The government is too bird's-eye-view to understand the details of different communities. I do think, however, the government should have some kind connection with a group of people in each state to get a status on things. And each state should have groups in different communities representing it to report up to the state-level group.
I feel like USA is already kinda designed that way, but something is making it not work... at least, it's not working for the poor.
It's also unreasonable to think everyone that's in a difficult situation got there by their own mistakes and have the ability to get out without help.
{edit} - I actually think this is exactly the strategy being applied by him and his team of tax strategists - He's using this "donation" as a tax shield and keeping the money in a foundation, which he can use to help "the underprivileged" as he pleases, instead of just paying an amazing amount of tax like Zuck did.
The way this can be used to protect money from taxes is to establish a foundation that then employs you and your descendants. The money paid out is taxed, but the principle can sit there untouched.
However, the bigger deal is that he can use that foundation to wield significant power and to distort public policy to his benefit.
Of course, if you were going to donate anyway, then sure, it's more tax efficient to give appreciated stocks. But calling it a tax shield makes it sound like you can stand to gain personally by doing this.
On that taking some out bit... So, as the CEO of this non-profit, he could have the company buy a jet, build an office, schedule company retreats, etc... All of this would be tax free.
I could go on, but I think that the point is clear. Non-profits are an EXCELLENT way to avoid tax hits in this sort of scenario. It's a numbers game. Once your net worth has a B at the end of it, forming an entirely new business just to avoid taxes becomes a much more sensible solution.
One (with that much wealth) absolutely stands to gain a ton from it.
A family member of mine works in financial trusts / estate planning for multi-millionaires (many times over) and this is one of the things I've heard from them used to limit tax exposure while maximizing the most typical goal - not personal wealth (these people have more money then they will ever be able to spend, that isn't the concern for them) - but rather maximizing family wealth.
And once you're extremely wealthy, it's amazing how large your family becomes.
Essentially - many charitable foundations are absolutely charitable in their fundamental mission, and best case are helping thousands of people with most of the money directly helping - however what happens in practice, is this foundation then has family members work for it earning somewhere between a reasonable to a completely insane salary depending on any number of factors.
In addition to that, I've always had mixed feelings about him: yes, successful entrepreneur and apparently smart person, but I saw him in person at an event and I made my (bad) opinion about his personality. This gesture somehow fights against that opinion. I might start to like him after all.
The world doesn't have a jobs problem, it has a funding problem. It requires capital to accomplish most tasks of notable quality. Plus it circulates the money better.
You shouldn't make light of other people's misfortune.
Update: This post has been updated to correct that Dorsey will commit 10 percent of the entire company, not just his equity as previously stated. In addition, our calculations were off and I regret the error.
This is commendable. Actually intending to making the world a better place (in the non HBO-Silicon-Valley-Show-way).
I'm not convinced what's happening in SF, and starting to happen in Oakland, is actually desirable by the residence that were there before tech people showed up.
I think it's much better that Jack donates to help public schools, libraries, arts & crafts, other recreational activities in underserved communities.... without sending the gentrification catalyst into them.
A similar phenomenon can be seen in the DC area, all the companies are hyper-concentrated in NoVa creating a miserable commuting situation for hundreds of thousands of area residents, meanwhile a city like Baltimore a mere 40 miles away is completely ignored when it comes to locating offices.
It's pretty easy to imagine a situation in which increasing your net worth can't really earn you more to experience or nice things. I'd wager Dorsey's already at that point, but maybe still wants to create things.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Dorsey
[2] http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/15/technology/microsoft_news/
I think it's been over a year since reddit said the community would receive a 10% stake in the company (or maybe it was just a direct payout of 10% of the amount raised in a previous round). I haven't heard anything about it since.
