Philanthropy, Wither Goest Thou?

It is always worth surveying the philanthropy scene. There are so many people with great wealth now. And many feel the obligation to spend some of their riches establishing charities for a multitude of purposes, from protesting the mistreatment of animals to saving the dance culture of the Amazon River basin. And it is informative whenever we can find out who among the very rich have been thinking of others. Or, by contrast, have been investing their money to make more for themselves.

With regard to the takers, I often wonder the directions to which they aim their conspicuous consumption. Surely they have enough, so why want more? The answer is different for each, and buried deep within their psyches. After all, there have been greedy souls since mankind gathered in families around a fire. You can be sure there was one hoarding food or fire, whatever the commodity most in demand.

As for the others, despite their kindness and obvious love for humanity, we must ask why the beneficent are benefitting us in so many important ways. As for myself, I would give because of an embarrassment of riches. In order to equitably distribute my giving, I would hire advisors in each sector of humanity's need - people, places, things - and I would ask these very adept and intelligent advisors to find out the worthiest to whom to offer my help.

Outright giving of money, no matter how dire the need, has often seemed condescending to me and I know causes that could use the money, whose leaders feel that way.  They will find a way to avoid "accepting charity", no matter how sincerely it's offered and no matter how much its denial will hurt..

And of course there are people among the super wealthy who adhere to the corollary: people who need charity should get a job and take care of themselves.

This kind of sentiment has been attributed to Jeff Bezos, of Amazon fame, who has deservedly become rich from sticking it out for over a decade, watching a bad business plan flourish. Anyway, in response to the question of why he doesn't contribute to charitable causes, he said that people should start their own businesses and grow them and contribute to the economy, rather than accept charity.

As Andy Warhol once said  “Money doesn’t worry me, either, though sometimes I wonder where is it? Somebody’s got it all!”