According to Hoovers there are approximately 1.4 million non-profit organizations in the United States.
They have a combined annual revenue of over 1 trillion dollars.
Aside from their trillion dollar plus annual income, some of the largest non-profits have major real estate holdings, investments on Wall Street, and other assets. The health care industry, for example, owns approximately 500 billion dollars in real estate- mostly hospitals, clinics, and research institutions.
Education, especially universities, have extensive real estate holdings and cash or investment assets in endowments. Major special interest groups and unions own office buildings and are investment or cash heavy.
Many of these “charities” also benefit from government largesse in the form of grants. Grants that some seem to believe are inalienable rights under the constitution; like the former ACORN or Planned Parenthood.
This is a sector largely unscathed by the political critics and their merchants of poison. The billionaires and millionaires who make over 250 thousand dollars per year are debased. Corporate profits are denigrated. Successful and accomplished people are threatened with tax punishment. Yet, no one dares criticize a parallel one trillion-plus dollar economy.
It’s just one of those petty annoying curiosities. Like an itch on your back you can’t reach to scratch. The for profit sector economy is far more regulated, punished, and vilified than the non-profit sector. Out of over one million organizations we rarely, if ever, hear of anything untoward. Every once in a great while we hear about embezzlement, scandal, or fraud. But those are very few and far between.
Want to raise taxes? Look at non-profit entitlements | Washington Times Communities