Gift Hub

We are all Greeks Now

Perhaps the moral of the debt crisis and austerity measures and protests in Greece is that the financial sector now trumps both government (national sovereignty) and civil society, certainly in Greece, and increasingly in Europe and the U.S. Post at Naked Capitalism with comments that go to the heart of it. The Hedge Funds want the Parthenon, the water supply, Yosemite, whatever can be sold at bargain prices to pay unpayable debts. Those making the sale from the government side will rotate to the Bank or Hedge Fund Board. Capitalism and Democracy are now divorced, and Capitalism walked off with the house, the cars, the investments, and left Bankrupt Democracy to care for the starving children out there in pup tents, among the broken unions, the homeless, the disenfranchised veterans of our wars. The plan is working as planned. The name of the plan, Sucker, is Freedom.

Teaching Civic Virtue to the Wealthiest Families

Can a wealthy family succeed if the community of which it is a part, the country of which it is a part, fails miserably? A wealthy family is often likened to a tree, perhaps a silver beech, which grows for 100 years or more. But what if the roots go deep into soil that has been leached of all nutrients? What if the roots go as deep into darkness as the leaves into light? No tree lives alone. No man is an island. No family is a fortress. When a wealthy family accumulates the many kinds of "Capitals," financial power, political power, intellectual power, and, say, the power of example, what good is any of that if the family has no sense of civic responsibility? Are such families not oligarchs to be quenched, and quelled, or like a big tree felled, lest they too become to big to fail, too connected to jail?

Ladies and Gentleman, to take perpetuation of family dynasty as your summum bonum, is no matter how often you quote Chaucer, and no matter how often you say journey, and no matter how many defrocked priests go with you on the trip, and no matter how preppy your family legacy, is morally, spiritually, and intellectually bankrupt. That we as Trusted Advisors so often dare not say so makes us no less culpable.

So said I, in Wealth Bondage last night, in our dinner theater, dressed in rags, surrounded by America's Wealthiest Dynasts, gathered for Moral Instruction. They took it as my boss intended, as Farce, and tossed me me dinner rolls, the first square meal I have had since the homeless shelter closed due to Austerity.  So it is working.

As Poverty Grows, Giving for The Poor Declines

Per the Chronicle on Philanthropy, citing the New York Times, as poverty deepens, giving for the poor declines.

Philanthropy has been “silent about the depths of the problems of homelessness, joblessness, foreclosure, hunger,” says Emmett D. Carson, chief executive of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. “People are starting to believe that philanthropy is irrelevant to the core needs of their communities."

I know and respect an ex-Jesuit, now a professor of sociology, and expert in philanthropy who cautions advisors that we must not "scold" donors. We must elicit their values and go by that. He also says people give to people and causes with whom they identify. I agree that it is always best to serve, not scold the wealth holder. I find that pet shelters, arts organizations, and hobby projects go over better than helping the stinking poor. Monied people identify with pets, nature, the arts, elite schools. Of course they give to what they know, and love and want to preserve for themselves and their heirs. For the poor, we have to begin with the end in mind and work backward. Let's face facts. The poor, formerly middle-class included, will die in the streets as wealth rises to the pinnacle, and the top four hundred dynastic families increase their percentage ownership of the US from 50% to, say, 75% over the next ten years or so. (Money doubles every 10 years at 7 percent, if you have money). As long as more and more of our fellow Americans will starve anyway, why not expedite the process rather than prolonging the agony? We should not hold out false hope to losers. Everything happens for a reason. Life is good. Markets are fair. Justice is done, as Candide noted and Candidia concurs. It is, as Alexander Pope noted, the best of all possible worlds. The stench of carcasses in the streets is a necessary evil, though it could be minimized by criminalizing poverty, and shipping the poor offshore, in big rusty boats, say, some of which might sink, if you get my meaning, Sire.

 

Sparsio in the House Wealth Bondage Built

Candidia, she who rules us all, the goddess of unregulated capitalism, free of all constraints, unbounded in her lust for wealth and control, said it would trickle down. And so it has but not in that way exactly. I am just grateful to play a role however small in The Philanthrocapitalist Throne Room offering warm towels, hand lotion, and whatever moral advice will find favor, between the Opening Feast, Cruxifixion of Saints, The Pony Cart Races with the Presidential candidates in harness, bit, bridle, and blinders, The Three Legged Race of Regulators and Regulated, and the Final Orgy of Praise for the Status Quo. Sparsio. Small coins, nuts, candy, confetti, holy water. Let us be grateful for small blessings. Our name, at least mine, was not posted for this week's downsizing. Every day in Wealth Bondage is a gift.

Foundations Drifting Carelessly towards Social Justice

Bill Schambra touting small philanthropy and looking askance at the radicals at Gates Foundation.

But if the American people come to believe that their largest philanthropic enterprise has drifted carelessly and inadvertently into such a revolutionary undertaking, without subjecting its premises to constant self-criticism, then they may not be so complaisant about philanthropy's license.

Passionate, well-debated, response from Albert Ruesga here.

What I don't get is why big philanthropy has not embraced social justice, as in Occupy Wall Street? Drifting carelessly and inadvertently into social jsutice would do an aphorist like Oscar Wilde proud. I don't believe we can suggest Gates Foundation has done that, Bill. They love power in their own hands, as do your funders. Capitalists are safe with Philanthrocapitalists no less than with Hudson.

On the Politics of Philanthrocapitalism

David Bosworth, The Cultural Contradictions of Philanthrocapitalism.

What differentiates today's ideological presumption that the same techniques, management style, and value system that helped to generate the excessive income that is funding the pledge can also correct the social defects historically associated with income inequality.

Philanthropy might provide a link from capitalists to larger, more enduring moral and democratic traditions, including those of faith, hope, love and humility. Instead, it is increasingly becoming a leveraged buyout of both government and civil society. The Philanthrocapitalist (this is Phil talking) is the one-eyed man who insists we all poke one eye out to be like him. Gates may be a good man, but how limited as a sensibility, how technocratic, and unavailable to cultural critique. Bosworth relies heavily on Emerson, you know the friend of Thoreau who invented the transistor radio?