I've worked for non-profits, and I came to learn that, rather than "doing good," they exist to avoid paying taxes, underpaying their employees, and skipping out on providing benefits.
Same. Many nonprofits exist because they have contracts with the state where they often get their funding from in order to obtain cheap labor. I was a Case Manager for several years. Our caseloads were ridiculously high, the pay was like $12.00 an hour and they didn’t even pay the full IRS travel reimbursement rate and we had to travel across multiple counties to visit clients. This was back in 2009, so a long time ago but still. The equivalent role today working for the state, city or county pays between 40,000 to 50,000. In nonprofit, looking at an average rate of 30,000 to 35,000 per year.
YEPPPPPP I've worked for so many non profits and all of them say the right things publicly, but once you peek under the surface then you see the f'd up mess they are
When I was a nurse, I worked for the so-called nonprofit local hospital system. I speak from experience as you do I saw it from the inside for what it was and that hospital up to today will bulldog and bully people to pay bills that they can’t afford while they continue building more Properties and they buy up every old property that goes up for sale
Billionaire philanthropy is usually done as a tax scam. They give a billion to charity and then pay a billion less in taxes. Then at the charity the money ends up back in the pocket of the billionaire. When the shell game is over the billionaire didn't do anything except dodge a bunch of taxes.
Have you ever looked up The Nature Conservancy? Have fun! That's a f'ed up entity. Nothing like it started out to be. Just a sham benefitting their schmuck executives.
I was born in 1961, and as the decades have gone by, the rise of billionaires has directly coincided with the decline of labor unions. If America organizes en-mass, everything will fall in line. Congress. The super rich. All of it. We have SO MUCH POWER, if we could only organize and use it.
The way you seamlessly wove the discussion about lawyers and law school into the larger discussion about philanthropy was nothing short of masterful. Thank you, Leeja, for demonstrating your exquisite relational thinking.
One question, if corporate philanthropy is bad and greedy , Why is Ford foundation and Open Society good ? Didn't George Soros cause the English and Asian Financial Crisis? How can someone who destroys financial markets and ruins people's livelihoods for profit, can also be the Messiah at same time ? I dont support any billionaires or big business but I hate George Soros more for his role in the Asian Financial Crisis
@@diggernash1 it actually literally doesn’t do that. Receiving ten dollars is not at all the same as stealing $100 and then “donating” ten dollars. The boot down your throat is depriving your brain of oxygen.
Norwegian here. We have more or less a goverment that takes care of its citizens. But poverty is growing and the rich are getting richer here too. We need more people like Leeja in the world. I love this womans work. So I'm just feeding the algorithm what it needs so this channel will pop up everywhere.
i know too many Americans who've "defected" to Norway (that's probably why poverty and income inequality there is rising...) meanwhile, i still can't afford to even apply for a passport 👀🤷🏽
Watch your corn hole out there bud. Feel free to threaten all your Norwegian friends into voting by noting "you don't want us to turn into the US, do you?"
I think that employees should be a partner in the business they work for. The business should split the profits evenly. One benefit that the head person has is not having to put in the hard labor the employees do. This world is so backwards. You think it should be that way. Just like Uber and Lyft. It's infuriating how much money they make while the workers have to do all the work on top of wear and tear on their vehicle and they are just apps that profit the most. Like what? These businesses are nothing without their employees. Pepsi and Coke would be just like the ice cream man selling their own product. Or walking around like the corn man in the heat. Employees need to own their worth and demand change. You are the back bones of every business. They couldn't make it alone. They should split all the profits.
As a norwegian, I have to say, this is an awesome channel - you got a new subscriber in me, with your clear language and amazing wit - keep the world informed, you are doing amazing and your work here on YT is so needed and so, so important❤
Absolutely true. I went to a private school in the 80s. It blew me away that these kids were towing the hard right line. One girl debated me about social security. I couldn't believe it. She resented social security. SMH. The other ones were virulently anti choice. I don't say pro life because it's not true. If pro lifers really were pro life they would be for paid maternity leave, child health insurance, subsidized child care and tuition free college and trade school. If you're not for those things how can you call yourself pro life? In any event, I was always debating these crazy people about the social contract and their desire to wholly dismantle it. Unless of course it was for the donor class.
Good luck debating those people. I have a brother in the far right, he benefited from a good education. I saw an article about the republican presidential debate. They all agreed on ending dept of education, ending teachers unions, This leaves the most in need up a creak without an educational paddle. My brother who claims he’s Christian and pro life holds this anti teacher anti education stance.
"After working 12 hours, how can a man go to a library?" Damn... wiser words have seldom been spoken. That his the nail on the head what's wrong with this kind of capitalism. So much human development potential is flushed down the toilet in the name of greed.
@@bartdoo5757 Your answer is as disappointing as expected. How many hours should the average adult sleep? In the US, how how hours/minutes per day does a person commute to and from work? How much time for the person to prepare and eat at least one of their meals at home (for a 12 hour shift it’ll likely only be one meal)? How much time for hygiene? If they have kids, how much time is contributed to attending to their children in the hours they do not work? These are just basics that need to fit into a 24 hour period in addition the working 12 hours. I work 12+ hours as a nurse for my shifts, and I can tell you my free time is limited to ~30 minutes and I use it to wind down and get sleepy.
When I was younger, I worked for a conglomerate POS bill collecting agency (out of desperation). You would be amazed how many billion dollar corporations dont pay water, electricity, zoning bills. Not just that, but how ILLEGAL it is to even get football stadiums or (sounds like APee&T and Comfast) to even be contacted for not paying their shit.
Now... does this not turn your stomach when you realize that Christianity is exactly the same thing? The whole "I could have destroyed your entire town, instead I killed your children. Am I not benevolent?" thing is how abusers control their victims, it's not love, it's not care, it's not charity... it's control.
@@kiltedcripple No, not particularly religious but Christianity itself isn't the problem, the problem are the people that use Christianity as a tool for oppression and evil and sadly the people that fall prey to such schemes.
@@kiltedcrippleyou realllllly don't understand the literature haha it's not your fault. The Christian church is a power hungry organization that mistranslated the works deliberately in order to control people. Just don't blame G-d for that lol
My favorite genre of RUclips is becoming “lawyers who started explaining complex law concepts in a professional manner and have slowly devolved into loosing their sanity as they attempt to explain how the rich evade taxation and break the law in this capitalist hellscape”
Isn't it a tad ironic that organizations or entities such as the UCLA Labor Center put so much time and effort into lapping up all the money they can get from foundations, effectively helping millionaires and billionaires launder the money they stole from working people? Eric and Wendy Schmidt, James Irvine, and Ford are some of those foundations that come to mind. This is how the real owners of this country want it. It's their world and their country and we're just here to work for them in it.
How are they stealing money? I came to the comments to understand that one piece of this. I don't view myself as a victim for being employed by billionaires. I am confused immensely. I am grateful to them, in fact. My life is amazing
@@LadyVandMrT Good for you; perhaps you're a fund manager at a foundation? Clearly, you're fine, so no need to concern yourself about things beyond your own being. 😂
@@LadyVandMrT You think that. You're equating being paid at all with being paid in full. Obviously, you are confused, indeed; if not otherwise completely disingenuous. Your data set is clearly incomplete. Who you love, who you do, what you do, and how you do it, isn't particularly pertinent or of any interest. Your billionaire isn't "our billionaire".
@@marcscime2918 I am not being disingenuous so you can eliminate that from the discussion, I hope. I don't understand the rest of your comment. I am genuinely happy with my billionaire lol I love my job, we are paid well enough for leisure. I worked hard to get here. I believe with UBI, others would have time for leisure. I think in general, humanity has to be ready to work less hard. The robot revolution is upon us, and our political landscape isn't ready for it.
Omg this last two should make lessons in curriculum! Thank you Leeja. I could feel you heart was all in this topic. And I could feel your convictions, drive and passion transfer and deeply move something inside!
Leeja, I've been watching your videos for a few months now, and I am beyond impressed. Not only are you putting a ton of well-researched information into this, your ability to command a viewer's attention is second to none. Keep up the good work, you really are a rising star!
What concerns me is we're letting a select few decide who gets help, and who doesn't. Not to mention that those select few have more than their fair share of responsibility for putting those people in a position to need help in the first place.
Most give to schools they’ve gone to, or to museums and whatnot that most people without the means for extra income would not be able to benefit from in the first place.
@@3182john I just think we've got bigger problems than giving to schools where people with the means to pay tuition go, or museums. Not that they're not important, but when your monopolies are putting people on the streets, well you know...
This. Just like a lot of people say that people like the Rockefellers did so much good because "look at all the libraries and concert halls that they built" and my answer to that is "Do you know the term "robber baron"? Do you know what else was going on in the world while they were building those places that people like them would frequent, but not the average person? Now look around and tell me you don't see the similarities."
Ah yes its all circular man! Anyone can begin a non profit with a little organization and a good purpose, but many of us are too busy in the rat race of life to do things we wish we could.
Dear Leeja Miller: In this 4th time watching this, this time at 0.75x, I had to stop at 8 minutes 15 seconds because I was about to cry. Why? For all workers who’ve suffered & died by fatcat employers & anti-unionists. I’m tearing up now writing this. 😢
Super educational and always have understood that the wealth has not trickled down in my lifetime of 57 years. Thank you for this content and I hope you put out more information on this topic and start calling some of these folks out. It is about time.👍
This channel is also becoming a haven for Nazi’s in the making. The amount of hatred I see protruding from many of these comments (not this one of course) is quite disconcerting. I see outright calls for violence against the “elite” or against “conservatives” by leftist on practically every video. Many are even calling for “conservatism to be outlawed and punishable by death.”
billionaires at youtube/google will soon never recommend this channel to anyone else. they don't allow the truth (left and progressive information channels) to grow in popularity beyond a certain point.
Worked for non profits early in my career. Many social change mission focused nonprofits are “starter jobs” for many college grads. Typically nonprofits feature underpaid staff but relatively wealthy CEO’s. One CEO drew 100k+ per year at 20 different substance abuse clinics laced throughout the state. In other words, he was subsidized by tax payers dollars and paid 100K+ for each individual agency. One year we were invited to the CEO’s Holiday party. We were slack jawed at the size of his 4 level hillside mansion. Place even had a glass elevator. I think most of the line staff were earning about 14K per year. Turned out this was his “beater” house. He had even bigger and more plush mansions located out of town and in other states. This was back in the ‘80’s and his kids took over the business are even richer than ever.
'Charity degrades and demoralises. There is also this to be said: it is immoral to use private property in order to alleviate the horrible evils that result from the institution of private property. It is both immoral and unfair.' - Oscar Wilde _The Soul of Man Under Socialism_ 1891
This girl is awesome. I freaking love her. She's mind blowing Intelligent and gathered She could went PhD and became an incredible doctor. Not sure I want even make suggestions should be her direction, though. I think she has the capacity to be literally a sociological scale healer. What a valuable person, a national treasure
501c3 is only so members can deduct tithes from their taxes. The church doesn't actually need to register as a 501c3 to be tax exempt. By registering as one it imposes voluntary limitations on political speech, but it's rarely if ever enforced. A church shouldn't be under such a contract anyway, but people love money and want to be rewarded for their giving. Truly, they already have their reward.
Because people who think an undetectable, cannibalism-supporting, slavery-encouraging necromancer tha for some reason cares what they do with their pants off can’t be relied on to be sympathetic to others, nor rational.
I am also a Christian, and I have believed for many years that churches should have their tax exempt status removed. I think their tax exempt status is a form of “establishment of religion.” I think this should apply to all religions and charities run by religions.
You've said a mouthful. People believe if we get the right kind of people in the right position this will bring about change. I believe that is just part of the answer. It's that corrupt system that's in place that needs to o go also. I don't care who you are on e you take a position the system will swallow you up. Do you see how presidents gray so fast. That's nerves. Being a part of something that really you have no control and is truly outside of your character. Just my 2 🙏🏾
The worst work environments I had were the times I did IT for nonprofits. Lower pay and endless demands to work long hours, all in service to the mission
If Carnegie left Scotland in 1848, his family was part of the brutal highland clearances. The landlords (mostly English) decided that sheep were more profitable than people so they were forced off their land and driven to the coastlines and abroad to places like New Zealand, Canada, and America. It wasn’t poverty that drove them from Scotland it was the greed and cruelty of the landowners.
Reminder: When companies ask if you want to donate to a nonprofit, may it be Walmart, Taco Bell, or whoever else, they are really just asking you to pay their taxes, because they use your donations as tax write offs, which, in my opinion, is fraud.
Like someone said, the need for charity shows the failure of governance, It is like if you play city skyline and your city is failing economically, you change policies, improve infrastructures instead of just expecting rich citizens to patch things up for you.
Interesting view, and you're not wrong. As a human services major we learned a lot about nonprofits, in the sense of their purpose not their pricing and benefits to the rich.
@@paulghencea9037their taxes are lower than yours proportionally , it is reasonable, they just don't want to pay. Also, a bunch of them get subsided by the government and have government contracts, so not only do they not pay taxes, because they often don't because they have very good accountants and often hide their assets, they also sometimes get money back from the government be it as tax refund or government assitance, contracts, etc.
At self-serve supermarket checkouts (in my country at least) they ALways ask you to make a charitable donation. The giant company claims the tax write-off for your donation as though *they made it. Less money for schools, hospitals etc. Using guilt to pressure people into reducing their own taxes. Disgusting.
Wow, I didn't know about the tax write-off! When I go to Giant or Weis grocery store, they always ask if I want to round up to the nearest dollar and donate that change to charity. You know, like a local food bank. I always do. But now that I know that they're pretending that THEY donated the money and use it as a tax write-off, it makes me not want to do it anymore. Bastards!
The tax write off seems possible but would be highly illegal. However the store gets public credit and you don't get a tax deduction so I never do that. I donate money to the food bank instead.
Theres no need to embezzle money from a nonprofit. You just pay yourself a "very reasonable" salary of six figures. If I had the requisite people skills and a total lack of ethics I would so be on top of that.
I doubt you would ever be hired or promoted on that level of society. You don't find those kinds of jobs on LinkedIn lol the barriers for you are beyond your control. Even if you were charming, handsome, and skilled, it's all about who you know, not what you know.
a book i read about this was called “Winners take all” by Anand Ghiridharadas. excellent book, and one of the analogies it uses to explain why philanthropy sucks is, funnily enough, Batman. Bruce Wayne is a billionaire philanthropist by day who fights crime as the Batman by night. Ghiridharadas argues that if the structural systems that allowed Wayne to accumulate so much wealth were fixed, then Batman wouldnt need to exist at all. (i know hes fictional it just helped me understand all this okay?)
Its exactly right. Poverty need not exist, all wealth should have a limit. I like 95M. If you can't be happy with 95M then you have a personal problem.
What an eye opener! I am going to have to listen to this again. Thank you Leeja! By the way, you are one o those few RUclipsrs who can both educated me on how naive I have been and make me laugh at the same time.
I have never in my life known *anyone* who knew anyone, who was touched by philanthropy. However, everyone I have known has been touched by billionaire greed.
@@lukerlunker if you want to blame someone for low wages, you shouldn’t be looking towards billionaires; That’s nonsense. The human population is ever increasing, and unskilled laborers are entering the workforce in droves on a daily basis.
@andremurphy3866 How much time have you spent with wealthy business owners? I have spent time with many and they normally work more hours, are more intelligent, and more motivated than anyone working for them. This is especially true during the early stages, where I have witnessed owners working more than 80 hours per week for weeks in a row. And their work resulted in larger profits than those of their workers.
Great video. Charity is not a replacement for proper social services and safety nets. Lots of the time they're just fronts to funnel money to family and friends or dodge taxes.
In addition to the family foundation, there is another philanthropy vehicle, the community foundation. Community foundations do things like award grants and scholarships, which are funded by money invested by donors. I worked at a community foundation for five years, and very few of our rich donors would allow their money to be spent on grants chosen by people who actually live in the area where the money is going. Most of them had their money in donor-advised funds. The community foundation serves as the gatekeeper for donor-advised funds, too; foundation staff may occasionally pass on a grant application that went to one of the foundation's public grants. And of course, if it's a donor-advised fund, that means the donor makes the final decisions ... not exactly an unbiased or egalitarian decision process. The community foundation is basically the wealth-preserving organization that allows you to act like a family foundation without having the hassle of actually managing the funds--the community foundation charges a fee for fund management, and that's how they get the money for salaries, benefits, facilities, etc.
I am so happy that I live in Sweden, I am 22 year old last year in Uni and have 0 in debt. I am going to have a surgery soon that is decently cost more that 10.000€ and it will only cost me the parking fee outside the hospital. I am a union member in the union for my job after graduation. USA is so far right it makes me scared.
You don't want to know the price of that surgery in the medical profiteering USA. It's only a fraudulent First World Country. Anyways, I wish you well on your surgery.
Give me reasons to move abroad without telling me to move abroad. If only expatriation weren't so arduous and expensive, although I think that's intentional.
How large is your apartment? How varied is your diet? Do you go out and travel? How expensive is food there? Amaericans have an exceptional quality of life, and debt is not a bad thing in capitalism. There are bad debts, and there are good debts.
I have an ms in nonprofit management and it was clear to me even while I was finishing it that it was a mistake because of how horribly misaligned with my values the whole structure was. I did it as a professional advancement move because I’d been working in nonprofits for years but the more I analyzed the power dynamics the more detached I felt. Would’ve probably done the same with an MBA and at least it’d feel more honest (and have a fairer compensation for me and my family) than what these exploitative nonprofits make you think you’re doing while underpaying you with a “passion tax”. Go figure.
The casino in my area is a "nonprofit". They use that to pay their staff abysmal wages, most make less than $15/hr, and bully the local government. The casino is well aware that they draw people in from out of town. They also know the city would suffer greatly if the casino were to up and leave.
Instead of doing a normal internship at a consulting company mid-MBA, I decided to co found a nonprofit to help the youth of my city. Conducted a nonprofit market analysis and needs assessment, and quickly learned how simultaneously saturated and untapped it was. We thought we had a brilliant idea to be a nonprofit who coordinates to help other nonprofits who are more established to pool resources and essentially work together for the same purpose. And boy oh boy.. I kinda wish I just went with a corporate role bc it was a wake up call to see how fiercely they protected their piece of the pie. Deffo don't wanna falsely equate here. They still do good work but greed is everywhere. That summer I was no longer harboring any more naivete
Found your channel a couple of weeks ago and you have spun my head around every single video Leeja. Number one: intelligence, which is evident in all words, styles and structures of your video essays. Number two: Courage. Both of these traits are so conspicuously absent in the media, government and institutions of 2023 that witnessing it in one individual is stunning and pure joy for me. If I could I'd bestow some award like a congressional medal of honor upon you, because you are showing us by example what we should all strive to become: fearless and brilliant. So thanks for your example and keep on being you Leeja
I highly recommend the book "Dark Money" by Jane Mayor. It has an entire chapter about how "charities" have become highly distortive of our politics. It's been going on so long, we mostly aren't even aware that such generous charitable contributions were controversial when established. It also describes the exact mechanism you describe, by which the wealthy elites can continue bribing politicians from the grave while ultimately avoiding inheritance taxes for their heirs.
Thanks for the recommendation. I will definitely read this. Here are three I found super interesting. _Poorly Made in China_ Book by Paul Midler _China Rx_ Book by Rosemary Gibson _Utopia for Realists_ Book by Rutger Bregman
Dont forget a generation of sociopaths: how the boomers betrayed america by Bruce Gibney. I'm sure it ties in somewhere, even if it doesn't exactly coralate with the books you listed.
@@elijahhernandez906 I'm sure you're right. BTW, I think it was always off base to say the Hippies turned into Reagan Democrats. I wasn't there, but I suspect the Liberal protesters of the 1960s were always a minority.
You do great work. The more of your videos I see, the more I appreciate it. As a relatively recent subscriber, I'm glad to see that your channel is growing. This kind of knowledge and information is priceless, and I applaud you and others like you for making it available for free to anyone willing to listen and pay attention. With help from people like you, the populous has a chance of actually becoming an informed public. It's the only way democracy is going to survive. Good on you. Thank you. And, all the best to you.✌🤟🖖💙
I knew that the ultra wealthy constantly skirt paying their taxes but had mainly been told about business write offs. I guess I knew that charities were also part of it, but not to this extent. I also hadn’t considered the power and lack of regulation these people get through running their own nonprofits. Thanks as always for being so informative! Your channel has quickly become one of my favorites
Wrong. These billionaires exist because your own pension fund, bank, insurance companies invest their money in those companies founded by the billionaires…learn the whole loop…if you expect your pension fund to give good return, you have to accept there will always be billionaires
Self made billionaires have contributed to society a lot by producing jobs, income and taxes on top of it the whole nation or even World makes progress (think Apple, MSFT, AMZN) without these people the whole nation would be in less good shape. Billionaires who inherited their wealth are treated by the tax code and if you think about the the taxes generated by their employees, the distribution, sales tax etc. they still an asset for society as the government lacks proof of being able to manage a wide array of businesses successfully. If later generations fail they will get replaced.
You crystalized this so perfectly! I wish more Republicans would watch this video. Most of them do not know this information. This was enlightening! Great job! 👏🏽
Reminds me of that time the CEO of a large corp donated 1 million dollars to charity and made a huge deal about it on Twitter saying "I didn't have to do that" in the same year his corp got 236 million in tax refound while paying no taxes because it's HQ is a basement in sweden.
I'm a sociology major and took one class that focused on social service organizations and involved a lot of trips to local non-profits. One of them focuses on helping refugees seeking asylum. They have lawyers who will help you gain citizenship, and volunteers help parents register their kids for school and set up their apartments. The salary for their lawyers starts at $55k or more a year, and when a classmate asked we learned they don't have enough money to pay their student interns. I can't even find how much other positions are paid, such as advocates and case workers
@@soltantio Definitely a low salary! It's definitely well-run, I've visited twice and they do a lot of good and the employees seem happy to be there. We even met some alumni from my school who now work there! I just wish they were able to pay their employees more as well as their interns
@@alanfriesen9837at most $75k bc rich ppl are on the board of directors and the executive directors reports to the board as their boss so nothing ever gets done bc it ends up being a fight within the board if they can fund something and the ED is worried about losing their job if they’re not rich so they don’t rock the boat! But the problem is the board aka the rich ppl and you can’t piss off the board bc that’s how they bring $$ to the nonprofit due to their rich friends. It’s why so many nepotism babies work at museums or teach at a university. It’s all a feedback loop inside and outside
Great work, Leeja! I always love your videos. I’ve been preaching this for a long time, but people think it is a pipe dream. However, labor seems to be waking up, and learning all these things thanks to RUclips, where content creators don’t have to cater to corporations.
Can I get a witness! As someone whose spent their entire professional life in the nonprofit/philanthro industrial complex, your analysis is EXTREMELY spot-on.
As a nonprofit fundraiser and business development person for almost 20 years, this is spot on. I currently work in repro justice, and the philanthropic world here (versus more traditional institutions and individuals) is much less paternalistic and creepy -- still nowhere near perfect. There are giving and granting entities attempting to mitigate issues, especially around access, an increased intentionality for giving to orgs that are founded and led by the communities they serve, and by offering multi-year general operating support without reporting requirements, but to the point of this video, we can't make *real change* if our funding is allocated by the oligarchy. I wish mutual aid would take off in the US. We are far too individualistic and anti-community (especially white folks).
I was just thinking this today when I heard all the endowments and charities listed before the NPR and PBS News Hour. I've known this since I was a social worker in the public schools. Thanks for covering this and exposing more truth.
Yea, I'm an NPR, and PBS News Hour junkie too, but like you, it's a little sickening all the money they take from these rich people " Foundations" you know they have their own agendas, need for glory...and it's like, OK - Who did they take advantage of to get all this wealth. Like the Carnegie employee says...It's a little hard to go to a library after working 12 hours...These people got their money by taking advantage of others. 😮
I'm in Canada, and there are "industries" in the non-profit sector (not all but many) (the "poverty industry" is the most lucrative). They rely on donations and government/foundation grants, but they're still industries and also rely on continuing the problem to keep the doors open and the staff paid.
They create charitable foundations where they dump their $$$, they manage it (even if through another hired manager), often don't actually donate it anywhere else, and take the tax break. For many, it's just another way to horde while getting the public to think they're being awesome.
Frick was also responsible for the Johnstown Flood. He could not be bothered to fix a reservoir that eventually broke the retaining walls holding the water in check. That was the Johnstown Flood. One of Frick's buddies once said of the man: "I fear what he would do if he were left alone in a room with small children."
this is my first video of yours that i’ve ever seen, but your channel is an instant fave. i love how many sources you use and SHOW us, which makes you so much more reliable than many people who make videos like these (your lawyer credentials don’t hurt either). your way of presenting and laying out information is just flawless. and the EDITING STYLE ugh LOVE. glad to see another minneapolis-based leftist doing the good work!
Do the same treatise on government corruption and waste. If a company uses its money for “bad things” then at least customers can go elsewhere. Taxing me, where I don’t have a choice, and wasting my money is far worse.
Reminds me of that 1970s song that goes like: "Smiling faces sometimes pretend to be your friend, Smiling faces show no traces of the evil that lurks within".
I worked for a non-profit career center in Cambridge, MA,that was managed by a nonprofit org that was a very small office that paid two of five employees six figure salaries who where said to be in the office only two to three hours on only two days per week. The three other admin assistants did literally all the work for salaries between the upper 20’s to lower 30’s. How this type of theft doesn’t even make the radar of corruption suggests that it happens everywhere.
I remember the laugh on his face when Jeff Bezos climbed out of his rocket and said:"This is for all the workers at amazon. This wouldn't have been possible without you" Knowing the working conditions and salary they get this is absolutely cruel. He rubbing it in their faces.
Leeja again is out here doing the work of the people. Thank you for educating us about this topic & I hope it encourages some people to do something about it all.
One of those schemes sounds exactly like what old man Walton did for his children. Beyond their father's trust they've never been very giving anyway. Before Amazon in the 90s I remember reading what each of them took in every month just for having that name. It's obscene.
Wow, finally, realisation?! When such practices are allowed to take root, and for so long, it will take a long time and with much effort to uproot such practices that have entangled so much of our social fabric, from the government down to the common man. A virtual impossibility!
Andrew Carnegie the man who wanted to be remembered for charity yet worked his employees 18 hours a day for 3 dollars a week. What a guy. Leeja you should read about Emma Goldman and her biography living my life.
Just an excellent video. Clear, concise, hit all the main points. We need more solidarity and democracy and one large step towards those goals is taxing billionaires until they’re millionaires. It’s ok guys. They’ll be fine.
This past summer, I met the woman who worked as a lead consultant for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s philanthropy efforts for the last few years. She mentioned that some of the factors that went into choosing what that money went into included which efforts were the cheapest and which would put the most spotlight on the Gates family. It’s sad that the top priority for these groups isn’t for the health and wellbeing of other humans :(
Leeja, I discovered your channel earlier this week thanks to a lucky break from the RUclips algorithm (a first) and I've been viewing as much as I can find.... I love your wit and depth of knowledge and appreciate your drive to speak truth to crazy.....keep up the fantastic work and don't let the man get you down Norm
Great video. A small note about your claim that the violence against striking steel workers was the deadliest labor confrontation in US history. I believe it is quite overshadowed by the battle of Blair Mountain, a significant labor uprising in the West Virginia coal industry.
Just tax them.. tax them heavily.. they wont miss a bite of caviar. When America was supposedly great.. they were taxed like 70 percent, and there wasnt a bunch of loopholes.
"Don't look at the Johnstown Flood. Here's a library" -Andrew Carnegie, probably. Seriously, thank you for talking about him and Frick. Their jagoffery trickled down into bad steel union contracts that affected my family. Hugs from Pittsburgh.
There are only two content creators which I watch every post. Yours and Beau of the Fifth Column. As far as i’m concerned, your content is important in educating everyday people like myself on what’s really going on behind the scenes politically and socio-economically in the U.S. Keep up the great work, Leeja!
I love your videos. You've taught me a lot, on top of my own personal research. Thank you. You're an amazing person for using your education to teach people how to be legally protected ❤
current law student here- totally agree w ur take on the attitude towards public interest. but honestly its not an option for a lot of students- they have 200k in loans and public interest jobs cant even cover rent in my city. a lot of good ppl who started law school wanting to help others are being forced into big law just for financial reasons. im lucky enough to not have loans, but if i did i might be going for big law too :(
Funny how the history texts don't mention his methods for building capital, his strike-breaking ways. I grew up believing he was a great, generous fellow. Wrong! Thanks, Leeja, for bringing this out. You are filling several holes in the general understanding.
I've worked for non-profits, and I came to learn that, rather than "doing good," they exist to avoid paying taxes, underpaying their employees, and skipping out on providing benefits.
Same. Many nonprofits exist because they have contracts with the state where they often get their funding from in order to obtain cheap labor. I was a Case Manager for several years. Our caseloads were ridiculously high, the pay was like $12.00 an hour and they didn’t even pay the full IRS travel reimbursement rate and we had to travel across multiple counties to visit clients. This was back in 2009, so a long time ago but still. The equivalent role today working for the state, city or county pays between 40,000 to 50,000. In nonprofit, looking at an average rate of 30,000 to 35,000 per year.
YEPPPPPP I've worked for so many non profits and all of them say the right things publicly, but once you peek under the surface then you see the f'd up mess they are
When I was a nurse, I worked for the so-called nonprofit local hospital system. I speak from experience as you do I saw it from the inside for what it was and that hospital up to today will bulldog and bully people to pay bills that they can’t afford while they continue building more Properties and they buy up every old property that goes up for sale
I used to prepare 990s for nonprofit groups, and the executive director salaries at some of them were obscene.
Why did you work for them?
I've always thought Philanthropy was just a PR for rich people, Now i see it's much more
yup!!!
Billionaire philanthropy is usually done as a tax scam. They give a billion to charity and then pay a billion less in taxes. Then at the charity the money ends up back in the pocket of the billionaire. When the shell game is over the billionaire didn't do anything except dodge a bunch of taxes.
It always has been. Some people are hopelessly naive though.
Have you ever looked up The Nature Conservancy? Have fun! That's a f'ed up entity. Nothing like it started out to be. Just a sham benefitting their schmuck executives.
@LeejaMiller yachts are also tax exempt.
I was born in 1961, and as the decades have gone by, the rise of billionaires has directly coincided with the decline of labor unions. If America organizes en-mass, everything will fall in line. Congress. The super rich. All of it. We have SO MUCH POWER, if we could only organize and use it.
That’s why they keep people fighting about the race and what not.
The rise in billionaires coincides with politicians favoring Wall Street over main Street
Politicians are employees of wall street. @@luvkayakn
if all the executive assistants and other staff around the billionaires connected and organized, they'd be so screwed
@@orrbifoldThat guilty pleasure of an 0:06 idea was at the heart of the movie 9 to 5. Plus other movies, for example…(fill in the blank)
The way you seamlessly wove the discussion about lawyers and law school into the larger discussion about philanthropy was nothing short of masterful. Thank you, Leeja, for demonstrating your exquisite relational thinking.
❤
One question, if corporate philanthropy is bad and greedy , Why is Ford foundation and Open Society good ? Didn't George Soros cause the English and Asian Financial Crisis? How can someone who destroys financial markets and ruins people's livelihoods for profit, can also be the Messiah at same time ? I dont support any billionaires or big business but I hate George Soros more for his role in the Asian Financial Crisis
I always suspected there was something wrong with these charity programs disguised as philanthropy, thank you Aleena, love your pod cast, 💕
Stealing a $100 and then "donating" $10 still makes one a thief.
worse, moving that $10 from left hand to right hand and call it tax free.
🤣
It's not considered a crime if you are "white collar" or a politician.
And receiving the 10 dollars, while not working, puts you on par with the thief.
@@diggernash1 it actually literally doesn’t do that. Receiving ten dollars is not at all the same as stealing $100 and then “donating” ten dollars. The boot down your throat is depriving your brain of oxygen.
Norwegian here. We have more or less a goverment that takes care of its citizens. But poverty is growing and the rich are getting richer here too. We need more people like Leeja in the world. I love this womans work. So I'm just feeding the algorithm what it needs so this channel will pop up everywhere.
Is neoliberalism starting to creep its way into Scandinavia?
i know too many Americans who've "defected" to Norway (that's probably why poverty and income inequality there is rising...) meanwhile, i still can't afford to even apply for a passport 👀🤷🏽
Capitalism is global, so there's really nowhere to escape. Everywhere will be the third world soon enough
@@crptniteThat's deep, I love your comment!
Watch your corn hole out there bud. Feel free to threaten all your Norwegian friends into voting by noting "you don't want us to turn into the US, do you?"
Sick of working 60 hours a week to barely get by while share holders and CEOs make more in a year than I could in 100 lifetimes
Then perhaps it's time for a second republic.
#guillotine2024
Dang what job do you do
I think that employees should be a partner in the business they work for. The business should split the profits evenly. One benefit that the head person has is not having to put in the hard labor the employees do. This world is so backwards. You think it should be that way. Just like Uber and Lyft. It's infuriating how much money they make while the workers have to do all the work on top of wear and tear on their vehicle and they are just apps that profit the most. Like what? These businesses are nothing without their employees. Pepsi and Coke would be just like the ice cream man selling their own product. Or walking around like the corn man in the heat. Employees need to own their worth and demand change. You are the back bones of every business. They couldn't make it alone. They should split all the profits.
@@chasgarza3960 that's called employee ownership, popular usually within democratically social economics
60 hrs a week? How many jobs? Highly suggest you sit down and make a life plan to put into action....
As a norwegian, I have to say, this is an awesome channel - you got a new subscriber in me, with your clear language and amazing wit - keep the world informed, you are doing amazing and your work here on YT is so needed and so, so important❤
As an American, this channel exemplifies how Norwegian policies make so much more sense!
Absolutely true. I went to a private school in the 80s. It blew me away that these kids were towing the hard right line. One girl debated me about social security. I couldn't believe it. She resented social security. SMH. The other ones were virulently anti choice. I don't say pro life because it's not true. If pro lifers really were pro life they would be for paid maternity leave, child health insurance, subsidized child care and tuition free college and trade school. If you're not for those things how can you call yourself pro life? In any event, I was always debating these crazy people about the social contract and their desire to wholly dismantle it. Unless of course it was for the donor class.
Good luck debating those people. I have a brother in the far right, he benefited from a good education. I saw an article about the republican presidential debate. They all agreed on ending dept of education, ending teachers unions, This leaves the most in need up a creak without an educational paddle. My brother who claims he’s Christian and pro life holds this anti teacher anti education stance.
Why do I have to give up 15% of my earnings on the chance that I live to 65 to see a portion of it returned?
"After working 12 hours, how can a man go to a library?" Damn... wiser words have seldom been spoken. That his the nail on the head what's wrong with this kind of capitalism. So much human development potential is flushed down the toilet in the name of greed.
There's 24 hours in a day.
@@bartdoo5757And your point is? Surely you have a good one lol
@@cortneyurban7329 Plenty of time to go to the library, grocery store, etc.
@@bartdoo5757 Your answer is as disappointing as expected.
How many hours should the average adult sleep?
In the US, how how hours/minutes per day does a person commute to and from work?
How much time for the person to prepare and eat at least one of their meals at home (for a 12 hour shift it’ll likely only be one meal)?
How much time for hygiene?
If they have kids, how much time is contributed to attending to their children in the hours they do not work?
These are just basics that need to fit into a 24 hour period in addition the working 12 hours.
I work 12+ hours as a nurse for my shifts, and I can tell you my free time is limited to ~30 minutes and I use it to wind down and get sleepy.
That's why I read on my phone and take long bathroom breaks.
It’s, at best, reputation laundering. At worst, it’s them throwing money around to effectively enact soft policy without democratic consent.
Well put sir
Reputation laundering? Hmm 🤔...your entire comment is thought provoking and well articulated! 👩🏾🏫
Wasn't reputation laundering their origin?
" reputation laundering," 👏
🤔🙏🏾💣 Is policy with democratic consent. Same problem with South Africa.
This channel is growing so fast. Congrats Leeja.
thank you!!
@@LeejaMiller Collab with Legal Eagle when? :)
I guess there are a lot of people who like 'sensible'
@@foramoreperfectamerica8490I’ve often thought that would be awesome.
@@foramoreperfectamerica8490that'd be cool, seeing as they're both lawyers
Thanks for exposing corruption, injustice and inequity in America. I love all your videos!!
This right here 🙌
The government has contracted out the work. Non profits are stuck trying to solve problems the government should be.
Well, the government can't be expected to do those things well if it can't raise the money to do those things through taxes, can it?
When I was younger, I worked for a conglomerate POS bill collecting agency (out of desperation).
You would be amazed how many billion dollar corporations dont pay water, electricity, zoning bills. Not just that, but how ILLEGAL it is to even get football stadiums or (sounds like APee&T and Comfast) to even be contacted for not paying their shit.
Philanthropy is literally "You should thank me for being nice". Being nice is something you should do already
Now... does this not turn your stomach when you realize that Christianity is exactly the same thing?
The whole "I could have destroyed your entire town, instead I killed your children. Am I not benevolent?" thing is how abusers control their victims, it's not love, it's not care, it's not charity... it's control.
@@kiltedcripple No, not particularly religious but Christianity itself isn't the problem, the problem are the people that use Christianity as a tool for oppression and evil and sadly the people that fall prey to such schemes.
Why?
@@kiltedcrippleyou realllllly don't understand the literature haha it's not your fault. The Christian church is a power hungry organization that mistranslated the works deliberately in order to control people.
Just don't blame G-d for that lol
Lol people think their owed kindness
My favorite genre of RUclips is becoming “lawyers who started explaining complex law concepts in a professional manner and have slowly devolved into loosing their sanity as they attempt to explain how the rich evade taxation and break the law in this capitalist hellscape”
That Educated to Radical Leftist pipeline really says something about the efforts to keep a population hungry, angry and exhausted, don't it 😂
So, you watch How Money Works?
Isn't it a tad ironic that organizations or entities such as the UCLA Labor Center put so much time and effort into lapping up all the money they can get from foundations, effectively helping millionaires and billionaires launder the money they stole from working people? Eric and Wendy Schmidt, James Irvine, and Ford are some of those foundations that come to mind. This is how the real owners of this country want it. It's their world and their country and we're just here to work for them in it.
How are they stealing money? I came to the comments to understand that one piece of this. I don't view myself as a victim for being employed by billionaires. I am confused immensely. I am grateful to them, in fact. My life is amazing
@@LadyVandMrT Good for you; perhaps you're a fund manager at a foundation? Clearly, you're fine, so no need to concern yourself about things beyond your own being. 😂
@@marcscime2918 I am genuinely confused about why people think being paid for their labor is theft. I am a data scientist. I love our billionaire.
@@LadyVandMrT You think that. You're equating being paid at all with being paid in full. Obviously, you are confused, indeed; if not otherwise completely disingenuous. Your data set is clearly incomplete.
Who you love, who you do, what you do, and how you do it, isn't particularly pertinent or of any interest. Your billionaire isn't "our billionaire".
@@marcscime2918 I am not being disingenuous so you can eliminate that from the discussion, I hope. I don't understand the rest of your comment. I am genuinely happy with my billionaire lol I love my job, we are paid well enough for leisure. I worked hard to get here. I believe with UBI, others would have time for leisure. I think in general, humanity has to be ready to work less hard. The robot revolution is upon us, and our political landscape isn't ready for it.
Omg this last two should make lessons in curriculum! Thank you Leeja. I could feel you heart was all in this topic. And I could feel your convictions, drive and passion transfer and deeply move something inside!
I got a MSW and my education would have been so much better if I had a class with her.
Leeja, I've been watching your videos for a few months now, and I am beyond impressed. Not only are you putting a ton of well-researched information into this, your ability to command a viewer's attention is second to none. Keep up the good work, you really are a rising star!
What concerns me is we're letting a select few decide who gets help, and who doesn't. Not to mention that those select few have more than their fair share of responsibility for putting those people in a position to need help in the first place.
Most give to schools they’ve gone to, or to museums and whatnot that most people without the means for extra income would not be able to benefit from in the first place.
@@3182john I just think we've got bigger problems than giving to schools where people with the means to pay tuition go, or museums. Not that they're not important, but when your monopolies are putting people on the streets, well you know...
This. Just like a lot of people say that people like the Rockefellers did so much good because "look at all the libraries and concert halls that they built" and my answer to that is "Do you know the term "robber baron"? Do you know what else was going on in the world while they were building those places that people like them would frequent, but not the average person? Now look around and tell me you don't see the similarities."
@@NankitaBRviu aí o que eles fizeram e Gozar 😅de você e todos que o contribuiu para isso só eles puderam gozar do seu dinheiro 💰💰💰🧮#
Ah yes its all circular man!
Anyone can begin a non profit with a little organization and a good purpose, but many of us are too busy in the rat race of life to do things we wish we could.
"Government by organized money is as dangerous as government by organized mob." - FDR
And in 2016 it become one and the same.
Dear Leeja Miller:
In this 4th time watching this, this time at 0.75x, I had to stop at 8 minutes 15 seconds because I was about to cry. Why? For all workers who’ve suffered & died by fatcat employers & anti-unionists. I’m tearing up now writing this. 😢
Super educational and always have understood that the wealth has not trickled down in my lifetime of 57 years. Thank you for this content and I hope you put out more information on this topic and start calling some of these folks out. It is about time.👍
This channel is rapidly becoming one of my favorite legal / legal history channels.
Mine too!
This channel is also becoming a haven for Nazi’s in the making. The amount of hatred I see protruding from many of these comments (not this one of course) is quite disconcerting. I see outright calls for violence against the “elite” or against “conservatives” by leftist on practically every video.
Many are even calling for “conservatism to be outlawed and punishable by death.”
billionaires at youtube/google will soon never recommend this channel to anyone else.
they don't allow the truth (left and progressive information channels) to grow in popularity beyond a certain point.
case in point: they let very few people see what I write.
grifters and frauds protect their rackets at all cost.
@@thunderpooch They see what you write, they just don’t care.
Worked for non profits early in my career. Many social change mission focused nonprofits are “starter jobs” for many college grads. Typically nonprofits feature underpaid staff but relatively wealthy CEO’s. One CEO drew 100k+ per year at 20 different substance abuse clinics laced throughout the state. In other words, he was subsidized by tax payers dollars and paid 100K+ for each individual agency. One year we were invited to the CEO’s Holiday party. We were slack jawed at the size of his 4 level hillside mansion. Place even had a glass elevator. I think most of the line staff were earning about 14K per year. Turned out this was his “beater” house. He had even bigger and more plush mansions located out of town and in other states. This was back in the ‘80’s and his kids took over the business are even richer than ever.
When Andrew Carnegie invented philanthropy it was already a scam.
'Charity degrades and demoralises. There is also this to be said: it is immoral to use private property in order to alleviate the horrible evils that result from the institution of private property. It is both immoral and unfair.' - Oscar Wilde _The Soul of Man Under Socialism_ 1891
This girl is awesome. I freaking love her. She's mind blowing Intelligent and gathered She could went PhD and became an incredible doctor. Not sure I want even make suggestions should be her direction, though. I think she has the capacity to be literally a sociological scale healer. What a valuable person, a national treasure
As a Christian, I have always wondered how churches maintained the 401C status while pushing certain political agendas.
501c3 is only so members can deduct tithes from their taxes. The church doesn't actually need to register as a 501c3 to be tax exempt. By registering as one it imposes voluntary limitations on political speech, but it's rarely if ever enforced. A church shouldn't be under such a contract anyway, but people love money and want to be rewarded for their giving. Truly, they already have their reward.
Because people who think an undetectable, cannibalism-supporting, slavery-encouraging necromancer tha for some reason cares what they do with their pants off can’t be relied on to be sympathetic to others, nor rational.
I am also a Christian, and I have believed for many years that churches should have their tax exempt status removed. I think their tax exempt status is a form of “establishment of religion.” I think this should apply to all religions and charities run by religions.
Mormons especially in Utah
You've said a mouthful. People believe if we get the right kind of people in the right position this will bring about change. I believe that is just part of the answer. It's that corrupt system that's in place that needs to o go also. I don't care who you are on e you take a position the system will swallow you up. Do you see how presidents gray so fast. That's nerves. Being a part of something that really you have no control and is truly outside of your character. Just my 2 🙏🏾
The worst work environments I had were the times I did IT for nonprofits. Lower pay and endless demands to work long hours, all in service to the mission
Yup, they treat you like crap and expect you to feel lucky to be there.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, the big wigs are rolling in dough and laughing all the way to the bank!😮🎉😅😢
If Carnegie left Scotland in 1848, his family was part of the brutal highland clearances. The landlords (mostly English) decided that sheep were more profitable than people so they were forced off their land and driven to the coastlines and abroad to places like New Zealand, Canada, and America. It wasn’t poverty that drove them from Scotland it was the greed and cruelty of the landowners.
I love how straightforward and no-BS you are! Giving this a comment in the hopes the algo will spread your videos far and wide
Reminder: When companies ask if you want to donate to a nonprofit, may it be Walmart, Taco Bell, or whoever else, they are really just asking you to pay their taxes, because they use your donations as tax write offs, which, in my opinion, is fraud.
Like someone said, the need for charity shows the failure of governance, It is like if you play city skyline and your city is failing economically, you change policies, improve infrastructures instead of just expecting rich citizens to patch things up for you.
Can we at least expect rich citizens to pay their damn taxes so you can afford patching things up?
Interesting view, and you're not wrong.
As a human services major we learned a lot about nonprofits, in the sense of their purpose not their pricing and benefits to the rich.
@@kyosokutaiMaybe taxes should be more reasonable for Rich folk so they might actually prefer paying them to just Commiting some sort of Tax Fraud
@@paulghencea9037lololololol holy shit, you actually had the gall to play the "Someone, think of the poor billionaires!" card.
Wow LOL
@@paulghencea9037their taxes are lower than yours proportionally , it is reasonable, they just don't want to pay.
Also, a bunch of them get subsided by the government and have government contracts, so not only do they not pay taxes, because they often don't because they have very good accountants and often hide their assets, they also sometimes get money back from the government be it as tax refund or government assitance, contracts, etc.
At self-serve supermarket checkouts (in my country at least) they ALways ask you to make a charitable donation.
The giant company claims the tax write-off for your donation as though *they made it. Less money for schools, hospitals etc.
Using guilt to pressure people into reducing their own taxes. Disgusting.
Can you confirm that with a reference or source?
Used to work at a Giant, stopped donating with small purchases once I learned about that.
Wow, I didn't know about the tax write-off! When I go to Giant or Weis grocery store, they always ask if I want to round up to the nearest dollar and donate that change to charity. You know, like a local food bank. I always do. But now that I know that they're pretending that THEY donated the money and use it as a tax write-off, it makes me not want to do it anymore. Bastards!
@@carryonpompeiUh, sounds like a worthy research project--for You. Yiu can do it! Empower your own self-mind❤
The tax write off seems possible but would be highly illegal. However the store gets public credit and you don't get a tax deduction so I never do that. I donate money to the food bank instead.
Theres no need to embezzle money from a nonprofit. You just pay yourself a "very reasonable" salary of six figures. If I had the requisite people skills and a total lack of ethics I would so be on top of that.
Yup!!!
I doubt you would ever be hired or promoted on that level of society. You don't find those kinds of jobs on LinkedIn lol the barriers for you are beyond your control. Even if you were charming, handsome, and skilled, it's all about who you know, not what you know.
a book i read about this was called “Winners take all” by Anand Ghiridharadas. excellent book, and one of the analogies it uses to explain why philanthropy sucks is, funnily enough, Batman. Bruce Wayne is a billionaire philanthropist by day who fights crime as the Batman by night. Ghiridharadas argues that if the structural systems that allowed Wayne to accumulate so much wealth were fixed, then Batman wouldnt need to exist at all.
(i know hes fictional it just helped me understand all this okay?)
Its exactly right. Poverty need not exist, all wealth should have a limit. I like 95M. If you can't be happy with 95M then you have a personal problem.
What an eye opener! I am going to have to listen to this again. Thank you Leeja! By the way, you are one o those few RUclipsrs who can both educated me on how naive I have been and make me laugh at the same time.
I have never in my life known *anyone* who knew anyone, who was touched by philanthropy. However, everyone I have known has been touched by billionaire greed.
Touched by billionaire greed? How?
@@mrmateojones8368 I can't fathom a universe in which this is a good faith argument.
@@tinkergnomad argument? I genuinely was asking how Jeff Bezos' or Elon Musk's billions have affected average Americans.
@@mrmateojones8368 Low wages
@@lukerlunker if you want to blame someone for low wages, you shouldn’t be looking towards billionaires; That’s nonsense. The human population is ever increasing, and unskilled laborers are entering the workforce in droves on a daily basis.
We shouldn’t be relying on the kindness of billionaires to secure the highest quality of life for people.
Correct. People should be securing the life they desire by their own hard work.
@@diggernash1and billionaires work hard at what?
@andremurphy3866 How much time have you spent with wealthy business owners? I have spent time with many and they normally work more hours, are more intelligent, and more motivated than anyone working for them. This is especially true during the early stages, where I have witnessed owners working more than 80 hours per week for weeks in a row. And their work resulted in larger profits than those of their workers.
@@diggernash1 Don't change the subject, remember the comment was about "billionaires."
Digger didn't watch to the end, did they?
Great video. Charity is not a replacement for proper social services and safety nets. Lots of the time they're just fronts to funnel money to family and friends or dodge taxes.
In addition to the family foundation, there is another philanthropy vehicle, the community foundation. Community foundations do things like award grants and scholarships, which are funded by money invested by donors. I worked at a community foundation for five years, and very few of our rich donors would allow their money to be spent on grants chosen by people who actually live in the area where the money is going. Most of them had their money in donor-advised funds.
The community foundation serves as the gatekeeper for donor-advised funds, too; foundation staff may occasionally pass on a grant application that went to one of the foundation's public grants. And of course, if it's a donor-advised fund, that means the donor makes the final decisions ... not exactly an unbiased or egalitarian decision process.
The community foundation is basically the wealth-preserving organization that allows you to act like a family foundation without having the hassle of actually managing the funds--the community foundation charges a fee for fund management, and that's how they get the money for salaries, benefits, facilities, etc.
27 mins is perfect for my lunch break ! thank you !
I am so happy that I live in Sweden, I am 22 year old last year in Uni and have 0 in debt. I am going to have a surgery soon that is decently cost more that 10.000€ and it will only cost me the parking fee outside the hospital. I am a union member in the union for my job after graduation. USA is so far right it makes me scared.
You don't want to know the price of that surgery in the medical profiteering USA. It's only a fraudulent First World Country. Anyways, I wish you well on your surgery.
Give me reasons to move abroad without telling me to move abroad. If only expatriation weren't so arduous and expensive, although I think that's intentional.
lol, always some Nordic coming in to rub our noses in our end-stage capitalist Hellscape.
@@AR-ym4zh I don't think it's impossible to move. Work visa is possible. I would start learning the local language
How large is your apartment? How varied is your diet? Do you go out and travel? How expensive is food there? Amaericans have an exceptional quality of life, and debt is not a bad thing in capitalism. There are bad debts, and there are good debts.
I have an ms in nonprofit management and it was clear to me even while I was finishing it that it was a mistake because of how horribly misaligned with my values the whole structure was. I did it as a professional advancement move because I’d been working in nonprofits for years but the more I analyzed the power dynamics the more detached I felt. Would’ve probably done the same with an MBA and at least it’d feel more honest (and have a fairer compensation for me and my family) than what these exploitative nonprofits make you think you’re doing while underpaying you with a “passion tax”. Go figure.
Yup!!!! Totally understand
I love your content and analyses on social topics, it's always a pleasure to watch these videos.
Thank you for your work!
thanks for watching!!
Whenever I see someone's name on the side of a building, my first thought is, "What crime did they commit?"
I'm sure that's healthy and totally normal and won't give rise to paranoia in time.
The casino in my area is a "nonprofit". They use that to pay their staff abysmal wages, most make less than $15/hr, and bully the local government. The casino is well aware that they draw people in from out of town. They also know the city would suffer greatly if the casino were to up and leave.
Instead of doing a normal internship at a consulting company mid-MBA, I decided to co found a nonprofit to help the youth of my city. Conducted a nonprofit market analysis and needs assessment, and quickly learned how simultaneously saturated and untapped it was. We thought we had a brilliant idea to be a nonprofit who coordinates to help other nonprofits who are more established to pool resources and essentially work together for the same purpose. And boy oh boy.. I kinda wish I just went with a corporate role bc it was a wake up call to see how fiercely they protected their piece of the pie. Deffo don't wanna falsely equate here. They still do good work but greed is everywhere. That summer I was no longer harboring any more naivete
Found your channel a couple of weeks ago and you have spun my head around every single video Leeja. Number one: intelligence, which is evident in all words, styles and structures of your video essays. Number two: Courage. Both of these traits are so conspicuously absent in the media, government and institutions of 2023 that witnessing it in one individual is stunning and pure joy for me. If I could I'd bestow some award like a congressional medal of honor upon you, because you are showing us by example what we should all strive to become: fearless and brilliant. So thanks for your example and keep on being you Leeja
I highly recommend the book "Dark Money" by Jane Mayor. It has an entire chapter about how "charities" have become highly distortive of our politics. It's been going on so long, we mostly aren't even aware that such generous charitable contributions were controversial when established. It also describes the exact mechanism you describe, by which the wealthy elites can continue bribing politicians from the grave while ultimately avoiding inheritance taxes for their heirs.
Thanks for the recommendation. I will definitely read this.
Here are three I found super interesting.
_Poorly Made in China_
Book by Paul Midler
_China Rx_
Book by Rosemary Gibson
_Utopia for Realists_
Book by Rutger Bregman
Dont forget a generation of sociopaths: how the boomers betrayed america by Bruce Gibney. I'm sure it ties in somewhere, even if it doesn't exactly coralate with the books you listed.
@@elijahhernandez906 Thanks for that. I will read it.
@@NoSpam1891 thank you!
@@elijahhernandez906 I'm sure you're right. BTW, I think it was always off base to say the Hippies turned into Reagan Democrats. I wasn't there, but I suspect the Liberal protesters of the 1960s were always a minority.
Very true, philantropy is a dark part of society most people don't know. Thank you for educating us.
You do great work. The more of your videos I see, the more I appreciate it. As a relatively recent subscriber, I'm glad to see that your channel is growing. This kind of knowledge and information is priceless, and I applaud you and others like you for making it available for free to anyone willing to listen and pay attention. With help from people like you, the populous has a chance of actually becoming an informed public. It's the only way democracy is going to survive.
Good on you. Thank you. And, all the best to you.✌🤟🖖💙
I knew that the ultra wealthy constantly skirt paying their taxes but had mainly been told about business write offs. I guess I knew that charities were also part of it, but not to this extent. I also hadn’t considered the power and lack of regulation these people get through running their own nonprofits.
Thanks as always for being so informative! Your channel has quickly become one of my favorites
The existence of billionaires while millions are unable to afford basic needs (including leisure time) is proof of a broken society l.
Lol
Wrong. These billionaires exist because your own pension fund, bank, insurance companies invest their money in those companies founded by the billionaires…learn the whole loop…if you expect your pension fund to give good return, you have to accept there will always be billionaires
Self made billionaires have contributed to society a lot by producing jobs, income and taxes on top of it the whole nation or even World makes progress (think Apple, MSFT, AMZN) without these people the whole nation would be in less good shape. Billionaires who inherited their wealth are treated by the tax code and if you think about the the taxes generated by their employees, the distribution, sales tax etc. they still an asset for society as the government lacks proof of being able to manage a wide array of businesses successfully. If later generations fail they will get replaced.
You crystalized this so perfectly! I wish more Republicans would watch this video. Most of them do not know this information. This was enlightening! Great job! 👏🏽
Reminds me of that time the CEO of a large corp donated 1 million dollars to charity and made a huge deal about it on Twitter saying "I didn't have to do that" in the same year his corp got 236 million in tax refound while paying no taxes because it's HQ is a basement in sweden.
Every time a cashier asks me whether I want to donate, I loudly proclaim “No!” I made sure everyone around me heard me
Yeah, I stopped feeling guilty about that back when I figured out what was behind all the check stand donations. 😉
I'm a sociology major and took one class that focused on social service organizations and involved a lot of trips to local non-profits. One of them focuses on helping refugees seeking asylum. They have lawyers who will help you gain citizenship, and volunteers help parents register their kids for school and set up their apartments. The salary for their lawyers starts at $55k or more a year, and when a classmate asked we learned they don't have enough money to pay their student interns. I can't even find how much other positions are paid, such as advocates and case workers
That's a low salary for a lawyer! That's a low salary anyway. It sounds like a well-run nonprofit if that's the biggest gripe
@@soltantio Definitely a low salary! It's definitely well-run, I've visited twice and they do a lot of good and the employees seem happy to be there. We even met some alumni from my school who now work there! I just wish they were able to pay their employees more as well as their interns
You mean illegal aliens, right. not refugees.
@@sydeLPS So how much does the guy at the top get paid?
@@alanfriesen9837at most
$75k bc rich ppl are on the board of directors and the executive directors reports to the board as their boss so nothing ever gets done bc it ends up being a fight within the board if they can fund something and the ED is worried about losing their job if they’re not rich so they don’t rock the boat! But the problem is the board aka the rich ppl and you can’t piss off the board bc that’s how they bring $$ to the nonprofit due to their rich friends. It’s why so many nepotism babies work at museums or teach at a university. It’s all a feedback loop inside and outside
Great work, Leeja! I always love your videos. I’ve been preaching this for a long time, but people think it is a pipe dream. However, labor seems to be waking up, and learning all these things thanks to RUclips, where content creators don’t have to cater to corporations.
You’re a lawyer I actually think I like. I never thought I would say that ❤
No one likes their profession being trashed. That wont make anyone like you.
Can I get a witness! As someone whose spent their entire professional life in the nonprofit/philanthro industrial complex, your analysis is EXTREMELY spot-on.
Props to you. No matter the topic, you're all over it! Kudos. ❤
As a nonprofit fundraiser and business development person for almost 20 years, this is spot on. I currently work in repro justice, and the philanthropic world here (versus more traditional institutions and individuals) is much less paternalistic and creepy -- still nowhere near perfect. There are giving and granting entities attempting to mitigate issues, especially around access, an increased intentionality for giving to orgs that are founded and led by the communities they serve, and by offering multi-year general operating support without reporting requirements, but to the point of this video, we can't make *real change* if our funding is allocated by the oligarchy.
I wish mutual aid would take off in the US. We are far too individualistic and anti-community (especially white folks).
As the old saying goes "wanna get rich? Start a non-profit"
ah yes tale as old as time!!
Especially a church!
@@redwarrior320The most frequent example there is, really.
I was just thinking this today when I heard all the endowments and charities listed before the NPR and PBS News Hour. I've known this since I was a social worker in the public schools. Thanks for covering this and exposing more truth.
Yea, I'm an NPR, and PBS News Hour junkie too, but like you, it's a little sickening all the money they take from these rich people " Foundations" you know they have their own agendas, need for glory...and it's like, OK - Who did they take advantage of to get all this wealth. Like the Carnegie employee says...It's a little hard to go to a library after working 12 hours...These people got their money by taking advantage of others. 😮
I'm in Canada, and there are "industries" in the non-profit sector (not all but many) (the "poverty industry" is the most lucrative). They rely on donations and government/foundation grants, but they're still industries and also rely on continuing the problem to keep the doors open and the staff paid.
Love your content, it's refreshing to see someone speaking about real issues with the truth being put out in front. Amazing.
They create charitable foundations where they dump their $$$, they manage it (even if through another hired manager), often don't actually donate it anywhere else, and take the tax break. For many, it's just another way to horde while getting the public to think they're being awesome.
Frick was also responsible for the Johnstown Flood. He could not be bothered to fix a reservoir that eventually broke the retaining walls holding the water in check. That was the Johnstown Flood.
One of Frick's buddies once said of the man: "I fear what he would do if he were left alone in a room with small children."
It's not enough that these billionaires are rich, they also want the average public to be poor not enslaved
this is my first video of yours that i’ve ever seen, but your channel is an instant fave. i love how many sources you use and SHOW us, which makes you so much more reliable than many people who make videos like these (your lawyer credentials don’t hurt either). your way of presenting and laying out information is just flawless. and the EDITING STYLE ugh LOVE. glad to see another minneapolis-based leftist doing the good work!
Do the same treatise on government corruption and waste. If a company uses its money for “bad things” then at least customers can go elsewhere. Taxing me, where I don’t have a choice, and wasting my money is far worse.
She's too ignorant to talk about the government. She's one of those people who worships politicians.
Reminds me of that 1970s song that goes like: "Smiling faces sometimes pretend to be your friend, Smiling faces show no traces of the evil that lurks within".
People don’t need charity when there is justice.
Amen sister!!
Lol 😂
I see you caught up with the rich so called charity too. Thank you again for educating the people. I cant thank you enough.
I worked for a non-profit career center in Cambridge, MA,that was managed by a nonprofit org that was a very small office that paid two of five employees six figure salaries who where said to be in the office only two to three hours on only two days per week. The three other admin assistants did literally all the work for salaries between the upper 20’s to lower 30’s. How this type of theft doesn’t even make the radar of corruption suggests that it happens everywhere.
I remember the laugh on his face when Jeff Bezos climbed out of his rocket and said:"This is for all the workers at amazon. This wouldn't have been possible without you"
Knowing the working conditions and salary they get this is absolutely cruel. He rubbing it in their faces.
Leeja again is out here doing the work of the people. Thank you for educating us about this topic & I hope it encourages some people to do something about it all.
One of those schemes sounds exactly like what old man Walton did for his children. Beyond their father's trust they've never been very giving anyway. Before Amazon in the 90s I remember reading what each of them took in every month just for having that name. It's obscene.
Wow, finally, realisation?!
When such practices are allowed to take root, and for so long, it will take a long time and with much effort to uproot such practices that have entangled so much of our social fabric, from the government down to the common man.
A virtual impossibility!
You were in overdrive. Excellent video!
Andrew Carnegie the man who wanted to be remembered for charity yet worked his employees 18 hours a day for 3 dollars a week. What a guy. Leeja you should read about Emma Goldman and her biography living my life.
I’m here to boast engagement to help the channel grow. So more people can see the thoughtful and informative content you make
Just an excellent video. Clear, concise, hit all the main points. We need more solidarity and democracy and one large step towards those goals is taxing billionaires until they’re millionaires. It’s ok guys. They’ll be fine.
You think those billionaires will stay in the country?
I know maybe 70% of this already and still the truth exhausts me every time. In away I'm glad that kickstart exists.
This past summer, I met the woman who worked as a lead consultant for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s philanthropy efforts for the last few years.
She mentioned that some of the factors that went into choosing what that money went into included which efforts were the cheapest and which would put the most spotlight on the Gates family. It’s sad that the top priority for these groups isn’t for the health and wellbeing of other humans :(
Leeja, I discovered your channel earlier this week thanks to a lucky break from the RUclips algorithm (a first) and I've been viewing as much as I can find.... I love your wit and depth of knowledge and appreciate your drive to speak truth to crazy.....keep up the fantastic work and don't let the man get you down
Norm
Thank you!!
I second this. For once, the RUclips algorithm has been friendly to us. 🙏🙏😊😊
Great video. A small note about your claim that the violence against striking steel workers was the deadliest labor confrontation in US history. I believe it is quite overshadowed by the battle of Blair Mountain, a significant labor uprising in the West Virginia coal industry.
Just tax them.. tax them heavily.. they wont miss a bite of caviar. When America was supposedly great.. they were taxed like 70 percent, and there wasnt a bunch of loopholes.
Exactly right. The government is much better at helping people than charity and definitely won’t spend the money in the worst possible way!
"Don't look at the Johnstown Flood. Here's a library"
-Andrew Carnegie, probably.
Seriously, thank you for talking about him and Frick. Their jagoffery trickled down into bad steel union contracts that affected my family. Hugs from Pittsburgh.
Awesome channel, informative and educating. Thank you 👍
Thank you!!
@LeejaMiller You're welcome. I also subscribed to your channel too 👍
Let’s make this video viral. People should know how the rich avoid taxes ‼️
There are only two content creators which I watch every post. Yours and Beau of the Fifth Column. As far as i’m concerned, your content is important in educating everyday people like myself on what’s really going on behind the scenes politically and socio-economically in the U.S. Keep up the great work, Leeja!
Good choices to watch
Not the only two I watch, but definitely two of the best.
Drive by Beau love! Also agreed on watching every video for these two at this rate tbqh.
I love your videos. You've taught me a lot, on top of my own personal research. Thank you. You're an amazing person for using your education to teach people how to be legally protected ❤
current law student here- totally agree w ur take on the attitude towards public interest. but honestly its not an option for a lot of students- they have 200k in loans and public interest jobs cant even cover rent in my city. a lot of good ppl who started law school wanting to help others are being forced into big law just for financial reasons. im lucky enough to not have loans, but if i did i might be going for big law too :(
And yet another reason why higher education in public institutions should be low-cost for everyone.
Funny how the history texts don't mention his methods for building capital, his strike-breaking ways. I grew up believing he was a great, generous fellow. Wrong! Thanks, Leeja, for bringing this out. You are filling several holes in the general understanding.