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A comment on Why a German billionaire says that pledges like Mark Zuckerberg’s are really bad.

Re:Why a German billionaire says that pledges like Mark Zuck... by radicalbyte on Thursday December 03, 2015 @12:14PM (#10670795)
The problem with the American system isn't the culture of direct donations from private individuals. The problem is that too few people have the means to give: it's the distribution of wealth.

A culture where private people donate is really attractive. I know that I get a lot of joy when I help people out - I donate regularly to the causes I feel important (mainly Africa, as a Brit living in Netherlands I figure I owe them). As the article says, it improves social cohesion.

Wouldn't it be nice to live in a society where "everyone" enjoyed the gift of giving?

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Re:Why a German billionaire says that pledges like Mark Zuck... by merpnderp on Thursday December 03, 2015 @12:43PM (#10671094)
In the US a lot of people who aren't billionaires or even millionaires donate a lot of money. And people donate a lot of time to their causes.

http://www.nptrust.org/philanthropic-resources/charitable-gi...

http://nccs.urban.org/nccs/statistics/Charitable-Giving-in-A...

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Re:Why a German billionaire says that pledges like Mark Zuck... by zo1 on Thursday December 03, 2015 @01:00PM (#10671242)
"Wouldn't it be nice to live in a society where "everyone" enjoyed the gift of giving?"

I fully agree with this, even though I completely disagree with the concept of taxation. If you have to have taxation to somehow collectively pay for the things society supposedly "needs", then have everyone pay for it. We are, after all, in the same boat, so we should all pay for it. And when I say everyone, I really mean everyone that has any income.

Though, to be fair, I live in a society where something close to 90% (the bottom-most earners) don't pay any income-tax at all. And stuff, society and government function. Sort of.

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