"Do It Anway: The New Generation of Activists" by Courtney E. Martin

[BridgeTheGap]

An excerpt from the book: Class Action

Tyrone Boucher, radical philanthropist,
Philadelphia

I wait by the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Union Square as the sounds of an urban farmers’ market buzz around me—crates of vegetables being lifted from truck beds, a guy hawking newspapers by the subway entrance, a conversation between two organic farmers. It seems an apt place to meet Tyrone Boucher for the first time. He’s the cofounder, with activist lawyer Dean Spade, of a blog called Enough, “a space for conversations about how a commitment to wealth redistribution plays out in our lives,” and he’s currently investing time and energy in food politics—working at a small-scale cooperative called Mariposa, in West Philadelphia.

I stumbled on his blog months earlier and was shocked at how transparent Tyrone, age twenty-six, was—he posted his entire giving plan and a thoughtful letter to his father about his reasoning for giving away the $400,000 he inherited. He’s part of a larger movement of young people from wealthy families who are questioning the morality of wealth accumulation and pioneering new ways of what they call “social justice philanthropy.”

The timing couldn’t be better: the United States is currently experiencing the biggest intergenerational transfer of wealth in its history. The Social Welfare Research Institute at Boston College estimates that even with the recent economic recession, $41 trillion will be inherited during the fifty-five-year period from class action 1998 through 2052. But the huge amount of wealth being passed down is concentrated in very few hands. According to the ChristianScience Monitor, only 24 percent of adult Americans expect to get an inheritance, and those who do can expect to receive an average of only $37,700. Tyrone’s experience is rare, but it also means that what he does with his inheritance—and what other young people like him do—can have a significant impact on all of us.

After e-mailing back and forth a bit, Tyrone and I found a time when he would be in New York to see his partner. We didn’t bother exchanging phone numbers or physical descriptions. I put two and two together and figured Tyrone was probably a black gay guy in his twenties.

Read more: http://www.utne.com/Politics/Book-Excerpt-Tyrone-Boucher-Do-It-Anyway.aspx#ixzz19Wsa0p5b

[xchrom]

1. very very interesting read.

the counter culture really does some very interesting stuff -- especially all the new DIY mavens.

[catzies]

2. Intergenerational transfer of wealth...I'm jealous...my parents squandered everything

My mom doesn't have a pot to piss in and my dad died broke after 4 marriages.

I mean literally my mom has nothing -- she didn't believe in working for The Man and stayed in the counter culture from the 60s on and never even paid into Social Security.

Bitter. Like a lemon.