More Money, Please

I'm often tardy in my reading, but sometimes I get a special pleasure out of something enlightening in the ancient stack of "to do". A case in point is an essay entitled "What Should a Billionaiire Give and What Should You?" by Peter Singer, first published in The New York Times magazine of December 17, 2006. (And reprinted in The Best American Essays of 2007.) In this thoughtful piece, Singer reviews the history of philanthropy in the United States in an effort to answer the questions: what is philanthropy, who are the philanthropists, how are they different from people who aren't wealthy, and what are their motives for giving away their fortunes? He's done his homework, so there's a healthy amount of information to review, but he's also done some deep thinking about giving. Singer is a philosopher, so he thinks about ideas from the viewpoint of "what is true and how do we know its true," and perhaps more importantly, "what is right"? I find his answers provocative. Also, he's a clear and energetic writer.