Dark Cloud Over Good Works at Gates Foundation, from LA Times. Can foundations be blamed for investing for solid return, even if the companies in which they invest cause social harm? Who will be the ultimate "accountant" to determine the social good or harm done by a company? How will we keep politics out of that?
Does Hollywood cause harm to morals? Do advertisers corrupt children? Does the profit motive itself conflict with the teachings of Jesus? Do swimsuit companies cause young men and women in Iran to think unchaste thoughts? Do shows starring Donald Trump stunt the sensibilities of all who aspire to be his Apprentice? Profits from the manufacture of munitions via the Olin Foundation helped fund the rise of neoconservative ideology. Is that double good or double bad? The Nobel Peace prize is funded with profits originally from dynamite. Who will determine objective measures of these intermingled goods and harms? Where is G.B Shaw, author of Major Barbara, when we need him to sort it all out for us? I would hate to see us begin with philanthropy only to end with a critique of capitalism. Our donors would not like it.
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