Monday, December 20, 2010

Why We Need To End Charity Foundation Exemption

News out of a legal newspaper tells us Paul Allen has finished a ten year commitment to Radio Station KEXP, as agreed.  KEXP was once a UW student station called KCMU.  For a few million, they moved off UW campus, got free rent from Allen, and changed their name to KEXP to tie in with Allen's Experience Music Project theatre at the Seattle Center.  With deca-billionaire Allen's support, KEXP gained a 4 times increase in listeners at a cost of 16 times the budget.  Read the article, do the math.  Now, isn't is supposed to be you increase the budget 4 times to get 16 times the listeners?

I do not think there has been a single enterprise since Microsoft that Allen has succeeded at, except buying an election, literally, to overcome taxpayer resistance to funding a stadium where the taxpayers pay the billionaires, and Allen takes the profit.  Next, he managed to get the taxpayers to pay outrageous sums to build a little trolley car from his properties north of downtown to the retail core.

With his untouchable Charity Foundation, he can pay off the powers that be and have his wealth unmolested, protected at taxpayers expense, as long as the billions are invested in securities blessed by the powers that be. If tax exemption of the 501c3 and such innovations were eliminated, the foundations would disappear, their political influence evaporate, and soon their wealth would be spread around to those who are better at providing benefits to customers.  We would rebalance to that degree in favor of business covering consumers needs, instead of "charities" advancing political ends.


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