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Tags for this video have been changed from 'Bill Maher, Real Time, New Rules, Cults, Mormanism, Reiligions' to 'Bill Maher, Real Time, New Rules, Cults, Mormanism, Religions' - edited by brycewi19

I can't say I completely agree with Maher, but the tax exempt status of religious institutions creates a loophole you could drive a semi-truck, carrying $80 million, through.

*quality *doublepromote for the last part about charity.

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He jumped the shark at the end. It's one thing to say that you shouldn't consider giving to religions charity because, regardless of the good deeds the religion may do with it, a large bulk of the funds goes to growing the religion. It's another thing entirely to claim that we shouldn't consider giving to the arts charity. Making sure that art is available to all people and not the exclusive domain of the privileged few who can afford it is a worthy goal in my book.

>> ^SDGundamX:

Making sure that art is available to all people and not the exclusive domain of the privileged few who can afford it is a worthy goal in my book.


I guess in some other people's books, building beautiful buildings where people can worship is a worthy goal. I wouldn't expect everyone to agree with your interpretation of what is a good use of money and what isn't.

Personally, I'm a big fan of the arts too, and certainly benefit from those who support it extravagantly. The question is whether those supporters need their donations subsidized by the government (who in turn takes money from the food/shelter/college budget of middle class families).

Opera and the other arts have a value to society which exceeds their balance sheets and Bill Maher should know this better than anyone.

Religion has a cultural value which shouldn't be discounted either, but I'm uncomfortable with the idea of giving money or tax breaks to organisations which whose primary interest isn't the heritage. Often with religious organisations, particularly large ones, the heritage is treated as little more than marketing material.

Do tax exempt religious stuff get subjected to the same auditing as non-religious charities

Wondering when the last time anyone here's been to the symphony or ballet. Other than an occassional one-off cheap/free show for poor kids, tickets are still in the 100's of dollars, especially at Disney Hall. So, tax breaks for organizations who still charge outrageous prices to hear music written by dead people, is very odd.

But it's only their people who can worship there. How can tax deductions for religious be justified in the first place? Who even came up with that idea? Stupid.>> ^Mikus_Aurelius:

>> ^SDGundamX:
Making sure that art is available to all people and not the exclusive domain of the privileged few who can afford it is a worthy goal in my book.

I guess in some other people's books, building beautiful buildings where people can worship is a worthy goal. I wouldn't expect everyone to agree with your interpretation of what is a good use of money and what isn't.
Personally, I'm a big fan of the arts too, and certainly benefit from those who support it extravagantly. The question is whether those supporters need their donations subsidized by the government (who in turn takes money from the food/shelter/college budget of middle class families).

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>> ^volumptuous:

Wondering when the last time anyone here's been to the symphony or ballet. Other than an occassional one-off cheap/free show for poor kids, tickets are still in the 100's of dollars, especially at Disney Hall. So, tax breaks for organizations who still charge outrageous prices to hear music written by dead people, is very odd.


The only symphonies I've ever attended have been the free ones provided by the San Francisco Symphony. To see why people deserve a tax break for contributing to them, check out the fact sheet about them here that demonstrates some of the great things they do with the money. Note that their concert hall, Davies Symphony Hall was constructed entirely through donations and is owned by the city of San Francisco (which contributed $10 million to the construction).

@Mikus_Aurelius

I think the purpose of tax write-offs for donating to charities is simply to encourage more people to give to charity. People who don't normally contribute to charity might do so if it's going to drop them a tax bracket. I don't think that takes anything away from anybody--everybody wins when people contribute to the public good and government doesn't have to get involved in the process.

In my opinion, spending hundreds of billions of dollars killing brown people on the other side of the world while giving corporations a free ride (effective tax rates of zero in many cases), on the other hand, is what's taking money from the food/shelter/college budget of middle class families.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Bill Maher, Real Time, New Rules, Cults, Mormanism, Religions' to 'Bill Maher, Real Time, New Rules, Cults, Mormonism, Religions' - edited by Issykitty

>> ^messenger:

But it's only their people who can worship there. How can tax deductions for religious be justified in the first place? Who even came up with that idea? Stupid.

The justification for it was that churches, synagogues and the like provide benefits for the community at large and not just their members.

How true this is today probably depends on where you live. A few weeks ago this happened about 10 minutes from where I live. Dozens of families have been left homeless and without all their belongings. Many of the local houses of worship have stepped up to donate clothing and food and to find temporary shelter for those that need it with no reservations about the faith of the victims.

Likewise, if I ever found myself way down on my luck with nobody to turn to for help, I could walk into most of the houses of worship here and the father or rabbi would be willing to talk with me and help, probably even without invoking God and faith if I told them I was not a believer.

This is the sort of thing you find in small, somewhat old-fashioned towns like this, though I wouldn't be surprised to find it in NYC either. Not every redneck is an aggressive authoritarian.

That being said, I'd like to see some restrictions enacted on religious tax exemptions. The Hasidim, in particular, have greatly abused this. Large portions of the land here are Hasidic camps (summer homes) which are listed as religious retreats and pay no taxes. It's costing us a fortune and we've been struggling for decades, never mind the recession. They do not participate in the community, they do not give back to the community and if I walked into one of them looking for help as described in my example above, I would be thrown out and charged with trespassing. They do not meet any of the requirements for tax exempt status under NYS law but they are very good at bloc voting, so they have been able to keep it going.

This clip shows what a horrible interviewer Leno is. The audience was dead.

Not only didn't they laugh, they didn't even boo. They were dead.

Letterman or Ferguson could have played those comments into big laughs.