Gentlemen,
I am taking the liberty to attach an article we can ponder on our own terms; with our individual Graces. As awesome as we are on a relative basis in a world of Commoners, we must guard against the arrogant display of our cox comb reflecting like a mirrow unto ourself. I say that with the greatest degree of humility duly acknowledging the cryptic bond of our association and the inherent attributes of a most distinguished band of Merrymen.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/04/why-the-rich-dont-give/309254/
Interesting read. I always said to myself "If I was a superstar athlete making 20 million dollars, I'd give 15 to charity because who could use all that money anyway." It's like happiness and quality of life have a threshold. Can 8 million dollars make you happier than 7?
ReplyDeleteBut that doesn't happen. And Kevin Durant is being lauded for giving 1 million to the OK tornado recovery. That is great, but will it affect his life, probably not. You can't even do the percentage of net worth thing b/c if someone making 10K donated 1K to charity and someone making 10mil gave 1mil to charity, you can't deny that the former would be more heavily impacted.
I feel like I personally struggle with charity. A few weeks (months?) ago, one of the readings was the old woman who gives her only coin to the poor box and the whole point is how that one coin is worth more than the 10% that wealthy people give, even when they're tithing. I think of charity as giving so that you are, in some way, worse off. But that means I've never really been charitable. If you are just giving off the top, then how much are you giving of yourself. Undeniably, it is wonderful. The Gates Foundation has done so much good for the world, and he could have sat on all that money. But his standard of living or quality of life has not gone down.
Anyway, sorry I kind of hijacked this thread and took it another direction. Interesting side note on the side note, I think I mentioned this before but I have a paper under review about why humans prefer to give after a disaster strikes rather than before even when they know their charitable contributions would mean more if used in prevention and preparation rather than relief. (OK, I definitely feel like I have written that exact sentence on here before, so I apologize). Anyway, hopefully we'll eventually collect data, but it does tie into the whole idea of why certain people are charitable and others are not.
Thanks for sharing.
Let them eat cake!
ReplyDelete