Charity & Giving
Lest I leave you with the mistaken impression that I'm becoming a Christian evangelist, I offer you both a religious and secular version of the same thing.
Now you might ask who would do such a thing.
Andrew Carnegie, founder of the steel company that became US Steel, gave away over 90% of his wealth (about $5 billion in today's dollars) during his lifetime and the remainder upon his death in 1911.
Bill Gates has contributed tens of billions of dollars to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates now dedicates himself nearly full time to philanthropy.
Warren Buffet, currently recognized as the wealthiest individual in the world, gave shares of Berkshire-Hathaway valued at over $30 billion to the Gates fund. He continues to contribute up to $1.5 billion on an annual basis on the condition that the fund be spent in its entirety for its intended purpose within fifty years of the deaths of the founders.
Noting that he paid 19% of his income for 2006 in total federal taxes while his employees paid 33% of theirs despite making much less money, Buffet has admonished the US government for taxing the wealthy at a rate he feels in too low. (As he put it in his typical homespun way in testimony before a Congressional committee, "You need to take a little more out of the hides of people like me.") Buffett also testified before the Senate and urged them to preserve the estate tax so as to avoid a plutocracy. And this is from the most successful capitalist in history.
Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.In other words, charity is not the giving but rather the joy in giving. No preconditions. No expectations.
St. Paul — Second Letter to the Corinthians 9:7
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English Poet, Essayist, Biographer, Lexicographer, and Literary Critic
Now you might ask who would do such a thing.
Andrew Carnegie, founder of the steel company that became US Steel, gave away over 90% of his wealth (about $5 billion in today's dollars) during his lifetime and the remainder upon his death in 1911.
Bill Gates has contributed tens of billions of dollars to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates now dedicates himself nearly full time to philanthropy.
Warren Buffet, currently recognized as the wealthiest individual in the world, gave shares of Berkshire-Hathaway valued at over $30 billion to the Gates fund. He continues to contribute up to $1.5 billion on an annual basis on the condition that the fund be spent in its entirety for its intended purpose within fifty years of the deaths of the founders.
Noting that he paid 19% of his income for 2006 in total federal taxes while his employees paid 33% of theirs despite making much less money, Buffet has admonished the US government for taxing the wealthy at a rate he feels in too low. (As he put it in his typical homespun way in testimony before a Congressional committee, "You need to take a little more out of the hides of people like me.") Buffett also testified before the Senate and urged them to preserve the estate tax so as to avoid a plutocracy. And this is from the most successful capitalist in history.
Comments
Post a Comment