Curing the Charitable Curse

19 responses to “Curing the Charitable Curse”

1. 

   scleroplex

   Mar 12, 2013 at 4:06 am

   what absolutely no one is talking about, probably deliberately, is the high level of corruption within the non-profit sector

   it is important to not swat that statement away without having proper data

   that last statement in your quote "Don’t ask about a charity’s overhead percentage" is designed to promote further corruption

   when i was trying to do real research in multiple sclerosis at harvard’s Brigham & Women’s Hospital, the hospital added 70% of any grant estimate to the grant application, as overhead. there was no way you could do any research at the Brigham or MGH without giving the hospital that 70%. it is now 85% at the Brigham.

   it pays for more steel and glass buildings which rewards the real estate developers who sit on the boards of all hospitals in boston – they approve endless construction projects for each other’s firms.

   from society’s ROI perspective, given that the 70% overhead is almost all from public money, the return is extremely poor.

   and they are all officially non-profit charities.

   it is guaranteed that they would all give Dan Pallotta a roaring cheer too!!
   as a Bostonian, he is one of their own after all.

   it will take away even the abysmally minimal scrutiny they now face.
   as it is, every time the attorney general’s office issues a report on the "usefulness" of these non-profit hospitals, (which is a mandated requirement as they do not pay any tax on extensive expensive land holdings or income) they immediately place puff pieces in the boston globe about some rescued orphan from afghanistan with 70% skin burns or a vanishingly rare whole face transplant.

   Reply
2. 

   Kerlund74

   Mar 12, 2013 at 5:31 am

   A great and sharp capture of a man in a moment of life. Beautiful!

   Reply
3. 

   seatonsnet

   Mar 12, 2013 at 5:57 am

   Any thoughts on this?
   http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/opinion/brooks-the-axis-of-enn...

   Reply
4. 

   nimosm

   Mar 12, 2013 at 6:11 am

   I agree with scleroplex. Very strict auditing requirement may not be enough to prevent the huge corruption possibilities with not for profit organizations.

   Reply
5. 

   scleroplex

   Mar 12, 2013 at 2:21 pm

   > seatonsnet – yes, Nassim Taleb would also observe that none of the jazzy speakers prepare us for a Black Swan event

   Reply
6. 

   js.brain

   Mar 12, 2013 at 3:16 pm

   Indeed! You are so right Steve!

   Reply
7. 

   jurvetson

   Mar 12, 2013 at 4:22 pm

   [http://www.flickr.com/photos/scleroplex] — au contraire mon frère!
   Taleb himself was a snazzy TED speaker who seeks to prepare us for a Black Swan Event =)

   

   [http://www.flickr.com/photos/48331433@N05] — I think I agree with much of the Brooks editorial. Those companies and people executing in the extraction industries are not revolutionaries, and they are not pushing the long arc of history toward progress. Many of them keep a low profile not because they are unimportant, but because they probably fail to capture the imagination or to inspire those who seek to change the world for the better (the selection bias of conference attendees). And many of them want to draw less attention to themselves and their success in exploitation of the land and political systems for fear of regulation or shifting political sentiment. Of course, there are colorful exceptions within that very industry like T. Boone Pickens and Robert Friedland of Ivanhoe Mines…

   

   The colorful entrepreneurs try to draw attention to themselves and appear larger than life, yes. And often, they are wrong, like the example cited by Brooks. But in aggregate, they are the vector of progress.

   And, I chuckle to think of how they interact sometimes, like at the WEF where Project Better Place was born… or in the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson, pp. 37-40:

   ”Robert Friedland was one of the few people in Jobs’ life who were able to mesmerize him.
   While a sophomore, he was arrested for possession of 24,000 tablets of LSD worth $125,000.
   He was sentenced to two years at a federal prison in Virgina.
   Friedland taught Steve the reality distortion field. He was charismatic and could bend situations to his very strong will."

   [http://www.flickr.com/photos/scleroplex] — would the risk of corruption be different for non-profits if they were held to the same standards on all fronts as for-profits? Or is the problem more deeply rooted? Another online contact shared a link to philosopher Slavoj Zizek’s talk on the ethical tragedy of charity. He seems to challenge the charity patch to capitalism, whether sequential like Soros or integrated like Starbucks, and he makes the provocative comparison to slave owners who were kind to their slaves and slowed the true fix that was needed – abolition. Is there a body of thought around a better way to address the goals of "charity" and "non-profits" with a radically different approach?

   Reply
8. 

   seatonsnet

   Mar 12, 2013 at 5:04 pm

   I was going to post that Zizek talk… saw you had and deleted it.

   Reply
9. 

   seatonsnet

   Mar 12, 2013 at 5:09 pm

   [http://www.flickr.com/photos/scleroplex] The black swan staring us right in the face now, is the business about antibiotic resistant bacteria…. end of international tourism for one thing, but imagine the ramifications of people avoiding face to face encounters… This is without it turning into a pandemic, airborne avian flu or some such.
   http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/mar/11/superbugs-antibiot...

   Reply
10. 

    seatonsnet

    Mar 12, 2013 at 5:11 pm

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson]

    Is there a body of thought around a better way to address the goals of "charity" and "non-profits" with a radically different approach?

    I don’t know if it is better, but yes, actually, there is another body of thought, and it is called "socialism". It is certainly radically different.

    Reply
11. 

    seatonsnet

    Mar 12, 2013 at 5:20 pm

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson] Here is a good piece on shale gas:
    ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2013/03/bakken-shale-oil…

    Reply
12. 

    catj00

    Mar 12, 2013 at 11:55 pm

    Agree with Seatonsnet, the alternative is socialism, which invites more corrruption than our system because it centralizes power. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Hwever, we may wish to examine the word corruption. One man’s corruption is another person’s fair compensation for time. People want to do good and be rewarded. This is inevitable human nature. Not everyone can afford to be totally giving because they need an income. There are non-profits which benefit a "special interest" even if that special interest is pretty universal, such as AARP. Then there are non-profits trying valiantly to benefit a sector of the population downtrodden, or the quality of life for everyone, such as environmental groups. The vision of how to do tha is important, but also the methodology and the data around success. Complex issue, where the image depends highly on your angle to the field of vision.

    Reply
13. 

    scleroplex

    Mar 13, 2013 at 1:47 am

    1
    "would the risk of corruption be different for non-profits if they were held to the same standards on all fronts as for-profits? Or is the problem more deeply rooted?"

    the difference is in public image and perception

    non-profits expend serious energy in promoting the image of being noble and high-minded,

    this leads to less scrutiny of their actions and their books
    something that Dan Pallotta now takes to even more dangerous levels by essentially negating the work of entities like Charity Navigator

    people have different expectations of for-profit entities, even when these entities claim that they shall not be evil

    non-profits get away with their corruption by encouraging a rose-coloured view of their activities, as Dan Pallotta is clearly aiming for

    the risk of corruption is no different!
    non-profits have an easier time hiding that.

    in a time where even churches and convents have finally come under clear-eyed scrutiny
    Dan Pallotta’s advice is immensely interesting…….
    what corrupt scheme is he preparing the ground for?

    2
    socialism has no role to play here.
    along with millions i lived under socialism and have seen it up close.
    almost anything is preferable to it.
    socialism is protected entrenched corruption.

    interestingly i happened to work in what is now rare in the US,
    a public hospital, owned by city government.

    public hospitals fly under the radar even more than non-profits
    and in combination with political connections have an even higher prevalence of corruption
    than would be seen in the non-profit world even if Dan Pallotta’s advice is accepted.

    Cambridge Hospital, where I worked, commits numerous felonies and engages in wholesale Medicare Fraud while also working it’s political connections and it’s public image as a "safety-net hospital for the underprivileged and the downtrodden", in order to get direct CASH GRANTS of millions of dollars from the Federal government.

    nobody looks twice at this because of the image of a public hospital, "holier" than even a non-profit

    the new fraud in town is declaring yourself an Accountable Care Organisation, which makes you eligible for more money from Medicare,
    which in the case of Cambridge is a great joke, given the total lack of accountability.

    3.
    yes, i know Taleb gave a TED talk 🙂
    ONE talk does not absolve the rah rah boostering of Mediocristan by all the other TED talks :-))

    4.
    the term "charity" here is totally misplaced.
    Dan Palotta made his name fundraising for breast cancer research.
    research needs funding, either through taxes or via private fundraising.
    all he was doing was private fundraising.
    not charity.

    state lotteries do direct fundraising from the purchasing public on behalf of public schools and local town budgets.
    again, this same money for these same needs could be raised through taxes.
    again, it is not charity.

    what the susan komen foundation or dan pallotta do is no different.
    definitely not charity.

    for-profit entities can do it just fine, with more effective oversight.

    when private fundraisers like Dan Pallotta call their work charity and thus exempt from even basic questions, hold tight to your wallet and FLEE!

    Reply
14. 

    jurvetson

    Mar 13, 2013 at 3:39 am

    The lottery analogy is a powerful one, in many ways. It really turns my thinking on the whole issue.

    Was there no way to "out" CH on the felonies you mention?

    Reply
15. 

    Laurie-B

    Mar 13, 2013 at 6:17 am

    I’ve got to listen to this Ted. Thanks.
    —
    Seen in my contacts’ photos. ( ?² )

    Reply
16. 

    seatonsnet

    Mar 13, 2013 at 7:23 am

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/scleroplex] What "socialism" is or isn’t depends on the public mechanisms of democratic accountability. Certainly European, mixed economy, social-democracy as practiced in Sweden or in France is less corrupt than the revolving door, congress-lobbyist-industry-government, merry go round we have in the USA. We also have to look at the significance in democracy versus corruption visible in the situation described in the presentation below.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQ...
    In the video the basic question of "what is democracy and who is it for?" is standing buck naked. Here we are looking at corruption in its purist form… if the word "democracy" has any meaning whatsoever… or this that I wrote a couple of years ago:

    It seems obvious to me that if people could think clearly for even a moment, the majority, say 80%, would demand that taxes on the upper one-percent be raised to Scandinavian levels, tax loopholes plugged, offshore tax-havens closed down and defense spending cut to a least only more then the next five countries instead of the next ten, and the money thus raised spent on moving the quality of life in the USA up to at least the standing of say, Belgium’s.

    Reply
17. 

    scleroplex

    Mar 13, 2013 at 10:41 am

    > seatonsnet –

    when have people ever thought clearly?
    and given that they are not going to do so, capitalism is the best option we’ve got.
    at least this way the hardworking can bring their families up.

    and when are we going to have real accountability?
    no time soon.

    which ties into steve’s question – "Was there no way to "out" CH on the felonies you mention?"

    been trying for 2 years now. there are state and federal investigations ongoing.
    in the meantime, just a month ago, CH paid an attorney within the Massachusetts Board of Medicine to try pulling my License to practice Medicine on the fake charge of selling prescriptions to drug addicts.
    and oh, he gave me a one week notice.
    i walked in there and mauled him into little pieces and proved that he was working as Cambridge’s corrupt proxy. documented courtroom proof.
    walked out with my License intact and then howled at all the "public servants" who are supposed to enforce the rule of law in this country.
    the Board is now grappling with that problem as is the Massachusetts Inspector General.
    i went to the FBI and said i need to see arrests! now!
    they simply could not believe the audacity of the hospital.

    the audacity comes from flying under the radar and sharing the "bounty" with local authorities.
    just like under Socialism!!
    crony Socialism is very much alive in Massachusetts.
    they call themselves Good Progressives.

    for example, i sent the Chief Justice of Massachusetts a certified letter last week about malfeasance by attorneys and the near impossibility of getting the Bar Overseers to even docket a complaint.
    it was returned unopened – "unavailable to sign"

    Reply
18. 

    seatonsnet

    Mar 13, 2013 at 5:25 pm

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/scleroplex]

    when have people ever thought clearly?

    The word "socialism" is thrown around a lot. I think in this discussion I would limit it to the social-democratic definition that would work in western European countries that are comparable to the United States in wealth and middle class traditions. What we are talking about are things like the chance of a child born of a poor family to get a first class education and health care and to have a chance to leave the vicious circle of poverty breeding poverty. By this measure the USA doesn’t measure up, even when you strip out the African-American community from the statistics.

    If you take just the African-American community the numbers in educational attainment, health, life-expectancy, prison population and infant mortality are horrific. African-Americans are much worse off than Cubans of African descent, living under a Marxist-Leninist regime such as Castro’s. I think we shouldn’t be patting ourselves on the back.

    Reply
19. 

    scleroplex

    Mar 13, 2013 at 11:09 pm

    i can’t limit it because i have lived under the full-blown thing in a Communist People’s Republic and then got thrown out of Cambridge Hospital by the real things themselves

    please see – gallery.leica-users.org/v/scleroplex/the+stalinist+people…

    you may find this interesting though, from the memorial at MIT for aaron swartz –
    

    Reply