HN Reader

What a fantastic argument against this kind of “philantropy”. Relying on rich people to help you is a fundamentally flawed principle.

At the mercy of their whims, what truly enlightened era of new-age Victorianism we seem to be entering

So, either they surrender to a despot, or they just were opportunists all the time and the philanthropy really didn't matter to them personally?

Poor people. No matter the money.

I view these things as a way to make up for not paying adequate tax rates by paying for the things they felt best about in what tax should have paid for.

Flaws with this setup aside, I wouldn't feel good about building a Trump compatible school.. And of course the expectation that they continue is just precedent/norms which means less than nothing in show power by arbitrary disruption land.

How does contemporary billionaire philanthropy stack up against robber barrons? Any neat musk muesums.

Regardless of whether one agrees with the school's originally stated aims and social motives, the oddly timed shutting down of this institution, on which who knows how many families probably came to depend, absolutely reeks of chickenshit cowardly kowtowing to a new ideological line. That total lack of spine is contemptible, all ideological questions aside.

They could have easily kept to their original promises and let the school run for decades with the kind of fortune they possess, but they had to overtly shut it down after making some conspicuous other changes that speak volumes about a very specific type of sucking up.

You're a fucking mega multi-billionaire Zuckerberg, what are you so damned afraid of to pander so absurdly?

Even many of the conniving so-called robber barons of the previous century at least stuck to their philanthropic guns in the face of political administrative changes throughout the years they were alive.