At UFOBreakfast Senior Fellow Scruggs bolsters Martin Wooster's case against liberal foundations who make the world a better place in defiance of donor intentions. Better that they be broken up into think tanks and educational institutions dedicated to serving the intentions of their wealthy funders whether the public is well-served or not. By airing these issues perhaps the public, and its elected representatives, will take an interest and we can ask the foundational questions about nonprofit organizations taking tax-deductible dollars to create ideology on demand for special interest groups. Perhaps it is a good thing that in a free society we can have nonprofits pushing an agenda for specific funding groups. But if it is a good thing it is a good thing all around. I personally am happy to see so many right wing ideology factories producing policy papers, editorials, and other screeds, particularly on the subject of philanthropy, civil society, and compassionate conservatism. I just wish these enterprising intellectuals would blog out in the open where we could have a conversation. I realize that the going rate for blogging is "free," and that many of these thinkers need to make $X dollars per word if they are to hew to donor intent while making ends meet. But, hey, we are all citizens here and we all have a little free time and maybe we can all donate a few hours a week to a public discussion about the public good. If not I have $10 here I will send to the first professional thinker from any accredited right wing think tank who writes a response to this post on their blog or in the comment section here. All they need to do is give me their name and mailing address, and without regard to the quality of the post, or the length of it, or even whether or not the post forwards my personal donative intent, I will send the $10. My intent as donor is this: To raise the level of the discussion. They can do that for however many seconds my $10 buys. After that they can revert to doing whatever they do for the big money. I can't afford to raise the level of the discussion much, or for long. In the end it will only happen when people put the good of all ahead of their own narrow interests and those of their funders.
I say tax capital and income, expand representation at all levels of government, make certain types of public service lifetime requirements, and be done with it.
Posted by: et alia | January 08, 2006 at 12:05 PM
Et, thanks. I would add that wealthy heirs should be required to serve in combat leadership positions, as they were in the English Aristocracy, so that Darwinian selection and work its magic, while providing an example of patriotism and self-sacrifice to the rank and file electorate. I don't think the rich should be be able to dodge that military commitment by buying a substitute as they did in the civil war, but if the price per substitute were in the tens of millions it might be worth considering for the sake of wealth redistribution to those with the pluck and mettle to be successful front line warriors.
Posted by: Phil | January 08, 2006 at 12:13 PM