When you cross the class divide, you find friends whose children are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recently I went to a fund-raiser at a VFW hall to collect money to send Joe a Kevlar bulletproof vest. Where is the outrage over the inequality of sacrifice? By eliminating the estate tax, we shift the burden from deceased multimillionaires and billionaires to people who have less capacity to pay.
I am also concerned about the philanthropic sector becoming another arena of private power without any accountability as to where its money goes. The Walton family, for example, is using its foundation to influence the education-reform debate by advocating vouchers. Personally I would rather see the public school system improved, but the point is that the Waltons’ $90 billion fortune will make it possible to create a philanthropic superpower.
If we as taxpayers are going to subsidize the creation of foundations, which is essentially what we do, we should make sure they are more accountable to society. Foundations should be required to spend down all of their assets in 30 years. There should also be a requirement that a broad range of stakeholders serve on the board, rather than just family members. I realize these are radical proposals, but there must be a radical shakeup. I would prefer that the very wealthy give more to community foundations. To paraphrase J. Paul Getty, money is like manure—better when spread around. Chuck Collins is cofounder of United for a Fair Economy and of Responsible Wealth (www.responsiblewealth.org). He is also a senior fellow at Class Action, an organization devoted to healing the wounds of America’s class divide (www.classactionnet.org). He is coauthor, with Bill Gates Sr., of Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes, and, with Felice Yeskel, of Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Insecurity and Inequality. He is now working on a book about privilege in America, Born on Third Base.
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