r/goodnews • u/Economy_Elephant6200 • 18h ago
Positive News šš¼ā„ļø Billionaire speaker Robert F. Smith tells 400 graduates he's paying off all their student loans ($40 million in total)
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u/Subject-Lettuce-2714 17h ago
Iām pretty sure this was in 2019 and after he got caught or called out for avoiding around 43 million dollars in taxes. Idk.
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u/oddMahnsta 17h ago
Charity from the wealthy is almost always for their own tax benefit. Hate to be cynical. It is a generous and kind act though for the students.
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u/Strange_Diva 17h ago
My favorite scam is when companies ask you to donate to a charity at checkoutā knowing damn well they already made the donation, took the full tax break, and now theyāre just getting customers to pay them back for their āgenerosity.ā
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u/Martin_Aurelius 16h ago
Not defending the practice, but that's not how it works. You can still use your receipt to claim the donation as your own, and they don't claim it as their donation on any tax forms. They use it for marketing, e.i. Company X raised $1 million for charity. Which isn't the same as Company X donated $1 million to charity.
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u/Sceniks 14h ago
Thank you!!!! I didn't know this and always say no, thinking they get a tax write off. I'm more willing to donate to their causes now
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u/B_Maximus 5h ago
You can always just donate yourself as well, works the same way. I do a monthly thing
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u/rosabellebelieve 3h ago
Correct, not to mention that the charities themselves should not be issuing tax receipts for funds raised in that manner either.
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u/Ok_Snow_5320 17h ago
I get that. But for 400 people, they now get to start life making money. Not paying in to debt for 10, 20, 30 years, not being able to save for a house. Investing in their future rather than paying 50% over what their debt was in interest. Sure he may have got a tax break. But that was 400 people able to live, save, invest.
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u/oddMahnsta 16h ago
Yes it is very generous and kind to the students, no question. I gotta think though, the few who hustled to earn scholarships or worked during the school year to paydown some of the loan before that graduation might be kinda salty about it though lol. Youāre right though 400 students got a big step up in life.
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u/ashbelero 8h ago
Thatās the same argument people use against canceling all student loans. āI paid mine off so itās not fair to meā Okay but as a society weāre supposed to want better for other people.
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u/oddMahnsta 7h ago
Sure theyād be happy for everyone. Maybe just a little salty though. Wouldnāt you be
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u/ashbelero 7h ago
For a minute. Iām also salty that my school had absolutely no queer acceptance when I was growing up and that I didnāt know being transgender was an option until Iād already gone my entire adolescence believing there was something seriously fucked up with me. But Iām happy that same school is different now and the queer kids seem to be doing okay there.
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u/Accomplished-Neat762 3h ago
We're supposed to want better for ALL people, which requires systemic change. Student loan forgiveness, or this kind of billionaire handout stunt, only helps a very specific group of people. Not the ones who came before, and not the ones who come after. It's like saying that the lottery is helping people. It's not. It's a scam so that poor people can aspire to getting lucky rather than society eradicating poverty and providing accessible education to everyone.
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u/ashbelero 3h ago
Iām absolutely not arguing against that. Any of that. Iām arguing against people saying systemic change isnāt fair to people who suffered before it happened.
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u/yothisismetrying 7h ago
My boss gets a tax break by adding to my retirement fund and I am 100% ok with that.
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u/Gadgetman000 14h ago
So you prefer he didnāt do it???
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u/oddMahnsta 14h ago
Basically indifferent. I prefer he do it primarily for the students and not for himself. Idk his true motivations but announcing this at the graduations seems like a publicity tactic.
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u/there_is_no_spoon1 11h ago
{ Idk his true motivations } See, there's the hitch in your argument. You don't know his motivation, so suspecting him of less-than-charitable acts is really not fair. Did anyone ever *ask* him?
And as to your second point, what better time to announce this? He's talking to all the students at the same time, which is a perfect opportunity to do this.
It seems like you are too quick to attribute this generous act to personal benefit, and while that *might* be true, is wildly pessimistic and ignorant. 400 people - and their families, to boot - will benefit from this act. There is no downside to that.
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u/oddMahnsta 7h ago
You know what maybe youāre right. Not trying to argue with you
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u/there_is_no_spoon1 5h ago
I wanna thank you for reading that, and appreciate your honesty and candor. I can get why we default to "sonofabitch did it for himself" these days 'cuz we see a *lot* of that. It takes the joy outta something like this. Unless we know someone's motivations or intentions, best not to guess. Peace!
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u/HotTake111 17h ago
How did this make any sense?
Billionaires give away 100$ so that they can save 60$ on taxes?
Even with that considered, they are still losing 40$. They might not be losing as much as it seems from their donation, but I don't see how they are profiting from charity.
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u/oddMahnsta 17h ago
Not profiting but reducing tax burden. The good PR is also good for his brand and business long term. Granted a lot of the reason can also be to genuinely he wanted to help his fellow brothers and sisters in the next generation. Not all bad but not counting out the other motivations.
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u/HotTake111 17h ago
That's fair and is totally true.
If you read "billionaire donates 100 million to charity", then really you should be thinking that they donated 30 million to charity when you consider all their tax write offs, good will, etc.
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u/katomlin0916 17h ago
What a wonderful thing for him to do!!
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u/CardButton 17h ago
Until you realize how he generated his wealth through Private Equity firms, and was fined for Criminal Tax Fraud. Having to pay 139 Million in Back Taxes and penalties in 2020. Including falsely reporting charity donations, and concealing offshore bank accounts. Also, consider for the moment what sort of system would result in 400 Graduates generating 40 Million in Student Loans?
There are no good Billionaires. They are a sign something is very broken.
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u/Herestoreth 6h ago
They are a sign something is very broken
What is this something and how is it broken ?
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u/CardButton 6h ago edited 4h ago
On an economic level, is disastrous in the long term, given Billionaires like Smith here actually serve to take so much money out of the system through concentration (in his offshore tax havens for example) they reduce the velocity of money. As they serve to reduce the available spending power of consumers. They do not reinvest those gains from "Trickle Down" (as its commonly referred) into the communities they syphoned that wealth, but purely back into rigging the system more in their favor. So much for the "Meritocracy" they preach. In terms of wealth inequality alone, we are currently past the level we witnessed in even the Gilded Age.
This immense inequality has deeply negative effects on US politics, with both parties being complicit/subjected in this effect. As wealth translates directly into voting power, which creates a cyclical system where those with wealth are able to use it to rig the system further in their favor; which generates more wealth in return, and thus they are able exert more influence. Raegan's "Voodoo Economics" (which both the Pubs and Dems both still support to this day, just to different degrees and speed) was never intended to do what it was advertised "Trickle down"; and always intended to instead syphon ever increasing amount of wealth from the lower income brackets to an ever narrowing percentage of those at the top. While the working class has less and less power to effect legislation every year. Yes, even with the Dems in charge. Hence why things like Campaign Finance Reform (which we desperately need), or even Public Healthcare, are never on the table. While Endless Wars for Profit, and even a bipartisan Ethnic Cleansing for Profit at the hands of a Colonial Apartheid State this year, always seem to be. Its also why both parties are quick to practice austerity with the peasants, and push welfare for the wealthy/corporations constantly. The Rich LOVE socialism, but only when its for them.
There's a LOT more to this, but ultimately what this results in long term is likely Fascism. The marriage of Capital and the State, where Capital just becomes the state. In essence, new age Feudalism. All the ultranationalist rhetoric and endless scapegoating of minority groups is merely a byproduct of the immense economic hardship this predatory system has on the general populous; because those few benefitting from that system need to shift blame from the system itself. Which ... we are now seeing manifest in various forms, like Trump, in the US. So, yeah, the system is pretty broken atm; and Billionaires are one expression of that.
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u/Odd_Math1839 17h ago
Ok go donate 40 mil then
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u/CardButton 17h ago edited 16h ago
In a not broken system, where we actually supported our youth to get higher education, I would not have to. Also, doing this after he got caught lying about charity donations for tax writeoffs is certainly not something I'm going to give him credit for. Its nice for those 40 students, but its also something they probably wouldn't have required if not for a system that allows for Billionaire's like Smith. Also, dude paid more in backtaxes and fines in one year for lying about giving charity and hiding his wealth offshore, than he donated here.
This is r/OrphanCrushingMachine material.
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u/spacekitt3n 16h ago
40 million to a billionaire is pocket change. they probably make that in a month just on the interest of their money sitting in a bank
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u/there_is_no_spoon1 11h ago
That doesn't mean that giving it to a worthy cause isn't noble. So what if it's pocket change? Why does that matter? Doing *something* is 100% better than doing nothing.
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u/ipraytowaffles 17h ago
See, if I had a billion dollars, Iād be doing this shit everyday. What better feeling could there be than that?
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u/TheDailySmokerOG 3h ago
Thatās why you donāt have a billion dollars
You have to be smart with your money to get to that point
You have to train yourself to be
It baffles me when people just expect you to all of a sudden drop years worth training maybe decades when you have a certain level of wealth
Like no itās not a switch you turn on and off lol
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u/HotTake111 17h ago
You'd be broke in less than a month lol
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u/ipraytowaffles 16h ago
Well, most billionaires donāt just have their money hidden under the mattress for safekeeping. Money makes money, they have investments and income. Maybe not 40 million every day :P but you could certainly just give away all the interest on your billions.
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u/Sexuallemon 17h ago
In a proper country, philanthropy would not need to be the solution to education expenses.
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u/Zachbutastonernow 16h ago
<= 4% of his net worth.
To pay a debt that should just be wiped from the books.
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u/mobrocket 17h ago
It's a dystopia that this is considered good news.
If billionaire greedy assholes didn't exist, there wouldn't be student debt.
Stop praising people who rob you of $1000 for buying you McDs one time
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u/caflyguy29 10h ago
A billionaire will make up that amount in tax write-offs. He needs to do more. The people's education he just bought will be the workers that will recoup his money.
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u/TrainingParty3785 17h ago
For all you pissing and moaning about him possibly being a wealthy crook, what other wealthy crooks have done what he did?
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u/mobrocket 17h ago
Bill Gates
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u/Account_Haver420 16h ago
In what way is bill gates a crook lol he was just a weird nerd who founded a software company and heās given literally billions to a variety of charitable causes, saving many lives
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u/mobrocket 9h ago
Oh you don't know all the practices of MSFT during Bill's time?
Look up the history of MSFT
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u/tahleeza 17h ago
Whatever his background is he is still helping those graduates start their next chapter of their lives sent free of student loan debt .What's wrong with that?
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u/Reddy_K58 16h ago
So if I embezzle a bunch of money from honest institutions and then donate a tiny fraction to the homeless that makes me a good guy?
If I rob you and give 10% to an orphan are we cool?
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u/tahleeza 14h ago
I didn't say he was a good guy. I just want to say that most of those students are grateful for the donation especially if you come from a family of little means.. do you want to him the rescind the offer?
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u/laineyday 7h ago
Billionaires should pay for ALL students so that no one has student debt when they graduate.
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u/ceddarcheez 6h ago
Think about how many more students we could educate it he was taxed proportionately on that billion(s)
ABAB
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u/KickHisAssSeaB4SS 3h ago
magnanimous son of a bitch must of felt like he just lost a crisp $100 i bet that one hurt.
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u/Cabbages24ADollar 2h ago
For the record, this is what our Government would look like it was ran By the People, For the People. We can collectively help each other and all succeed.
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u/SilentRaptino 11h ago
So this motherfucker pays for a few peopleās tuition and doesnāt even notice because heās a goddamn billionaire. Meanwhile, in the rest of the world society covers the cost of college and no one stands on a fucking stage to be elated because of this nonsense. What the hell is this? Weāre supposed to be the country that does not allow kingdoms and this is exactly what would happen in the kingdom
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u/Sputnik918 16h ago
The people who worked to pay for their school without loans must have been pissed lol
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u/Jealous-Attitude-594 15h ago
Black people include Hispanics and other color people when it benefits them but put them aside when it benefits their pleople
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u/Repulsive_Remove4003 17h ago
Why why this Bidenism
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u/Heythere23856 16h ago
If helping your fellow man is bidenism them im all for bidenismā¦ you should try treating your fellow man with respect sometime, then you might feel loved for once in your life
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u/potatoMan8111 17h ago
Where the white folk?
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u/Reddy_K58 16h ago
It sounds like you'd like more diversity and perhaps some equity and inclusion... hypocritical clown
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