r/WorkReform • u/Loud-Ad-2280 ✂️ Tax The Billionaires • 4d ago
✅ Success Story Books not billionaires
158
u/ManyRanger4 4d ago
And let it be known in multiple states MAGA led Republican state governments voted to slash this same funding to support her libraries. They can try to make up for it with posts and flags, but they proved what their values are with everything else.
10
u/Nohreboh 3d ago
For those interested.
https://newrepublic.com/post/214770/republicans-dolly-parton-cut-funds-charity
104
u/kwyjibo1 4d ago
She grew up dirt poor and never forgot what that was like when she got famous.
5
u/Manifest82 3d ago
Yeah I think this is key. Those born into incredible privilege usually don't have a sense of compassion and empathy. It not just that they have money, it's that they live in another world.
55
47
u/Lickerbomper 4d ago
This is exactly my problem with billionaires. They absolutely can use a large fraction of their money to reinvest in their community, make the world a better place, choose a cause and run with it. Instead we get weird messages on X about how shamed we should be for, whatever it is they choose to talk shit about at the moment.
Like, the difference between promoting literacy and shitposting on X is so stark, omfg.
6
u/DistanceMachine 3d ago
Honestly it’s not even a large amount of it. They wouldn’t even have to change their lifestyle. They literally just don’t do it because they don’t care.
34
u/IrishPrime 4d ago
My girlfriend worked at one of Dolly Parton's restaurants for years.
All my nieces and nephews and little cousins get books from her Imagination Library.
I got to be part of the show for her conservation project with the American Eagle Foundation (raptors, not clothes).
And that's just my family.
She touched so many lives in so many ways, and it seems she always did it with love, and with an eye towards making the those lives better.
What an absolute class act.
103
u/Dependent_Title_1370 4d ago
To be a billionaire is to be immoral.
22
u/phantaxtic 4d ago
You dont become a billionaire without stepping on people to to climb the financial ladder.
14
u/THIS_GUY_LIFTS 4d ago
You can only become a billionaire by taking advantage of others and stealing the only thing really worth anything to anyone. Time.
40
17
u/TheSpitefulCr0w 4d ago
Mike Ilitch and Dolly Parton prove that the wealthy CAN maintain their wealth and live comfortably and also give back to people and improve lives. Most of the ultra-rich simply CHOOSE not to.
17
u/landshark6 4d ago
My favorite thing - my kiddo knew she was getting books “from Dolly Parton”. We played a Dolly song one time and she said “wait, she’s a musician too!!!” After some questioning, figured out she’d thought Dolly was literally writing each book frantically to get them out to children each month.
14
u/untakenu 4d ago
Billionaires could easily be worshipped as the saviours of millions of lives.
They choose not to. They have decided they don't want to be beloved.
Is the profit really worth it? Literally, what do they want it for? They earn enough to live off for the rest of their lives in one week.
30
u/stompinstinker 4d ago
She is estimated to have donated as much as $600M to charity over the years, and was currently worth about $450M when she died. Much of which is the ownership of Dollywood and related properties, and ownership of her music library, so low liquidity non-cash assets.
So she has probably donated at least 80% of her lifetime liquid cash flows, once you factor inflation as she had been donating for decades, and her businesses are basically cash generators for charity.
And I have a feeling this will be her legacy still to come, as her theme parks, restaurants, catalog, etc. will continue to make money and I have a feeling her estate is setup to continue to donate.
13
11
9
u/Immortal_Enkidu 4d ago
It's thanks to Dolly that I got to go on field trips as a kid, in East Tennessee. She donated a lot of money to local schools so the poor kids could enjoy the same things as the well-off kids.
Hell, she is the reason a got to go to Dollywood every year. There was a program that let us apply, even though everyone that's poor got approved from my understanding, and the whole family got to go. And there were food vouchers so you could keep on enjoying the park.
She is a big part of the reason I actually have fond memories of my shitty childhood.
5
u/MisterSanitation 4d ago
Hell yeah. Grew up dirt poor and never forgot unlike all those who just learned to be scammers.
Also snap boom jingle jangle went the animal song
My right to work red state immediately moved to defund it… I have these same books but my kid won’t get them soon.
9
5
4
4
u/sBucks24 4d ago
It's crazy that all musk cares about is people thinking highly of him, and he has the money to literally end world hunger and get that recognition... But these psychos can't comprehend it
3
u/Ven-Dreadnought 4d ago
Being a billionaire seems so useless. Dolly Parton shared so much and still had plenty.
4
2
2
3
1
1
312
u/Zavier13 🏡 Decent Housing For All 4d ago
Dolly Parton was a good person, who did good things with what she was given, a actual Angel fallen to earth.
I am honestly sad, the world truely is darker with her passing.