Frustrated by Congress’ Dec. 17 extension of Bush-era tax cuts across all income brackets, three Cornell and Yale professors created a new website, GiveItBackForJobs.org, to urge wealthy Americans to give their tax cuts to charities promoting social welfare and economic equality.
“We have two aims for the site,” said one of the site’s founders, Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits.
“The first is to raise money for worthy causes,” he explained, as the site provides links for viewers to donate to the Children’s Aid Society and the Nurse Family Partnership, among others. “Our second aim is to promote the idea of economic equality and emphasize the dangers faced by the American middle class.”
The site asks anyone who benefited from the tax cuts to give their rebates “back to the public, by supporting organizations that promote fairness and economic growth.”
The site includes two steps enabling users determine what to give; a calculator which estimates the size of the tax cut the user received, and then links to organizations to which they encourage users to donate, like Goodwill and Habitat for Humanity.
In its mission statement, the site explains that the professors believe that by continuing to gut taxes, the federal government has undercut the infrastructural supports it needs to maintain a healthy middle class.
“The government has, by extending the cuts, deprived itself of the resources required to support the policies that will secure a vibrant middle class,” the professors write.
The professors also hold that the neoliberal policies which begat the Bush tax cuts, so-called trickle down theory, have created “dire” consequences for America’s economy, producing “dramatic growth for the richest but stagnant incomes for most Americans.”
As for why they selected the charities the site asks user to consider donating to, the professors write that “contributions to the charities linked to below will allow these charities to expand their work, creating new jobs and promoting justice.”
In an almost ironic twist, such donations are, of course, tax deductible, meaning “they will draft the government as a partner in funding the projects that they support,” the professors argue on the site.
As for how the site determines the amount individuals received, its authors explain that “our tax cut calculations are estimates only,” and that they are based on “the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center Microsimulation Model.”
Markovits said he and his partners have titled the project “political philanthropy,” as they believe the venture illustrates the political system is operating in an unjust, inequitable manner.
“We call the project political philanthropy because we want to make clear that private charity is no substitute for a just and fair fiscal policy,” said Markovits by email earlier this month.
Markovits created the site in late December with Cornell Law School’s Bob Hockett, Yale Political Science Professor Jacob Hacker, Yale Law student Will Gaybrick, and Web design help from the San Francisco-based Lukasz Lysakowski in order to bridge the gap between what he calls “private giving [and] the shortfall in public policy.”
Markovits said he hopes the new site will contribute to discourse on economic inequality in the America.
The site will help to “revisit basic questions of economic fairness and fiscal prudence,” he said. “We’d like to do whatever we can to urge legislators to do more to promote equality and protect the middle class.”
Sam Hayes can be reached at [email protected]. Sam Butterfield can be reached at [email protected].
