Billionaires Michael and Susan Dell pledged $6.25 billion Tuesday to provide 25 million American children under 10 an incentive to claim the new investment accounts for children created as part of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending legislation.

The historic gift has little precedent, with few single charitable commitments in the past 25 years exceeding $1 billion, much less multiple billions. Announced on GivingTuesday, the Dells believe it’s the largest single private commitment made to U.S. children.

Its structure is also unusual. Essentially, it builds on the “ Trump Accounts " program, where the U.S. Department of the Treasury will deposit $1,000 into investment accounts set up by Treasury for American children born between Jan. 1, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2028. The Dells’ gift will use the “Trump Accounts” infrastructure to give $250 to each qualified child under 10.

    • Insekticus@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      2 days ago

      They didn’t get to be billionaires because they have a kind heart. There will be a self-serving reason behind it, even if that reason it to improve their image.

      True philanthropy from the rich includes them hiding their names from sight. These two probably want their proverbial dick sucked for how “kind and generous” they are.

      • SpikesOtherDog@ani.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        2 days ago

        True philanthropy from the rich includes them hiding their names from sight.

        That is the way to do it, but the sour part is that people will only see your moneybags.

        For instance, if I actually made $500m annually and donated $450m, people would only see my fat stacks of cash from living off 300k each year and banking almost 50m.

        • Insekticus@aussie.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 days ago

          Yeah, that’s it. Unfortunately, in a capitalist world full of human animals that suffer from greed, having that much money and power nearly always corrupts individuals into horrific beings. Humans shouldn’t have that much money, ever.

          That’s how we ended up in a dying world, full of corporate elite psycopaths and paedofiles, ruining everything in pursuit of ever more money.

          The ancient Greeks and Romans knew of humanity’s greed and did their best to warn us, but it fell on deaf ears, and too many are tempted by the allure of having whatever they want, whenever they want, in an instant.

  • Lumidaub@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    2 days ago

    An account created at your birth by the government? Presumably associated with your birth certificate? Did a sovereign citizen dream this up?

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      2 days ago

      This is fraud a way to funnel money into Trump’s pockets. They just don’t want it to look like flatout bribe. But no children will be getting a dime of this money. But Maga won’t care

    • ozoned@piefed.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 day ago

      It’s $250 to kids in specific zip codes that don’t qualify for the $1,000 under the original program, and they have to be under 10, AND it has to go into a specialized account that goes into the stock market.

      The Dell’s are worth $140,000,000,000 and think $250 is helpful when you’re 18 and all of the social nets have been dismantled by people like them.

      Oh and it directly benefits the Dell’s because 1 tax write off, 2 goes right back into the stock market that benefits them, and 3 they look like good Samaritans even though they’re dragons hoarding wealth.

      But yeah $250 in a decade!  WOOHOO!

    • a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      2 days ago

      The real grift is that this sort of thing is a small token to “prove” to people that the charity of the wealthy works and is a real actual way to fund education.

      They are working to cut off the supply entirely.

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 day ago

      Maybe they have diversified as much as possible into crypto and other hard assets and expect hyper inflation. $250 won’t be much given regular inflation these days.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    2 days ago

    Are the Dell’s aware that Trump University was shut down because it was fraudulent and Trump Charity was shut down because Trump was stealing from it?

    Because at least a third of Americans are completely unaware of these facts.

    Hope they know exactly what’s happening with their money.