Rick Steves, Millionaire, Says Wealthy Should Donate Tax Cuts To Charity

By Robert Frank of the Wall Street Journal

A Washington state travel tycoon and TV host says he’s donating the $1 million he’s saving from the Bush tax cuts to charity.

Rick Steves, the founder of Rick Steves’ Europe travel empire, which includes the travel agency, guide books and TV show, said he’s giving the money to a local arts center to help the community and make a political statement. He will donate the money over 10 years.

“Over the last decade, my tax burden has decreased even as public funding for important local programs and institutions has been decimated – a trend I find alarming,” he said in a written statement.

He’s asking other rich people to make similar donations.

“I see it as a civic duty for businessmen like me, who’s directly benefited from our vibrant communities to do our fair share,” he wrote.

Steves is no doubt in the minority among the rich in feeling under-taxed. The top 1% pays 38% of the nation’s income taxes even at the low “Bush tax cut” rates.

And he’s not the first to make the request. A group of professors at Yale and Cornell earlier this year launched a similar campaign to get the wealthy to give their tax breaks to charity.

Read the entire post here.

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Comments

[hattie54]

12:09 AM on 10/18/2011

I've always loved his travel shows on PBS.Didn't he protest in Seattle today about Wall St?

[butchcliff]

05:19 AM on 08/31/2011

Scrooge McDucks

[David Pinsen]

02:57 AM on 08/31/2011

Why don't wealthy liberals want to fund government? Every dollar that Rick Steves or Warren Buffett donates to charity is a dollar that's not going to fund the government programs they claim to want.

[vandegrasse]

08:58 AM on 08/31/2011

Because you gave them a tax cut, nudge! You can't simply "give" the government money. You are so dense!!

[David Pinsen]

09:12 AM on 08/31/2011

Sure you can give the government money. The government even explains how to do so here: http://www.fms.treas.gov/faq/moretopics_gifts.html

[Lewsgirl]

11:17 PM on 08/30/2011

I knew I found Rick an endearing fellow without knowing more than he has a fascinating television travel show on PBS and that he's a fellow Lutheran - but now I'm aware he is a gentleman personally.

Bravo, Rick and I bet your generousity is reward in itself. Thank you.

[1oldhippie]

08:12 PM on 08/30/2011

Charity begins at home...why not hold a 'telethon' to pay down the deficit...

[wowme]

07:08 PM on 08/30/2011

Or even more than their tax cut amount

[Barbarian At The Gate]

05:20 PM on 08/30/2011

I applaud Rick Steves for his charity, however, it is still not a victory for Supply Side Economics job creation plan. The theory behind supply side economics job creation is that a wealthy person pays someone to build a widget and then sells that widget for a profit. As the profits accumulate, they are reinvested and the wealthy person hires more builders to build more widgets. The process continues creating more jobs.

Giving to a non-profit charity has its limitations. In the bible there is a story that states, "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man how to fish and he eats for a lifetime". Giving to charity solves only a temporary problem and creates dependency.

I would give Rick Steves more respect if he bought and funded a facility with tools and equipment that people could rent cheaply (at cost to Rick Steves) or use for free and create products that they can sell to buy bread and water. The goal is to create independence within the community to self-support themselves.

[ChiKevin]

10:47 PM on 08/30/2011

Do you think supply economics works?

[Barbarian At The Gate]

11:53 PM on 08/30/2011

After 8 years of Bush's economic policies, which were supply side economics, the US went from having a budget surplus at the end of the Clinton years to the worst recession since the Great Depression. President Bush ended up doubling the national debt from $5.73 trillion to $10.7 trillion.

During the Reagan years and Reaganomics the country did have the 3rd longest period of economic growth. However, the US went from being the largest international creditor nation to the largest debtor nation. The country had to reverse it's tax policy and raise income taxes during the George H.W. Bush Sr. years. President Reagan ended up tripling the national debt from $900 billion to $2.8 trillion.

The roaring 20's, 1920 to 1929, was a period of time marked by supply side economic policies. The 1920's began with a recession, 20% unemployment and inflation. Economic policies included cutting the national debt, cutting taxes, reducing immigration, and protecting farming interests. New products and industries such as automobile and radio spurred manufacturing. The stock market crashed in 1929 and the Great Depression followed. Keynesian economic polices broke the depression.

My conclusion is that supply side economics can work some of the time but not all of the time. The country needs to adjust to changing conditions. During time of War raise taxes. To avoid a depression use Keynesian economic polices where the government drives growth. In good times pay down the national debt.

[vandegrasse]

09:01 AM on 08/31/2011

Anything that'll help you sleep at night, huh? People in need are people in need and if it's a fish you need teaching won't fill an empty belly especially if that belly is that of a hungry child.

[Barbarian At The Gate]

10:00 AM on 08/31/2011

I am only going to comment on the Rick Steves charity donation and why I don't think he is a super great guy because that is what the article is about. He donated $1 million to the "Edmonds Center For The Arts", the link is here:

http://edmondscenterforthearts.org/index

You can browse around the website, I did for a few minutes. They don't feed anyone and they don't take care of any children. They provide entertainment in the form of art works and live performance art. The mission statement is here:

http://edmondscenterforthearts.org/mission

Rick Steves made his money from travel and tourism, maybe this part of the mission statement is his motivation:

"ECA will build a reputation as an exciting entertainment magnet in South Snohomish and North King Counties and a strong anchor for tourism in Edmonds."

[Hummum]

04:08 PM on 08/30/2011

I am grateful that Rick Steves and Warren Buffet want to be generous with their good fortune, but I am puzzled at their politicization of their desires. The gov’t itself has estimated the administrative costs for its social programs to be on the order of 72-cents for every dollar allocated – and some economists estimate the costs to be even higher. I am no Buffet or Steves, my family lives month to month. But I pay my bills and I don’t look to anyone else to provide for me or my family. And I feel no ill-will toward Steves or Buffet – my treasure is something far greater than someone else’s property.

What I don’t understand is why in the world Steves and Buffet would want to support such an inefficient administration of resources? Particularly when they are free to allocate their resources thoughtfully, directly and with absolute efficiency? What’s more, it is a defenseless position to suggest that we have a revenue problem in Washington. We have no revenue problem – we have a bunch of irresponsible drunkards who are spending our paychecks even before we earn them! And, I might add, a media more interested in perfect hair and perks than digging and exposing the truth.

[JOYZ36]

04:06 PM on 08/30/2011

The answer to Rick Steves' challenge is simply that the money the millionaires and billionaires are receiving from their tax breaks are going into creating all those jobs you see popping up throughout the country. We cannot expect them to create all those jobs and give to charity as well!! And thank goodness for the Republican stranglehold on the No New Tax Raises issue otherwise all that job creation would go down the toilet.

[Max Black]

09:48 PM on 08/30/2011

Job creation is already in the toilet and 10 years of tax breaks hasn't done a thing to move it.

[ChiKevin]

10:49 PM on 08/30/2011

You realize we have had those tax breaks for the "job creators" for the past 10 years and for the past 10 years the number of jobs have decreased?

Thanks goodness for that stranglehold on the american worker!

[Erica]

03:38 PM on 08/30/2011

Well I'm a new fan of Rick Steve, the man with two first names. I will definitely choose his travel guides first, when I can afford to travel again ;)

[dporterdvd]

03:12 PM on 08/30/2011

The rich prefer to believe they are superior to most other people. The more money they have in comparison to the poor, the disadvantaged and the working class, the more superior they feel (especially the conservatives who follow the philosophy of Ayn Rand).

The greater the income disparity between wealthy in America and everybody else, the better the wealthy like it.

[Richard Reel]

04:11 PM on 08/31/2011

really! they think there is no speed limit or stop signs as they race around in their $100K cars, everyone else is in their way... most of them are inferior, in fact, and could not survive the real world without their economic advantages, I think.

[Nic the wonder puppy]

02:55 PM on 08/30/2011

There too busy counting their money

[vandegrasse]

09:04 AM on 08/31/2011

A country run by Scrooges!

[jgourlay]

01:18 PM on 08/30/2011

FINALLY! Somebody gets the way society is 'sposed to work!

[Ana Mancini]

01:18 PM on 08/30/2011

They don't donate the money because that is then just another tax break.

They don't create jobs when it does no benefit them.

Ana Mancini

[Mike Dennison]

11:41 AM on 08/30/2011

Why don't wealthy create jobs?

[eagle17765]

12:02 PM on 08/30/2011

ANSWER: They don't create jobs because that isn't their goal ... their goal is to squash the middle class and horde their money

[Mike Dennison]

02:50 PM on 08/30/2011

It was a rhetorical question. :-)

[hattie54]

12:09 AM on 10/18/2011

They'd go to China to save $$ instead.More $$ in their pockets.