Americans are already forced to do so through taxation.
It would be similar to complaining that people are forced to pay Ford via taxes because the government uses F-150s
The GP leaves the degree of taxation/funding, as well as the broader context of what other entities are tax funded and to what degree, unspoken; and they imply that, whatever those facts may be, it's a bad thing in this case. The parent (and other commenters) then provided some of that relevant information (and, assuming that information is true, you presumably would appreciate such a thing).
As for the downvoters, they may reasonably disagree with the parent's implication that it is a bad thing, or disapprove of their omission of details. You may reasonably disagree with this use of the downvote button, but it means they are not necessarily claiming the GP is stating an untruth.
Individual contributions to NPR are tax-deductible. That means the public IS indeed subsidizing NPR, far beyond the government's direct payments.
Less true for art museums and things because wealthy people can get more out of their donations, like their name on stuff and cool party invitations.
that's an easily-testable hypothesis. I dispute it.
As for "Wealthy people are too rare to matter" do a search on the percentage of income taxes paid by the wealthy.
But the reality is only ~13% of US tax payers itemize deductions so in general there isn’t any such support when the average person donates to anything. It’s really just support for the kinds of people who can itemize their taxes rather than supporting charities.
I don't know what your point is in the first paragraph. Yes, we do "support" any 501(c)(3). Are you opposed to that?
Anyway, a more relevant “how many NPR contributors itemize their donations.” But of course it’s roughly in line other such charity’s, because when your talking about such a wide selection of the population it tends to look like the general population. Aka, when you start talking millions there aren’t enough billionaires for the group to mostly consist of billionaires.
I had an aunt who got a 7 figure refund after an IRS audit because she wasn’t bothering with minor donations. No idea how representative that is, but people are strange especially when you look at large numbers of them.
what's your point? Who else's can you itemize?
> when you start talking millions there aren’t enough billionaires for the group to mostly consist of billionaires
who mentioned millionaires, or billionaires? For that matter, that entire paragraph doesn't make any sense. I proposed a very simple test, which we unfortunately can't get the data for (easily).
when you watch a PBS pledge drive, they do seem to emphasize "tax-deductible" a lot when they ask for your pledge. So they must think it matters, at least.
Many people who could deduct donations don’t because they don’t bother with the paperwork. It’s a very meaningful distinction because the option doesn’t inherently cost tax payers anything only those who actually use it do.
Being tax deductible on the other hand is an easy way to saying they’re a legit charity. Anything that isn’t tax deductible that still wants donations should raise major red flags.
Who would have this data, after all? Not the IRS, since by definition the taxpayer didn't file it.
Tax preparers would know if their clients decline to file itemized, but would they report it? Similarly, TurboTax or other servers might know, but I doubt they'd release such data.
So we're left with self-reporting.
I'm going to say that any claim that NPR's public financing is very low (1% or 5%) is either malicious splitting of hairs or outright lying.
We can find plenty of taxpayers in NY, CA, or MA who have a marginal rate of 40-50%. They are the highly affluent people that those PBS pledge drives featuring Baby Boomer musical acts are aimed at.
Just look at the continued campaign to remove the $10,000 limit on State and Local Taxes. Where's that coming from?
No, it's not. Someone making $250k in California pays an effective Federal rate of 22% and state of 8%. Even someone making a million a year sees an effective rate of ~42%. (And that's before tax avoidance strategies they'll undoubtedly pursue.)
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/income-tax-calculator/califor...
Same thing for New York; $100k income nets out at a 20% effective rate. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/income-tax-calculator/new-yor...
(And these are single-filers. If you've got a family, it dips substantially further.)
> Just look at the continued campaign to remove the $10,000 limit on State and Local Taxes. Where's that coming from?
The $10k limit isn't a limit on taxes, it's on how much state/local tax paid you can deduct, set in 2017 as a way to punish high-tax blue states. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Cuts_and_Jobs_Act_of_2017
Pedantic. Obviously that's what I meant (and knew)
Learn about marginal tax rates. See, Forbes even tells you: "your marginal tax rate is 35%"
22% is the average tax rate. It's the *marginal" tax rate we're concerned with for deductions.
Itemized deductions these days are either extremely small (limited to a few hundred dollars) or only for the very wealthy.
During the Trump years, the standard deduction was doubled, with the result that vastly fewer people now itemize deductions. Yes, you can report a limited amount of tax-deductible donations, but last time I looked it was around $300/yr (and even that was easy to overlook).
I'm not a total public radio hater or anything, but this definitely makes me take the idea that public radio is mostly listener supported a lot less seriously in the bigger scheme of things. Public radio fans can try to talk me down. I'd like to know where I'm wrong.
[0] https://www.wpr.org/sites/default/files/annualreport2021_fin...
Edit: ... and I do know there is a distinction between the national entity and the member stations. It's just that tracing it up further feels like a shell game. Maybe all the other states are different and have way more donations, but I have no idea. I'm already confused about how many of WPR's "in kind" funding from the UW-system are state/federal funds and even if any of the state funds are from federal aid.
"Presently, NPR receives funding for less than 1% of its budget directly from the federal government, but receives almost 10% of its budget from federal, state, and local governments indirectly."
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/national-public-ra...
https://www.npr.org/about-npr/178660742/public-radio-finance...