I have an idea. It starts with "T." https://twitter.com/teddyschleifer/status/1260663481725943808

These billionaires are now asking, What can we do for our country?

I would invite them to ask: What should we stop doing to our country?

Chances are, many of them, right now, are benefiting from lobbying to corner bailout money, precarious employment practices, and tax dodging.

I want anyone stepping up to garner credit as a helper to first certify that they've stopped doing harmful stuff.

Why are you donating to solve a crisis you are still actively making worse?

All this donation talk is a smokescreen.

Tonight on the show, we talk about the phrase "every little bit helps." No. No, it doesn't.

We talk about Blackstone, and its "every little bit" donation to Cuomo. And how it's used to cover up Blackstone screwing medical workers.

Those medical workers would be better off without the donation from Blackstone. This I believe.

Because if Blackstone didn't get the gubernatorial shout-out for donating a pittance to the relief effort, we would smell its stink more clearly. And we would act. We'd #TaxThatAss.

And I'm tired of hearing this refrain from those who benefit from philanthropy directly or directly: We can do both!

Well, how come all the people doing the philanthropy aren't out there doing both? I don't see them organizing massive national campaigns for a wealth tax. Do you?

You really think that if the ten richest people in America wanted a wealth tax -- imagine! -- they couldn't get that done? You really think they're equally interested in "giving back" and in paying higher taxes?

Come on.

[I yield my characters.]

They will always prefer philanthropy to taxation because:

1. They give back much less than they'd pay with fair taxation.

2. They get credit for giving, not paying taxes.

3. They control where philanthropy goes.

4. Philanthropy means tax deduction.

5. Giving is influence.

I'm sorry, but if your takeaway from this crisis is: Rich people need to donate more, you're not paying attention.

We need a safety net, is a more reasonable takeaway.

Why don't we have one? Because plutocrats keep vetoing its expansion.

You're telling me they're the fix?

Just because it's a crisis, we're not going to be fooled. The public is considerably wiser to this game now than in the past. Public mores have shifted, recognizing philanthropy, more and more, as an exertion of power, as @robreich puts it. We can't be fooled.

More money is being given away right now than has ever been given away in American history. And our country is as unequal as it's ever been.

What's the relationship between these two facts?

That the philanthropy just isn't working fast enough?

No. Giving lubricates the taking.