years later, people go to the museums and learn art history, aesthetics, and culture from Johnny’s artworks.
If we keep the three characters and substitute the art dealer with an art foundation, the story could have this development. The Money guy registers an art foundation in New York. He takes a part of the tax money (which is not his but anyway) and donates them to his foundation, ergo- to himself. The foundation makes an art exhibition of Jimmy, the son of Johnny. The curator of the art foundation enlightens the media on how important Jimmy is to the art world. The Money guy buys all works of Jimmy with another part of the tax money. Five years later, he appraisals the same artworks with a 3000% price increase and donates them to his foundation- ergo to himself. Finally, the Money guy does not pay any taxes next five years. Ten years later, his foundation became an art museum with his name on the main entrance. The scheme works and works well for the last 120 years. Between 1865 and 1920, the United States became the world's leading industrial capitalist nation with a growing working class that increasingly insisted on sharing the fruits of industrial production and the brutal competition among American industrial companies. Both factors originated the need for a “not-for-profit” or “nonprofit” organization. It was introduced in 1896, and the first private foundation was established in 1907 by Russell Sage. In 1911 and 1913, the Carnegie Corporation of New York (started by Andrew Carnegie with a donation of $125 million) and the Rockefeller Foundation (created by John D. Rockefeller with a gift of $35 million) were founded, mainstreaming the modern private foundation. “At 2019 World Economic Forum at Davos, billionaire Michael Dell, the 25th-wealthiest man in the world, weighed in on new proposals to tax the very wealthy. Dell said he was “much more comfortable” giving through his private foundation “than giving…to the government.” He’s not the first billionaire to confuse his obligations to society and conflate charitable giving with paying taxes. 2 On the other hand, private foundations came in response to the lack of interest by the American government in funding education and health, and arts for everybody. Health care was virtually unregulated, and health insurance was nonexistent. The Illiteracy among adults was between 13% and 20%. State support for arts was also absent. The government practically spent money only for defense.
2 https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/philanthropy-charity-inequality-taxes/
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