The 1% are not necessarily the villains. If solutions are to be found, the best elements of the 1% are likeliest to fund it, if only because so few other than the 1% have any significant discretionary funds. This 2012 study, US Trust Insights into Wealth and Worth(tm), has many promising indications that the wealthy often do have a social conscience and are willing to fund positive social change initiatives, including those that create and preserve jobs. I am talking with firms that specialize in business exit planning (liqudity events) with an eye to promoting workshops for business owners in transition from success to significance. The seminars would be put on by those I have trained in philanthropic advising and others trained in business exit planning. A possible venue for these seminars would be community foundations.
Many of business owners, it turns out, (per data from Business Enterprise Institute), whose business are in the range of $10-20 million, actually sell their business not to outsiders, nor to family, but to an ESOP (employee stock option plan). They do so for the personal tax benefits, to create a market for their stock, and to protect jobs by keeping the company under employee ownership. I find this very promising for this country. I dearly hope that whatever your politics, you can see that it is up to us, not the politicians or the Ford Foundation, to fix things as best they can be fixed. The most capable "can do" people are often those who have created a locally owned business. And they, the local entrepreneurs, are also among the most philanthropic people in the community, and the most willing to reinvest in their home town. I found this out, not from books and academic studies, but by experience in working with advisors and their clients in towns big and small. The studies simply confirm what I have seen so often, down many a dusty road, as the country client kicks dirt on my polished shoes.Where you from, boy? Still, we get to be civic friends.
In getting things done, forget labels and politics and the stereotypical ways people talk (this one sounding like Fox News and that one sounding like PBS). Forget the noises they make. Ignore the vitriol of this one and the snobbery of that one. Watch their hands and feet. Praise all those who make a personal lived commitment to making life better for others, or giving another an even chance in life. Among the most likely to act responsibly in my experience are, indeed, the job creators in our local communities. Bain Capital? I only know them from what I hear on TV, before the cable went out, for my not paying the bill. But I can vouch for Rotary.
