Billionaire pays off entire class's student debt at end of graduation speech

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/0 ... raduating/

My feelings about this are complicated. On on hand, it's nice, but on the other hand it's just...sad that it's even needed. Also why don't more billionaires do this?

[ProfessorDetective]

I wonder if that counts as a 'charitable donation'.

[Robovski]

It's nice he did this. You can stop there Fuzzy.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I wonder if that counts as a 'charitable donation'.

Because it was to a variety of individuals, rather than a 501c3 nonprofit entity, under the US tax code, it does not count as a charitable donation.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

This doesn't "remind" me about how bad the system is. This is like a major thing that Sanders, AOC, and even Warren talk about every other day on my feeds. The donation addresses symptoms instead of causes, which kinda derails DeVos etc. notion that this is much a support for unregulated capitalism, but it doesn't evoke feelings about how socially devoid capitalism, just maybe that it's a drop in the bucket.

[Yukaphile]

Pity Sanders can't extend that appreciation to minorities and women. Especially women.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Pity Sanders can't extend that appreciation to minorities and women. Especially women.

Right. Again, this doesn't evoke feelings of politics, thank you.

[G-Man]

I wonder if that counts as a 'charitable donation'.

Because it was to a variety of individuals, rather than a 501c3 nonprofit entity, under the US tax code, it does not count as a charitable donation.

According to the linked article, Mr. Smith said that his family is creating a grant to pay off the debts, which sounds as if he is going to funnel the money through a 501c(3). So he probably will be able to deduct it.

There is also a good possibility that the students will face no tax liability on the gift.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-fi ... -morehouse

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I stand corrected. My bad.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

AOC chimes in on the debacle with a surprising response:

https://secondnexus.com/news/ocasio-cor ... cellation/


‘People Shouldn’t Be in a Situation Where They Depend on a Stranger’s Enormous Act of Charity for This Kind of Liberation to Begin With.’