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3 questions that may or may not be appropriate here.

violence on tv. cartoons movies video games...

gay rights movement and accomplishments compared to other groups fighting for equality.

insane amounts of money raised to advertise political campaigns and why some of that raised isn't simply given to the homeless, etc...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mat Sklansky

nobody addressed my final question. what if somebody runs for political office and promises that half the donations they receive will go to some type of specific "good" cause?

It's not clear to me why this would be more effective than just directly raising money for charity without running for office? Like if people are willing to donate to a good cause then the running for office part is superfluous?

As far as why so much money, it's basically just money == power, really. People spend a lot of money on politics because they think they get a good return on that investment. That's too simple of course but I think it's close enough.

05-05-2019 , 06:38 AM

#52

Mat Sklansky

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Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 10,070

it seems like a lot of people are willing to give money to politicians, but not necessarily charity. are there statistics on that? maybe people who donate to politicians actually are more likely to donate to charities?

05-05-2019 , 10:09 AM

#53

Lapidator

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Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 13,762

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mat Sklansky

On it's face your assertion seems like nonsense to me...

Can you explain why you might think this?

A fairly trivial internet search revealed that your assumption is off by two orders of magnitude.

https://givingusa.org/giving-usa-201...90-05-billion/

Quote:

American individuals, estates, foundations and corporations contributed an estimated $390.05 billion to U.S. charities in 2016, according to Giving USA 2017: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2016, released today.

Hmm...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.12344d0c1d62

Quote:

The final price tag for the 2016 election is in: $6.5 billion for the presidential and congressional elections combined, according to campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets.org.

The presidential contest — primaries and all — accounts for $2.4 billion of that total. The other $4 billion or so went to congressional races. The tally includes spending by campaigns, party committees and outside sources. It's actually down, slightly, in inflation-adjusted terms from 2012 and 2008.

05-05-2019 , 01:38 PM

#54

Mat Sklansky

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Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 10,070

that's good to know. i obviously hadn't bothered to look it up and thought the campaign donations were higher.it still seems like it might be an interesting tactic for a politician to take. "donate to my campaign and half will go directly to x."

would that be legal?

05-05-2019 , 02:24 PM

#55

Lapidator

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Mat Sklansky

I would suggest you review (remember?) what Jill Stein did in Dec-2016 post election.

05-05-2019 , 04:21 PM

#56

Mat Sklansky

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Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 10,070

i don't know. my quick search yields nothing.

can you give me a link?

05-10-2019 , 06:44 PM

#57

Lapidator

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Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 13,762

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mat Sklansky

https://www.investors.com/politics/e...ion-donations/

Quote:

Now, fresh financial documents show that contributions and grants to the Clinton Foundation plunged since Hillary lost her election bid. They dropped from $216 million in 2016 to just $26.5 million in 2017 — a stunning 88% fall. Throughout Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State, the foundation pulled in an average of $254 million a year. (See the nearby chart below for a timeline.)

If the Clinton Foundation was as good as defenders claimed, why did all its big-time donors suddenly lose interest? The only reasonable explanation is that donors weren't interested in what the foundation supposedly did for humanity. They were interested in the political favors they knew their money would buy.

05-10-2019 , 06:48 PM

#58

Lapidator

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Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 13,762

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mat Sklansky

i don't know. my quick search yields nothing.

can you give me a link?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/jill-s...-legal-defense

Quote:

Money that Jill Stein raised to recount votes in 2016 swing states is being used by her campaign to pay for legal bills stemming from the investigation of Russian interference in the last presidential election.

05-10-2019 , 06:49 PM

#59

Lapidator

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It's probably best that the levels of corruption common in politics be isolated as much as possible from charitable activities.

05-10-2019 , 10:44 PM

#60

Mat Sklansky

Administrator

Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 10,070

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lapidator

It's probably best that the levels of corruption common in politics be isolated as much as possible from charitable activities.

that's my naive question. why is it corrupt if you say beforehand, precisely, where half the donations go?

it applies to any political/philosophical/moral perspective. i think?

05-11-2019 , 12:42 AM

#61

Lapidator

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Join Date: Apr 2012 Posts: 13,762

Welp...

I have no problem if e.g. Bernie asks his Bros to give to his favorite charity on a 1:1 basis.

But the moment Bernie sez, "50% of the contributions to my campaign will go to the Salvation Army" I know that 100% I'm being scammed.

I think I've already shown that there's no comparison of the amount of $$$ donated to charities vs political campaigns.

I think it would be an entertaining self immolation if a candidate wanted to do as you suggest. So hopefully someone will so I can be entertained.

05-24-2019 , 04:56 PM

#62

well named

poorly undertitled

Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 78,077

This is super awesome and I'm going to play with some of this stuff sometime in the future because I'm ****ty at stats:

Sage Research practice datasets

05-29-2019 , 12:41 AM

#63

coordi

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 22,798

Are there any studies on big cities leading (or, not leading) to unhappiness/dissatisfaction/depression?

Why can't we get traffic right? (its because people are stupid!)

The global economy is a ruse, whats up with that?

What is your academic background

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