The BIG Problem with Regime Charity ｜ 3⧸28⧸24
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
150.06339
Summary
Mackenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, recently announced her intention to engage in another round of philanthropy by donating $640 million to charity. Of the $60 billion she received after splitting with her husband, Scott has already given over $16 billion to various non-profit organizations. To most people, the idea of possessing, much less donating, that kind of money is unthinkable.
Transcript
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We hope you're enjoying your Air Canada flight.
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Fast-free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land.
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Wi-Fi available to Airplane members on Equipped Flight.
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Mackenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos,
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recently announced her intention to engage in another round of philanthropy
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Of the $60 billion she received after splitting with her husband,
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Scott has already given over $16 billion to various non-profit organizations.
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To most people, the idea of possessing, much less donating, that kind of money is unthinkable,
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and Scott is certainly distributing the funds with the intention of making the world a better place.
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The big problem is with the kind of world that the organizations Scott supports are trying to build.
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The billionaire divorcee is steadily feeding a giant stream of cash into the progressive non-profit complex,
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ensuring that that money funds highly influential organizations that will shape opinion and policy in the United States.
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Charity isn't a universal value throughout history,
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and the idea of giving to those outside your kin is mostly a Christian one.
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Other religions, such as Islam, do encourage giving to the poor,
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but in the West that tradition is not linked to ancient Greece or Rome, but to the teachings of Christ.
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You gave directly to those in need or to an organization in which you were an active participant like a church.
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The gift was particular to your community, and you knew the people that it helped.
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But as society expanded and became more homogenized,
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this work was mostly handed over to large bureaucracies
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that were no longer accountable to specific individuals or communities.
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People who wanted to feel good about fulfilling the Christian impulse for charitable giving,
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but couldn't be bothered to participate in an actual community with those in need,
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could instead donate to a third party that would touch the unclean for them.
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This separation between the giver, the organization, and the community it served
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The principal agent problem arises because whenever a separate agent or group of agents
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they invariably develop their own interests that have little to do with the task they were hired to perform.
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If you want to invest for retirement, but you hire a broker who gets kickbacks
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if his clients go ahead and invest in certain funds,
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When I found out my friend got a great deal on a designer dress from Winners,
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Like that woman over there with the Italian leather handbag.
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And the more levels of abstraction, the more layers of bureaucracy and managers you have,
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the more distorted the incentives get, and the worse the problem becomes.
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Anyone who's attempted to resolve a problem with a large corporation
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by calling its customer service center recognizes this phenomenon.
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the ability to hold individual actors accountable and achieve results goes down.
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Due to the residual Christian ethos of our society,
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charitable organizations are often treated as highly moral enterprises,
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which gives them a great deal of social and financial capital.
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And without direct individual or community accountability,
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the power stored in these organizations was up for grabs.
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The intermediaries managing these organizations
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became less and less interested in the stated purpose of the institutions
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and instead became obsessed with growing the power and size of the charity,
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which in turn increased their own power and importance.
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The best way for these managers to grow their prestige and influence
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was to align themselves with the direction of the political zeitgeist.
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Adopting progressive political agendas allowed individual managers
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the ability to outflank their internecine rivals in the battle for power
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and make their organizations into critical nodes in the wider regime.
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charities could become large beneficiaries of taxpayer funds
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and havens for personnel and policy when their enemies won elections.
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Many conservatives have noticed that even when progressives are voted out of office,
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This is because critical organizations like non-profits and universities,
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which the government has incorporated into its process
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Many on the right now refer to the unelected federal bureaucracy
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extends well outside the three branches of government.
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One of the advantages of these extra-governmental power centers
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when their friends in government needed to push for censorship
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progressive allies could instead funnel massive amounts of money
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which could apply the pressure on their behalf,
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all while maintaining the moral shield of being a charity.
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This is why non-profit charities became an integral part of the regime
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while maintaining the moral and legal protections their status afforded.
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The artificial separation of the public and private sectors
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that has been erected in the American consciousness
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also allowed them to act as an arm of the state
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Managers assemble power across public and private institutions,
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because every institution is actually a vehicle for state power.
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So when you see Mackenzie Scott donate $16 billion,
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She's pledging her support for the total state.
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