Synth
4495
Just to point out, Hunter Biden painting isn’t a new thing. Its been referenced multiple times in interviews over the years. His paintings had been exhibited prior to his father taking office as well. I’m not sure this makes anything worse or better. However, reading this thread makes it seem like he woke up sometime after Jan 20th and decided to be a painter which seems a totally unfair characterization.
Nesrie
4496
I’m talking about Joe, not Hunter. You’ve really got it in for Hunter; I get it.
Timex
4497
That’s the thing, I totally didn’t have it in for him at all, until reading this new stuff.
Honestly, I think this does make it better, as I honestly didn’t know he had any kind of artistic career prior to this. How much did his paintings sell for, and when?
Nesrie
4498
Hunter Biden has long used art as a way to cope with addiction and life tragedies, including the death of his brother Beau in 2015.
Biden said in a New York Times interview that painting “put my energy towards something positive.”
Don Fox, former general counsel of the Office of Government Ethics under the Obama administration, noted that career opportunities for children of any president are always subject to intense scrutiny.
“With visual art, the name of the artist is a huge factor in a piece’s value. The screening mechanism that has been put in place for the sale of Hunter Biden’s art may not be perfect, but it’s the best that could be done where the value of the product is so highlight subjective. Hunter Biden is entitled to earn a living,” Fox told ABC News.
Just an FYI, those pictures and that NYT article are not from this year.
Sounds like the free market working as intended.
Nesrie
4500
Apparently he writes letters too, to his deceased brother.
For years, vodka and cocaine were constant companions. Mr. Biden has talked often of facing the twin demons of addiction and personal loss. His mother Neilia and sister Naomi died in a 1972 car wreck, in which 2-year-old Hunter suffered a severe head injury.
Later, as he looked to escape temptations, the painting became therapeutic, he said. So did writing poems and short stories (he was accepted into Syracuse University’s creative writing program in 1993, but chose law school). Recently, he said, he has been writing letters to his deceased brother Beau, who succumbed to brain cancer in 2015, a loss that sent Mr. Biden off on a four year nightmare.
“I want to protect this place,” he said. “The one thing I have left is my art. It’s the one thing they can’t take away from me or conflate with anything else.”
Well, not quite Hunter.
Timex
4501
It looks like he’s recently started selling paintings that he (also recently) made as part of some kind of self therapy.
I’m still thinking that this is a case of him directly profiting off of being the son of the president, and that is unethical to me.
And, it puts his father in a bad position, so it’s kind of a shitty thing for a son to do.
Alstein
4502
Even if Hunter is a millstone (which I think he is), that doesn’t mean anything- he’s not part of the administration.
It’s a nothingburger.
magnet
4503
But it’s still directly profiting from political connections. I don’t see how your subjective value of paintings vs books is relevant.
Timex
4504
Like I originally started, this criticism is directed at him, not the administration.
Although the administration would have been better served with more transparency about the buyers of the paintings.
I think this is the opposite of how you prevent corruption, if it’s going to happen in a case like this. Transparency about who is buying would be better than secrecy.
As someone said, the art market currently is a money laundering playground for the tremendously wealthy already, and fueled by celebrity of all kinds. The public interest is not in keeping Hunter Biden from personally benefiting from his famous name; it’s from keeping transactions with him from influencing public policy and benefiting purchasers in a quid pro quo. I’m not quaking that this is corruption waiting to happen, but to ensure it, they should keep all transactions public.
Nesrie
4506
If the solution is make it transparent, and Hunter still gets to do his art and sell it to whomever feels it’s worth whatever they’re paying for it, that’s fine. I am not sold that the plan is good… only that they at least considered a plan at all which is a lot more than many before them even tried.
Hunter is not forbidden to do art and sell it simply because his dad, who has been in politics for a long time anyway, is now president.
Thrag
4508
He can paint if he wants to.
He can leave his job behind.
When something is being touted as unethical, I try to think about the whole situation. I can picture myself as someone very wealthy who stumbled across Hunter’s story and felt some kind of identification with it. Maybe it was a similar tragedy in my childhood, or a history of struggles I could empathize with. I wouldn’t have ever known his story had it not been for his inherited celebrity. It wouldn’t seem unusual to want to buy some “thing” which creates a more real connection or evokes a more contemplative state whenever I pass by it or hear the name “Biden.” If I was a wealthy person with no common sense, I could see myself offering to buy a piece of art at some stupidly high price.
Should I expect Biden to say, “Look; my art is crap - I’ll take $20 but that’s it,” or should I expect him to recognize I’ve set a different value to the work based entirely on what I would get out of it? If he sold it at the price I value it at, this wouldn’t be unethical as he wouldn’t be taking advantage of me; it would be a transaction I sought and I would be receiving the sense of connection I longed for. And yes, the exact same thing could be said for Ivanka’s hypothetical finger painting.
What becomes unethical is when the seller is taking advantage of the buyer. Let’s imagine a situation where the seller lied about their backstory to engender a market for their work or—even more extreme—is selling forgeries or leveraging influence. But there is no duplicity in what Hunter is doing, and hopefully no influence being courted.
Is celebrity culture loathsome? It certainly can be, but at the same time it makes sense. In the past, I’ve had the odd bit of dumb luck to spend time around people who had literal fan clubs. It’s weird, as they’re just normal people with all the quirks and many of the struggles of anyone else, but when you see the occasional interactions with the people they’ve affected, you can get the sense of intangible value. I wouldn’t begrudge them getting paid for it.
Now, all of that aside, were there any hint of impropriety as it relates to his father then I would just as soon see him in jail. Sadly, that’s a major risk and my personal take would be reporting who bought what to some office of oversight to make sure no favors were obtained.
I remember the good old days of Billy Beer.
Matt_W
4511
Why? I mean I agree. But I’m also in favor of a 100% estate tax and a wealth tax intended to mitigate the effect of hereditary oligarchy. Do you think it would be unethical for any Jeff Bezo’s 4 children to occupy positions on Amazon’s board or editorial positions at the Washington Post?
Timex
4512
On some level, yes, I do tend to frown on nepotism… however, in this case, there are some additional facets that make it even worse.
First, there’s the fact that the source of the profit is elected office. While the person elected is his father, rather than him, the problem of conflicts of interest still exist, which is why we have laws and rules in place to try and prevent elected officials from profiting from their positions. The President cannot accept gifts at all above a certain value. This prohibition is not limited to cases where they establish some sort of quid pro quo, they are banned entirely, to avoid even the perception of a conflict of interest.
Then the other difference would be that if some child took a position at their parent’s company, and performed that job competently, then that’s less of an issue. I, personally, would tend to avoid that position as a son, because I wouldn’t want people to think I was only there through nepotism, and I think I’d always feel that was hanging over my head.
In the case of Hunter Biden, the only reason that these paintings are bringing the prices is due to his being the son of Joe Biden. It’s not that he’s a supremely talented painter. Again, this is more of my own personal value judgement, but I feel like that’s some sort of leeching off your parent’s behavior, and I personally find that sleazy. This facet of my judgement isn’t one of public ethics though, and is perhaps just me being judgy. I know that it’s not how I would act though, based on my own personal “code of ethics” or whatever bullshit drives my behavior.
(Do Bezos’ kids work on Amazon’s board or the Wapo? I honestly didn’t even know he had kids.)
Banzai
4513
im surprised that the free market for artwork is under attack
as long as the buyer pays appropriate taxes, hunter is free to charge what the market will bear, regardless of whether it is a naked money grab based on his dad’s prominence or not. scuzzy, sure, but its capitalism, so sort of par for the course.
I mean, pretty much all children of wealthy / powerful people profit from their parents’ wealth and power.
