"... crimp spending on student aid or faculty research, but wealthy individuals can make the same argument: Higher taxes would reduce the amount of money they can invest in tech start-ups or other economically productive ventures."
Clearly this is not the same argument at all. Student aid, and academic research are not the same as funding a startup.
The difference is that colleges, or large grant-making foundations provide, and even exist, for the public good, rather than private profit.
They should perhaps be forced to use more of the wealth for grants, to support poor students, etc, but that's not the same argument as that they should be charged the same taxes as ultra-wealthy idividuals.
In theory, yes... but did you know that IKEA is owned by a charitable foundation "to promote and support innovation in the field of architectural and interior design"?
Said foundation had an estimated endowment of $36 billion in 2006 (undoubtedly much larger now), yet it only donated $159 million in 2017, or only 0.4% assuming the endowment had zero growth.
We already have a method for determining what to spend money on for the public good. Why have a parallel method that gives only rough guidelines to private, unelected parties?
If people want to donate money to charity, they ought to donate their own money not foregone taxes.
What you’d lose in diversity, you’d gain in focus. They are flip sides of the same coin. Some donor thinks a museum of modern architecture is charitable, which is fine but I don’t want tax money diverted to that.
If an ultra-wealthy individual decides to become an endowment for a college and spend a small portion of their earnings each year administering the college, are we no longer supposed to tax them?
Clearly this is not the same argument at all. Student aid, and academic research are not the same as funding a startup.
The difference is that colleges, or large grant-making foundations provide, and even exist, for the public good, rather than private profit.
They should perhaps be forced to use more of the wealth for grants, to support poor students, etc, but that's not the same argument as that they should be charged the same taxes as ultra-wealthy idividuals.