Thanks for writing this up, nice post. A few quick thoughts:
The motivation of praise seems quite weak. I think a lot of people would prefer no praise and no oversight over subjecting to any degree of audit. Though I guess if you are just checking with the charities that doesn’t require subjecting the donor to anything directly.
It’s strange to me that governments don’t do more to praise high tax payers. In general their relationship with the highest tax payers seems very adversarial… yes audits make sense, but why not also be publicly grateful, give honours, invite to special events and so on? If donating to a university will have them name a building after you, maybe the government should name some bridges after its top funders.
Fully agreed that praise is an incredibly weak tool. Its all the weaker if its viewed as done with ulterior motives, like here.
RE: governments’ relationship with high tax payers. I think this is highly variable. My hometown in Iowa had a very positive relationship with the largest taxpayers/businesses/business owners. I think the Midwest has an understanding that there are many options for business owners, and so actively try to woo them.
In contrast, a large tech hub like San Francisco is much less replaceable, and so can afford to squeeze businesses much harder.
Thanks for writing this up, nice post. A few quick thoughts:
The motivation of praise seems quite weak. I think a lot of people would prefer no praise and no oversight over subjecting to any degree of audit. Though I guess if you are just checking with the charities that doesn’t require subjecting the donor to anything directly.
It’s strange to me that governments don’t do more to praise high tax payers. In general their relationship with the highest tax payers seems very adversarial… yes audits make sense, but why not also be publicly grateful, give honours, invite to special events and so on? If donating to a university will have them name a building after you, maybe the government should name some bridges after its top funders.
Fully agreed that praise is an incredibly weak tool. Its all the weaker if its viewed as done with ulterior motives, like here.
RE: governments’ relationship with high tax payers. I think this is highly variable. My hometown in Iowa had a very positive relationship with the largest taxpayers/businesses/business owners. I think the Midwest has an understanding that there are many options for business owners, and so actively try to woo them.
In contrast, a large tech hub like San Francisco is much less replaceable, and so can afford to squeeze businesses much harder.