Also, why would you do that? Surely the fun is philanthropy when you have billions? I understand the objections to philanthropy vs tax, but it’s invariably so much better for everyone than hoarding it.
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If this is true, it makes me feel really lucky to live where I do. Our local food security organizations are amazing. We’ve increased and improved homeless shelters in town since the pandemic. And when everyone had to go to remote learning, the whole state pulled together to make sure every kid had a tablet or laptop and internet access at home (it’s a rural state, so this last was a pretty big deal). And that’s not even getting into the cool arts-based charities.
I agree that we shouldn’t be reliant on philanthropy for people to live safe and healthy lives, but I think that there are a lot of people doing amazing work to make it the best they can given what we have to work with right now.
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I think it’s mainly an issue of self-autonomy and governance.
White supremacy games the system, and classist Capitalist practices shake out the poors to a greater extent, creating a beholden working class ripe for exploitation. Then philanthropists get to decide who and what causes are “most deserving”, leaving out the opportunity for the charit-ees to express where help is most needed, while philanthropists are whitewashing their reputation and providing distraction from the fact that on the whole, income inequality is worse than ever and systemically unfair.
Nobody really “earns” $1 million+, and nations who straight tax on an income-based system provide more just and equitable outcomes for all citizens.
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See, there’s a sample bias here. You are starting from a list of charities that you actually see doing something. Local food banks fit into what I was describing. 10% of 501c organizations is still a large number. Those actually doing good are all the more special, because they’re in the minority.
I lived on the streets for a couple years, and I saw some people who were the real deal, but also plenty more who were just trying to make a buck in my name. There was the the city shelter that had a multi-million dollar budget, and a single 500 watt microwave for 200+ people to use (the chairman collected vintage automobiles). Churches that advertised (and collected) on their feeding programs which consisted of a brown-bag bad apple and plain balogna you could get if you knocked on their door from 10:30-11:00 every other Tuesday (they weren’t even doing it the one time I checked, because obviously nobody was taking a bus across town for that - which was the point). There was a lot of that, a lot of city grants for bullshit like “$1 mil for a project using the blockchain to… blah blah blah” that you can’t find anything about anymore (this was Austin, BTW). Plenty of marginal, basically useless programs, plenty more just straight scams (I saw people raising money in different venues that nobody saw again), and that’s just local level. Most wealthy philanthropists with their charities are doing very little actual good for the world (sometimes outright harm). Even “legit” fully legal charities are allowed to devote a huge amount of their revenue to so-called operating expenses. Even many of the ones that you do see helping people are often making a small group quite rich.
Millions and millions of dollars flowed into charity for this one specific problem every year. Enough to just get a lot of people an apartment, basically. And the perception that there was real, significant help easily available just helps people to check out and be unsympathetic. To see just personal failings where they should see systemic ones.
Edit: Imagine we lived in a society that rewarded greed (although it punished appearing to be greedy a little bit). And that society gave (particularly the most rewarded) people a really easy way to make a lot of money, and avoid taxes on their other income, and allowed them to create the public perception that they were really good guys, and that tax policy and laws that were good for them was good for all of us. A cynical person might also imagine that some, maybe even a lot of those people might abuse that system. That they might make it just as corrupt as everything else they touch.
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Good points.
Me, too.
A few years ago I learned the term “poverty whore” to describe this. I don’t like the sexist connotations, but it’s used to describe those people drumming up buzz and money supposedly to “help the poor” when really they’re capitalizing on it, big time.
In short, I didn’t mean to contradict you, I’m just really appreciative of my local community and the good work being done here. Things can feel so dark and depressing, it can be refreshing to, like Mr.Rogers advised, “look for the helpers.”
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Scrooge, at least, had a change of heart.
He had not gone far, when coming on towards him he beheld the portly gentleman, who had walked into his counting-house the day before, and said, “Scrooge and Marley’s, I believe?” It sent a pang across his heart to think how this old gentleman would look upon him when they met; but he knew what path lay straight before him, and he took it.
“My dear sir,” said Scrooge, quickening his pace, and taking the old gentleman by both his hands. “How do you do? I hope you succeeded yesterday. It was very kind of you. A merry Christmas to you, sir!”
“Mr. Scrooge?”
“Yes,” said Scrooge. “That is my name, and I fear it may not be pleasant to you. Allow me to ask your pardon. And will you have the goodness”—here Scrooge whispered in his ear.
“Lord bless me!” cried the gentleman, as if his breath were taken away. “My dear Mr. Scrooge, are you serious?”
“If you please,” said Scrooge. “Not a farthing less. A great many back-payments are included in it, I assure you. Will you do me that favour?”
“My dear sir,” said the other, shaking hands with him. “I don’t know what to say to such munifi—”
“Don’t say anything, please,” retorted Scrooge. “Come and see me. Will you come and see me?”
“I will!” cried the old gentleman. And it was clear he meant to do it.
“Thank’ee,” said Scrooge. “I am much obliged to you. I thank you fifty times. Bless you!”
— Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
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You’re good. Obviously there are a decent, altruistic people. There are a few I very much appreciated.
I just want to let people know that there are good and bad outlets for their charitable impulses. Political action for systemic change, good. Giving your credit card to the paid solicitor with a clipboard on the sidewalk, less good. Directly giving people money and resources[1], or giving those things directly to an organization you KNOW will pass them along without skimming, good. Not knowing that, not good.
And I want people to know that the rich philanthropists they so admire are pretty much universally grifters with good PR (also, rich and influential parents - think of any billionaire you know is self-made, then look up their parents). They didn’t get that rich without having and exploiting every advantage, and they don’t suddenly change their stripes. The truly charitable wouldn’t be in that position.
I want better in the world. That starts with a clear-eyed assessment of what it is now.
[1] poor people all have one, and only one, problem in common. It is the cruelest fiction, often perpetrated by charities that want their cut, that giving money directly to the poor is harming them.
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I think the reverse. Extremely rich people like this have effectiviely reprogrammed themselves to justify their wealth, so when they see poor people being helped by the government, their anger is real, because otherwise their entire house of cards justifying their wealth will come tumbling down. Their brains are literally incapable of seeing it differnently. It’s like cultists who still justify their beliefs even when the date of Armageddon has come and gone by with no change.
As a side note, this chap was done for insider trading in 2016 and his firm had to make a $4.9 million settlement the the SEC. He, of course, denies any wrongdoing (pleaded the fifth in the hearing).
“The process in my opinion was totally abusive. It’s a problem that the government should address,” he said of the incident.
In an interview with CNBC in 2019, Cooperman started crying over the potential Warren wealth tax and its implications on his billion dollar fortune.
(source - wikipedia)
I think it’s fair to assume he really believes it down to his core and actually feels that when someone is helped it is actually an attack on him.
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I think part of it is also that their wealth is based in part on the relative scarcity of money, and the government handing out checks to a lot of people has the effect of diluting their wealth. This is also probably why they treat Modern Monetary Theory like the devil’s own economics.
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I’ve been thinking about this in relation to another thread about R demographics, and how they’re not a bunch of uneducated, economically vulnerable hayseeds.
I think the one thing they might have in common is that they buy into this “zero sum game” ethos, that if he over there is doing well, it must mean I am losing out.
I don’t know how to fix it, but I’ve been thinking about it.
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It’s the same ethos as people making 12 bucks an hour who are against raising the minimum wage to 15 dollars because then they’d be making minimum wage just like those people. They’re fine having people who are richer than them as long as there are also people who are poorer.
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Yeah. My thought for him is: poor baby. Would you like a cappuccino and a hug?. He could lose a million dollars and not even notice it. Many people could lose a thousand dollars and have it be a life altering event.
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We want the poor and less fortunate to have enough, but I have wondered if some of our problems could be solved if the rich and more fortunate felt they had enough.
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You are 100% right about a large fraction of charity/philanthropy. And about what the fundamental problems are.
Out of curiosity, are you familiar with the Effective Altruist movement? They at least try to evaluate the relative impact of specific charities and specific charitable interventions, and optimize for real world effects.
He owns (with others like him) a newspaper chain full of assholes like Conrad Black, who try to convince Canadians to become assholes, and vote for an asshole party.
Asshole, and spreader of assholes.
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Hey, I like money. I’m not against wealth. I’ve had money, I’ve been very poor. Having money is better. But for the life of me, I simply cannot wrap my head around the all consuming greed that seems to be part and parcel of almost the entire 1%. I just don’t get it. HOW MUCH FUCKING MONEY DO YOU NEED? There seems to be some sort of psychopathological issue in play that I just don’t understand.
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All of it, plus an IOU to stomp on your toes whenever they feel like it.
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If you haven’t listened, this Hidden Brain episode is pretty insightful:
(21 minutes)
If they weren’t such assholes, you could almost feel bad for the “filthy rich” for how they let their lives get stripped of all non-transactional human connection.
And this is a longer one (50 minutes) about how they’re always comparing themselves to the next up the rungs, the “really” rich people.
There are some really good links on that page, too, to other reading about the psychoses of the Uber-wealthy and the mental effects of poverty, if you’re interested.
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