792 WalterBright
16.5 1058282 64324 ryandrake
16.6 892312 53904 ksec
18.8 1038783 55136 bane
19.8 1950935 98675 anigbrowl
19.9 1355066 67997 masklinn
20.0 2510303 125350 pjmlp
20.2 2110424 104359 PaulHoule
20.3 2251499 110917 ChuckMcM
20.5 1497782 73213 jrockway
21.0 1168930 55722 btilly
21.9 2747766 125470 rayiner
22.2 1822427 82045 nostrademons
22.4 1319812 58825 wpietri
24.7 1275113 51702 brudgers
27.6 3131449 113256 TeMPOraL
29.7 2701314 90987 jerf
30.1 2696913 89718 coldtea
31.7 1911252 60198 Retric
37.6 4785959 127149 dragonwriter
38.5 2130838 55318 derefr
39.3 2583878 65748 dredmorbius
42.5 2141376 50383 tzsI did my own too - and I was right - 156,501 / 327 = 478.6
Has anyone got a worse ratio than that?!?! lol
There's also the animal's death.
I expected to see measures of the economic productivity generated as a result of artificial intelligence use.
Instead, what I'm seeing is measures of artificial intelligence use.
I don't really see how this is measuring the most important economic primitives. Nothing related to productivity at all actually. Everything about how and where and who... This is just demographics and usage statistics...
I think some of it is the psychology that government is incompetent and will just waste the money anyway ("let Bill keep his money and build toilets in Africa himself, at least he'll get it done"), and the best way to fight that is probably what Carney is trying to do right now: kick off a bunch of ambitious programmes to build new things like pipelines, rail, airport expansions, etc on an accelerated timeline. Perhaps if people see visible progress they'll be more open to saying yeah okay, I'm all right with paying more to live in a country where we get stuff done.
I'm sure the government will accept donations. Just pay extra as you think they are worth it.