We build open-source trust-equivalents (foundations) with valuable intellectual property on the balance sheet instead of crude money.
However, is Mozilla a money oriented coder trust?
If you've had any experience with small trusts, they often get captured by self-interested people. The Scott Trust seems to stand out from others with its outcomes.
One can imagine trusts devoted to open source. (They probably exist in some form.) But that probably means that modest amounts of money are distributed to a vanishingly small number of coders based on, likely, the preferences of some executive director.
In general, it's fairly clear that jobs for open source developers is generally more effective than charity of various kinds which is subject to change at any time. (OK, jobs are too but that tends to be less related to political, etc. winds.)
Honestly things like this can also be an argument FOR crazy high death taxes.
Something similar happened in a history podcast I heard about Porche, which is still owned by the original family. At one point, germany told them their tax on ownership gains is 90%. So instead, they decided they would just re-invest into the business R&D to write off the taxes instead. That gave us the invention of Porche's Racing team. source: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/porsche-with-doug-demuro
You can get unintended consequences from this, like forcing the increase of nepotism. If you look at South Korea, for instance, the Chaebol, despite facing some of the highest inheritance taxes in the world, still have a grip on power.
How? You keep the kids in management, you encourage lots of cross holdings between corporations so that even though the kids’ share falls, you enforce power through social contracts in the upper strata of classes that is horrible for shareholders and innovation as a society.
That said Porsche indeed is an exceptional company in many ways in both the innovative end as well as their holdings structure.
Elliott famously disapproved of the Samsung C&T merger, which ultimately went through. The Korean media demonized Elliott for trying to reform the company. It was an eye-opening experience seeing how Samsung effectively captured Korea both politically and through the media.
For all claims of Korea's dynamism, it's still seen as investment rat poison and it's telling that it's still considered an "emerging market" by MSCI. Public markets aside, SK's venture capital scene is, for all intents and purposes, non-existent.
Investors have undervalued South Korea's company stocks compared to other countries, leading to the term "the Korea discount."
This "discount" is in part attributed to corporate governance in South Korea where some companies may have less incentive to grow their share price to pay less tax when gifting or inheriting financial assets.
with analysts saying poor corporate governance is one factor behind what is known as the “Korea Discount.”
But investors often price [Korean shares] below their book value
[Another] explanation is the risk discount because of nuclear-armed North Korea.
To maintain control across generations despite South Korea’s unusually high 50 per cent inheritance tax, they have resorted to elaborate solutions that depress the country’s stock valuations.
At Samsung, heir apparent Lee was sold equity at well below fair value to the detriment of other shareholders. Lee's equity value went from ₩9.5 billion to ₩6.7 trillion
[The Hyundai family owners syphoned value] largely at the expense of shareholders in other Hyundai companies, according to court and regulatory findings that affiliates unfairly supported a company through noncompetitive contract awards at inflated prices.
I've abridged the above - see links for better details.
Where is the trust created by coders for coders at a time uniquely profitable for coders?