
Inventing Income 1 155
!
THINK
TANKS
RUN
AMOK-A
SHAM-SCAM
An offshoot
of
political income is starting a th ink tank. It's a dif-
fere nt way
to
inv
ent
incom e politically. T hink t
ank
s are those
no
t-f
ar-profit organizatio ns starr ing one or two chari
smat
ic ind ivid-
uals- champion ing some "cause."
Th
e think tank takes "nonpro fit"
don ations so the leader (or leaders) can
think
and write noble
thou
ght
s abo ut th eir chosen crusa de, and pay themselves hu ge sala-
ries. Maybe they do "research," which consists
of
question ing other
lik
e-m
inded peo ple ab
out
their views, and then conclu
ding
the
think tankers were ri
ght
all along.
Th
e key:
It
's a n
onpr
ofit but pays
a future rev
enu
e stream- to you.
T he think tank's purpose is to inst
itut
ion alize a cause by like-
minded peo ple and build credibility by creating a
cor
porate- like
st
ruc
ture
aro und it. T hose fu
ndin
g
think
tanks
think
t
hey're
c
on-
trib
utin
g to some gre ate r cause- that their
think
tank will make a
differenc e with pon de
rin
g, research, and
pub
lishing.
But
really, th ey
create an annuity for think-tank f
ound
ers and selected p
artn
ers.
Th
ink tanks champ ion an infinite variety of causes like free
markets or helpin g the oppressed,
but
at th e roo t th e
y'r
e similar.
Take, for example, Reverend Jesse Jackson. T hough Jackson once
claimed annual i
ncome
of$
430, OOO,
·f(1
he keeps his financial status a
closely
guar
ded secret. Pa
rt
of his mystery is because several of his
n
onp
r