Premature Philanthropy

Who doesn’t love philanthropy? Great recent examples are Warren Buffett and Bill Gates who are giving Billions to Africa out of their own free will. I mean even the most cynical leftist would have to applaud that. Actually leftists are remarkably dismissive of the phenomenon (are you shocked?).

1. Why did Warren Buffett wait so long – I mean he had the luxury of enjoying his wealth his whole life – why is he only giving the money away now?
2. Bill Gates made his money through an evil monopolistic corporation and he’s just trying to alleviate his well deserved guilt by giving a token gesture to Africa

Wow – the left has found a way to take the joy out of even the most altruistic of gestures. According to them the wealthy can’t claim any credit for being philanthropic because they are doing so from a position of strength and convenience. The ultimate leftist ideal for philanthropy comes in the form of someone who is not wealthy or productive, yet manages to divert wealth to those people (and causes) in need.

Ladies and gents, allow me to introduce the premature philanthropist, AKA the social activist. Why wait till you've earned a fortune before being a philanthropist when you can do it right now? Why go through the bother of actually earning money to give away when its so much easier to act like a big shot and give away other people's money?

I’ve met a fair share of people barely out of college who have the title ‘activist’ on their business card. Yep – they actually have business cards and people are paying them. How do these college grad slackers get cooshy jobs and the ability to divert wealth to the needy? Are they just that much smarter than the rest of us? Do they have a brilliant mind for investing, or do they run a business on the side? Maybe they work full time by day and dispense wealth by moonlight – like a caped philanthropic crusader!

Nope – these guys are philanthropic, but they are being generous with your money not their own.

To be fair not all activists get a cooshy activist position appointed to them by a politically funded ‘think-tank’ most of them are the professional protesters. Whenever you catch some protest rally on TV you can quite often see the same dour faces over and over – no matter what the cause. “If there’s something to protest I’ll be there.” Protesters have a lot of time on their hands and for a variety of reasons and most do not need to work for a living. By definition this makes them an upper class. Whether they collect some sort of government check, or if they’ve inherited money – they don’t have to work and you do. These are the guys that want to decide how your money should be spent, and almost always they want you to give more of it.

The premature philanthropist can come in many forms: the white collar politically funded think tanker, the do-gooder government bureaucrat or the bottom feeding protester. All of them demand that more of your money go to the government and all of them have their own unique and wonderful ideas of how it should be distributed. And should that end be achieved they also want to receive the credit for it. They want all the perks of philanthropy without having to do any productive work.

From my experience the wealthy and productive are very giving people. In fact it gives productive people great joy to give to a cause that they value. However the left wants to destroy that pure joy of philanthropy. When the act of giving no longer becomes a voluntary act – it becomes our duty and we are no longer allowed to take credit for it. We also lose the choice in how that money is spent – it can be given to any number of social causes that we don’t care for or agree with.

Bromby submits the following:

If you lower taxes – wealth and prosperity will increase, and so will philanthropic giving – except that it will be voluntary. Most rich people are very sentimental and grateful people and they want the world to be a better place. From my experience you don’t become wealthy by being Ebenezer Scrooge. The truth is that the majority of middle and upper class individuals give significantly to charity in addition to the huge sums of money they pay in taxes. By choosing where you money goes people are likely to give to organizations that can make your philanthropic dollar go the farthest rather than entrusting that job to the (ahem) government.

- Bromby