The rich want a better world? Try paying fair wages and tax

[Blue_Tires]

It is surely admirable – isn't it? – that 40 US billionaires, led by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, have signed the "giving pledge" to donate half their fortunes to charity. Far better that they open their wallets to deserving causes than that they spend yet more money on yachts, carbon-emitting private jets or garish mansions. Well, yes. Salute Gates, whose foundation has already saved perhaps five million lives through the development and delivery of vaccines against diseases such as TB. Salute Buffett who says his children won't inherit "a significant proportion" of his wealth. The filthy rich, or some of them, have shown they have a heart.

But let's be clear. Money paid to charity is exempt from tax; the US treasury already loses at least $40bn (£25bn) a year from tax breaks for donations. So billionaires, not the democratically elected and (at least theoretically) accountable representatives of the people, get to decide on the good causes. Those who already wield enormous economic power can determine social priorities too. Of course, the poor also contribute to charity but most don't get the tax breaks because they don't pay income tax.

As Michael Edwards, a former World Bank adviser, asked in a study for the thinktank Demos, Small Change: Why Business Won't Change the World: "Why should the rich and famous decide how schools are going to be reformed, or what drugs will be supplied at prices affordable to the poor, or which civil society groups get funded for their work?" And even if they give away half their money (or 99% in Buffett's case), billionaires will still be rich. Their generosity, however, helps to legitimise inequality and head off political protest. Some of them may become even richer, because charitable giving is good marketing and, sometimes, can be used to tie recipients into buying the donors' products and services.

You may think, if we're talking about mosquito nets to stop children dying from malaria or drugs for HIV, that it doesn't matter where the money comes from. In the short term, it probably doesn't. But rich business people tend to bring their own values to charitable giving, and there's a danger they will undermine those of the voluntary sector. One billionaire who signed the "giving pledge", the Oracle founder Larry Ellison (worth $28bn), has said: "The profit motive could be the best tool for solving the world's problems."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/aug/05/philanthropy-does-not-pay-taxes

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Nah, that would involve giving their money to us peasants.

[NoNothing]

2. Yeah, seriously

We'd probably just blow it all on hookers and blackjack.

[ret5hd]

3. and recreational abortions!

[Jefferson23]

4. K&R

[Demeter]

5. Think Rich Thinks a Better World Wouldn't Have Us in It

I'd like to see them diapering their own babies, changing their own oil or shocks, manufacturing anything, or even taking out the garbage....

[KoKo]

6. The "Rich" wanting a "Better World" is all so much "Smoke & Mirrors" befitting the Cable Channels

so they can give their views to the gullible who watch that stuff. The REST OF US...just shake our heads and blame the "Gullible."

Hard to deal with this kind of propaganda...isn't it. Without a "Fair and Balanced" that's REAL and not what "FAUX NEWS CLAIMS" ...it gets even harder and harder. :-(

[roxiejules]

7. What are the chances?

"If the rich really wish to create a better world, they can sign another pledge: to pay their taxes on time and in full; to stop lobbying against taxation and regulation; to avoid creating monopolies; to give their employees better wages, pensions, job protection and working conditions; to make goods and use production methods that don't kill or maim or damage the environment or make people ill. When they put their names to that, there will be occasion not just for applause but for street parties."

[The Magistrate]

8. Hear Hear, Sir!

And then think of all the fun they could have getting it all back in profits....