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In the past week, a professional organization and a club to which I belong have both announced that they will no longer offer discounted rates to members who are senior citizens. Good on them. Many senior discounts have their origin in an era when low incomes were concentrated among the elderly. In Western Europe and [...]
Archive for the ‘Income distribution’ Category
November 8th, 2011
Category: 501(c)(3), charity, Income distribution, Moral philosophy, NonProfits, Philanthropy, Rhetoric and Framing, Uncategorized
. . . wrote Andy Rooney in this long-ago essay. This makes as much sense as anything else Andy Rooney ever said, which is to say, not much. What does it mean to “deserve” charity, beyond needing it? As George Bernard Shaw’s Alfred Doolittle memorably explained in Pygmalion, If theres anything going, and I put [...]
November 2nd, 2011
Ellen Alberding’s interview with the Chicago Tribune in advance of the Independent Sector‘s meeting in Chicago earlier this week was not her, or philanthropy’s, finest hour. Ms. Alberding, head of the Joyce Foundation, described the Foundation’s approach to what even she characterizes as a perfect storm of increased need and reduced resources in the nonprofit [...]
October 27th, 2011
Category: 501(c)(3), charity, Income distribution, Most interesting thing I learned today, NonProfits, Policy Analysis, Taxation
Kudos to my nonprofit consulting colleagues Campbell and Co. for sponsoring a study by the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy to determine the impact on giving of increased marginal tax rates and a cap the charitable-giving deduction. While some of us have been arguing that both of these moves toward social justice should be supported [...]
October 12th, 2011
The other day I received an invitation from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) for its annual fundraising dinner in Los Angeles. But what struck my eye was the icon in the middle of the invitation: “Walmart: Gala Chair.” Let’s be clear what it means to be a gala chair: it’s essentially [...]
June 19th, 2011
Category: Income distribution
The Washington Post takes a look at the lives of our plutocratic masters.
February 2nd, 2011
Category: Income distribution, Personal moment
Shoveling snow, thinking deep thoughts about the hard physical work millions of people do every day for much of their lives.
January 31st, 2011
Someththe
September 18th, 2010
Prof. Henderson’s judgment continues to fail him, and he apparently went up against Brad Delong, something the really smart and really wise and really well-informed do with great caution. Who was it that rush in where angels fear to tread, again? Remember the Black Knight in Monty Python’s Holy Grail? Brad attached a rocket engine [...]