A Countess divorcing a tycoon breaks down her need for $53,000 week:
Mortgage and maintenance fees and rent for the Park Avenue penthouse, the Hamptons retreat and properties in Sweden account for $27,300 a week, according to a financial affidavit she filed with the court. And then there's travel ($8,000), clothing ($4,500), a personal assistant ($2,209), horse care ($1,570), domestic help ($1,480), entertainment and restaurants ($1,500), health and skin care ($1,000), dry cleaning ($650), flowers ($600) and a trainer ($250).
The personal assistant at $2,209 made me cringe. I had applied for that job, emphasizing my Morals Tutoring experience, and holding myself out as a specialist in helping families flourish, but I never got past the screening interview. I was willing to do the trainer job, plus chauffeur and would have thrown in the Morals Tutorials, and mucking out the stables, for nothing, but I was assured that her moral well being was well managed, by herself personally. It did not take a moment's thought, I was told, it just came naturally, unlike diet, exercise, personal grooming, fashion, food preparation, flower arranging, and horse care.
In philanthropic planning, we work with clients to figure out "how much is enough for the donor," or for the donor, spouse and heirs, and then we talk about philanthropy for wealth beyond that point. Nice to see that $53,000 a week does not reach that threshold. Zero here for giving, not even a dime for some religious organization, or a passing beggar. Maybe if she got $100,000 a week she might have enough to fund a small charitable gift now and again? A Botox Foundation or something for the poor? I may approach her to propose free morals tutorials for the angry mob outside her door. The riffraff who read the tabloids should know better than to judge their betters. Envy is a sin.
Swedes, even upper class, do not see charitable giving as an individual responsibility. They view it as a collective obiligation for which they pay taxes to the government which in turn prevents the Swedish people from going hungry and homeless. Swedes also pay church donations through the annual tax bill. Most agnostically-leaning Swedes pay the church tax and say aloud, Well, the Church does charity work. And to themselves they say, I have done MY charity work by paying this tax.
If by some fluke, they give a little extra for tsunami victims or to prevent deforestation or even to advance medical research, then they think of themselves as wonderful as Alfred Nobel himself.
In seven years of residence in Stockholm (and I lived in the best neighborhood) I never once saw anyone attend a benefit ball or organize a fundraiser. It does not help that charitable contributions are not tax-deductible. Although I did read that this may change in the near future.
Posted by: CatherineP | March 20, 2009 at 06:52 PM
I just saw you blogged on the Role of the the Nanny in Supplanting Bleeding Heart Charities. You have a perfect exemplification the attitude bred by this model in the person of Countess Douglas-David.
I am on the Board of a Foundation for a rare disease. In every appeal to my Swedish friends and relatives, I recieve many admiring compliments for my fundraising work and no donation. My American acquaintances usually make no comment, but usually some donation.
Posted by: CatherineP | March 20, 2009 at 07:04 PM
Interesting background, thanks, Catherine. Social goods provided by - taxes, giving through national intermedaries, or by a farmer's market? I can bet which you would prefer.
Posted by: Phil Cubeta | March 21, 2009 at 04:27 PM