DAF Punks and Lumber Lords: Ned & Abigail Johnson and Maggie Hardy (Magerko) Knox

Zero Sum Empire

We begin with a disturbing revelation about Chad’s private life. Yes, it’s true, he owns an essential oil diffuser. Please don’t judge. Billionaires in the News this week is a response to the NYT asking most of the Democratic presidential candidates whether they thought “anyone deserves to have a billion dollars.” It’s not a great question to begin with. It points the candidates toward making a moral judgment about what individuals “deserve” and away from a critique of the ways that wealth concentration promotes social forces that are incompatible with democracy. Our first billionaire is Edward “Ned” Johnson III. His daughter Abigail is also on our list, so we covered her too. Ned’s father started Fidelity Investments, the largest provider of retirement investment accounts in the US. There’s a lot one could say about Fidelity, but Chad focuses in on Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs). DAFs are vehicles for charitable giving. Fidelity started the whole DAF game, and it turns out (surprise!) that they are ripe for abuse and misuse. Fidelity Charitable recently became the largest recipient of charitable contributions in the US, surpassing the United Way. However, there is no evidence that DAFs actually increase the overall amount of charitable donations. They introduce a disincentive to give out money, they are able to be used by the super-wealthy to avoid taxes, and they allow people to anonymize their giving to hide donations to hate groups and “think tanks.” Very bad stuff. Joe introduces us to Maggie Knox (formerly Maggie Magerko), the heiress to the 84 Lumber fortune. This segment is a journey through three short films. First, we discuss 84 Lumber’s baffling 2017 Super Bowl ad that…tries to say something about immigration and walls? I’m not sure we ever get to the bottom of it. Then, we watch a terrifying ad for the family fun resort / tactical assault training camp at Nemacolin Woodlands. Last, we discuss Maggie Knox’s son PJ’s short film Beyond the Back Yard. I…can’t really describe it…you’ll have to see for yourself (links to all of these below). 84 Lumber Super Bowl ad: https://youtu.be/nPo2B-vjZ28 Nemacolin Woodlands: https://youtu.be/N9DujLpyRSU Beyond the Back Yard: http://beyondthebackyardfilm.com/ Candidates on billionaires in NYT interviews: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/us/politics/billionaires-democratic-candidates.html NYT exposé on DAFs: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/03/business/donor-advised-funds-tech-tax.html