That has probably only ever helped her gain more. There is a good reason why rich people like to start charities and give money. It's for publicity and as a tax write-off.

USA is the perfect country for getting rich and staying rich and getting richer. She could never have that kind of networth in any other country in the world as a pop act.

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago (2 children)

as a tax write-off.

People DO understand that the top marginal rate is 37%, right? So when she donates to charity she pays 63% of that charity and gets $0 back directly. It's still spending money.

Unless she's getting a ~70% kickback of the money from the charity. But that's highly illegal. You have to be president to get away with something like that.

[–] li10@lemmy.ml 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

It’s probably not for tax reasons, but is 100% publicity. That’s all Taylor Swift™️ is.

She is essentially just a business that makes some decent commercial music, uses PR to develop a strong following and then monetizes the product.

I think her whole thing is fake and she just likes being the center of attention, not far off the Kardashians.

[–] polygon6121@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Thanks, that's a better way to put it. It is all in the interest of business. It obviously works great, because here we are discussing it, and some of us praising it.. !

[–] raynethackery@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

The top marginal tax rate in 1947 was 91%. That was for incomes over $200,000. We have been led down the garden path.

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 2 points 9 months ago

She might even be doing it to genuinely help, but... Even if I believe she does set the direction with a lot of what she does, there's more to it

Billionaires aren't people, they're basically a company themselves. They all have teams to manage what is too much to keep track of as an individual, including publicists and accountants - and Taylor Swift has a great publicist(s). Her accountant might also encourage it for tax writeoffs

For example, Bill Gates - he likes coming off as a tech guy who retired into philanthropy, but his charities are often used to accomplish political goals and move money around. Even the amounts he's very publicly decided to give away upon his death are still going to stay in the control of his family. Same with the REI guy.

Jeff bezos likes to come off like a socially awkward sorta cowboy who fell into an obscene amount of money. Mark Zuckerberg likes to come off like a tech bro. The founder of Walmart drove around in a work truck and wore jeans

Even Elon musk, who likes to go off script, goes through great lengths to come off like a futurist. He "officially" lives in a tiny home that he bought and slapped "Tesla" onto. He's been living in a mansion owned by someone else

Hilariously, Trump used to pose as a member of his own team, and called up newspapers and magazines to brag about himself and to get Forbes to just himself as a billionaire.

So how much is real? Who knows. But whether there's any truth to it or not, it's carefully cultivated. I'm inclined to think Swift is closer to genuine than most of them, but her publicist is amazing, so who knows. She's also a performer, so it's probably much more important to keep her image pristine than it is for most billionaires