The school was likely a failure. I couldn't find any stats on success of children but I find that telling as if it was lifting kids out of poverty effectively it would have been advertised. Its probably just not effective and the money could be better spent elsewhere.
Were this a public project it would have persisted indefinitely and have a lobbying constituency to keep setting money on fire.
We want more failed experiments. If committing to a venture where there is no off ramp if it doesn't work, no one will invest
Failing or not, it still has an ongoing obligation to its enrollees. A kid attending the school doesn't really care if the school is meeting its particular metric goals. That kid is still upset that their school is closing and their education and social life is disrupted.
I also don't think that "the school was likely a failure" is a claim we can make in the modern world. Zuck (and other tech CEOs) is/are very clearly fleeing visible commitment to diversity initiatives.
"We will give out a bunch of cash to people who no longer have a school" is better than nothing, but absolutely nothing mandates that this happen the next time.
In case you haven't been following, there have been massive closures of government-funded programs over the last few months too, so I don't think relying on those is any better. At the end of the day, all you can do is make the best choice when opportunities are presented, and roll with the punches when things change.
At least with the government we have a degree of democratic control over outcomes. "Hope a billionaire doesn't get bored or otherwise change their mind" is considerably less stable, even if government programs are not 100% guarantees.
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.
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.
What a fantastic argument against this kind of “philantropy”. Relying on rich people to help you is a fundamentally flawed principle.
I think it argues the opposite.
The school was likely a failure. I couldn't find any stats on success of children but I find that telling as if it was lifting kids out of poverty effectively it would have been advertised. Its probably just not effective and the money could be better spent elsewhere.
Were this a public project it would have persisted indefinitely and have a lobbying constituency to keep setting money on fire.
We want more failed experiments. If committing to a venture where there is no off ramp if it doesn't work, no one will invest
Failing or not, it still has an ongoing obligation to its enrollees. A kid attending the school doesn't really care if the school is meeting its particular metric goals. That kid is still upset that their school is closing and their education and social life is disrupted.
I also don't think that "the school was likely a failure" is a claim we can make in the modern world. Zuck (and other tech CEOs) is/are very clearly fleeing visible commitment to diversity initiatives.
"We will give out a bunch of cash to people who no longer have a school" is better than nothing, but absolutely nothing mandates that this happen the next time.
In case you haven't been following, there have been massive closures of government-funded programs over the last few months too, so I don't think relying on those is any better. At the end of the day, all you can do is make the best choice when opportunities are presented, and roll with the punches when things change.
Edit: grammar fix
At least with the government we have a degree of democratic control over outcomes. "Hope a billionaire doesn't get bored or otherwise change their mind" is considerably less stable, even if government programs are not 100% guarantees.
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.
At the mercy of their whims, what truly enlightened era of new-age Victorianism we seem to be entering
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.
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.