Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Foundations

Foundations

If there was ever a legal scam to protect the wealth of people who didn’t earn it, the public rip-off is called a foundation.

Many people think that the wealth of rich people passes through inheritance like it does for middle class folks. Sure a small percentage does for the Fords, Kennedys and Rockefellers, but most of their wealth is passed via Foundations.

Now think about this. Say a foundation is created by its founder and seeded with a billion dollars. Many think they are created for Philanthropic purposes by benevolent families interested in returning a portion of their wealth to the public welfare. Baloney! If you believe that you’re mistaken. Sure, a portion of their investment earnings are donated to charities but only because they are “Nonprofits” and don’t have to pay taxes. Since they don’t pay taxes they have to get rid of the excess that would otherwise be considered profits. So they give some of that to worthy causes... to make themselves look good and balance the books.

The principle of a Foundation is never eroded and earnings are used to insure the families that manage them are well taken care of. There is a chairman who gets a large salary, board members who get a large salary and everybody else the board decides is a legitimate heir gets a job that pays well. What is left over is given to charities.

This has been going on for a long time and for the most part, those who benefit from a foundation did nothing to earn the money. What they have is a free ride that lasts a lifetime and a government which refuses to touch the foundation nest egg.

Now this wouldn’t be so bad except for one thing. Many of those who are the family beneficiaries of these foundations sit around and lead a dissipated life style, claiming to be the intellectual elite, with their own socialist political views on how society should be run.

Don’t you see the irony….? If you want to see class warfare, the Haves versus the Have-Nots, go to New Port Rhode Island and see all the mansions and yachts anchored in the harbor. Many of these elitists, who fancy themselves intellectually superior and modern day aristocrats, exhibit a high-brow disdain for the capitalist system that gave them their gravy boat. Surprising a majority seem to embrace the liberal point of view. Is this because deep down they feel a sense of guilt over all the money they get to spend that they did nothing to earn? What makes them feel qualified to to tell the average wage earning citizens how their tax dollars should be spent?

Foundations are a sham and the worst sort of tax shelter and should not be granted a tax exempt status. Indeed they should be taxed at of rate of ten percent a year until their principles are exhausted. If the government wants to know where a good source of revenue beckons, they should start here. Then they need to look to the endowments of Colleges, Universities, and Churches and get them to start paying their share and quit shaking down the people they are supposed to be serving.