Ah, yes.
Every time a billionaire
even hints at doing
something charitable,
we treat 'em like saints.
Mega-rich guys
like Warren Buffett,
Bill Gates,
and Mark Zuckerberg,
have the media falling
all over them.
But in reality,
this billionaire philanthropy
is not as selfless
as it seems.
What're you talking about?
Why, we're literally
giving our money away.
Not quite.
Take the Chan Zuckerberg
Initiative.
When Mark Zuckerberg
announced his plans
to "give away"
99% of his Facebook shares,
the press covered it like
he was giving all his money
to charity.
But in reality,
he actually gave those shares
to an LLC that he controls.
And he can do almost anything
he wants with that money,
including invest it
in for-profit ventures.
For all intents
and purposes,
the money is still his.
I'm taking money from
my personal pocket...
and transferring it
to my foundation pocket!
Well, the Hulko Foundation
is a non-profit.
I'm one of
the good billionaires
who really is giving
their money away.
Eh, more like our money.
Because billionaire
foundations like yours
are essentially
one big tax dodge.
Normally when an individual
earns income,
a portion goes to taxes
so that our democratically
elected officials
can use it to pay
for public goods like
schools, services,
and infrastructure.
This money will go towards
what we, the people,
have decided.
But money donated
to private foundations
is mostly untaxed,
which means these billionaires
get to put their interests
ahead of the public's.
Or this money
could go towards
what I, the me,
have decided.
Not only that,
they also get
a personal tax deduction
for making
a "donation to charity",
which means the public
loses out on even more money.
Thank you for your donation.
Wait, seriously?
Why the heck am I doing this?
(Adam)
And when they "donate" money
to their own foundations,
they're not even required
to give it all away.
Tax laws only require
these types of
"charitable organizations"
to spend 5%
of investment assets annually.
And that could just be on
expenses and salaries.
I could give
this money directly
to the grassroots organization
that needs it, or...
I could make cousin Greg
the community development czar!
I'm going with cousin Greg.
More importantly,
whether or not
they give the money away,
these foundations
are only committed
to their donors' needs,
which are almost never
the things society needs most.
(all chattering and laughing)
Less than 10%
of charitable contributions
go towards addressing
basic public needs...
Here you are, boy!
Buy yourself
a chicken wing.
...while 75% of donations
over 50 million
go to things
like universities,
museums, hospitals.
In other words, things that
billionaires like you
can slap their names on.
Here you are.
Buy us a museum wing.
Why, thank you, sir.
Your name will look brilliant
next to the Jacunnings'.
But the most sinister part
is that these billionaires
are also donating massive
amounts of money
to think tanks
and advocacy groups
that focus on changing
our laws
to suit their
personal politics
and influencing
our lawmakers
to go easy on
their businesses.
You've all made
excellent points.
I'd be happy to ensure
none of our laws
will interfere
with your interests.
The result of all this
"philanthropy" is that
billionaires have
more power than votes.
Estimates say the amount
of billionaire money
put towards shaping our laws
is somewhere around
$10 billion per year.
That's more than
annual contributions
to political candidates,
super PACs,
and parties combined.
Well, that's not right.
That's not what
charity's all about.
Well, at the end of the day
these foundations aren't
about billionaires giving back.
They're about billionaires
getting something
even more important
than money.
(man)
That's right-- power.
Ah.
Gilbert,
meet Anand Giridharadas.
He's a journalist
and author of the book
"Winners Take All: The Elite
Charade of Changing the World".
Who pu--
who put him there?
What happened
to my Picasso?
Picasso?
That was clearly a fake.
Just like the missions of
some of those
billionaire foundations.
They exert massive power
over our democracy
through their
massive donations,
making their philanthropy
practically
a fourth branch
of government.
Even if a few of these
foundations do end up
helping the public
in some way,
we have to question
whether that's how we want
our society to operate.
That's right,
I'm not against
billionaires giving
to good causes.
I wanna ask why
we even have billionaires
and why we have a system
that relies on billionaires
to fund those causes.
Plus, many of these
billionaires have fought
for the public policies
that caused
our biggest social problems.
And the fact that they can
amass this kind of wealth
is what drives our incredible
inequality in the first place.
So why would we trust them
to fix it
when they're at
the bottom of it?
You know who'd be
a really bad firefighter?
An arsonist.
