While I was looking for information about a specific billionaire, I came across this 2023 list. I have mixed feelings about wealth and how it is gained and used. The use of philanthropy scores further caught my interest.
Gaining Wealth Can Be Ethical or Unethical
I think that wealth can be built ethically or unethically. By its nature, profit means that there is money left over after purchasing raw materials and paying the laborers for their work. In a very large company, this is much more complicated with the need for financial, legal, and other help to make sure the organization runs smoothly. If a company pays its workers well, gives them good benefits, does not extort people somewhere else in the world, or degrade the environment, and still makes a profit, I say that this is wealth ethically made.
If, however, the company tries to pay their workers as little as possible, offers them poor benefits, sources materials that harm the environment, or exploits foreign laborers, I think that this wealth is made unethically.
Forbes List of Billionaires
I came across Forbes’ List of Billionaires or Richest People for 2023. I noted that Forbes gave each billionaire a philanthropy score ranging from 0-5. I am not interested in people with a great deal of money, but what they do with wealth does intrigue me. At first glance, the billionaires, as a group, were not getting very high scores, but I had not figured out what the scores represented. I did some searching.
The scores correspond to the percentage of wealth that the billionaire has given to various causes. Note that there were scores of zero. This does not mean, necessarily, that these men and women did not give anything away. It means that the researchers could not find any information about their philanthropy or when they contacted the billionaire, he or she did not provide evidence of this.
Zero (explained above)
One – Person has given away 1 percent of wealth (One percent of a billion dollars is $10,000,000.)
Two – Person has given away 1-4.99 percent. (Five percent of a billion dollars is $50,000,000.)
Three – Person has given away 5-9.99 percent. (10 percent of a billion dollars is $100,000,000.)
Four – Person has given away 10 – 19.99 percent. (20 percent is $200,000,000.)
Five – Person has given away 20 percent or more.
What Were These Billionaires Philanthropy Scores?
In a list of the top 100 billionaires/riches people in the United States, I found that 14 had either given nothing or did not want to share the nature of their giving. Forty had given away one percent of their wealth. Twenty-nine had given between one and five percent. Nine had given five to ten percent of their wealth. Five had given between ten and twenty percent. Three had given 20 percent of their wealth or more.
Why Were the Philanthropy Scores Not Higher Overall?
It would be great if these bilionaires offered to help pay down the national debt, funded food pantries for the next twenty years, or built affordable housing. I reflected about why some people had lower scores.
- Some people will simply not give their money away.
- There were elderly billionaires and people in their twenties and thirties who qualified for the list. Older people, like Warren Buffet, who received a 5, are at a point in their lives when they want to see their money used for good.
- Some billionaires are worth this much but much of their assessed value is in companies that they founded or worked in. These investments do not translate directly to cash donations.
- I also imagine that a few people’s wealth is tied to the wealth of other people, if they co-founded a company or invited others to invest in the company.
The Joy of Giving
Giving others even small sums brings me joy, I cannot imagine how much joy giving sums in the millions of dollars brings or would bring the people on this list.
I used to read my daughter a picture book about the transformation that giving creates. I recommend it: “The Qulitmaker’s Gift” by Jeff Brumbeau, illustrated by Gail de Marcken. Amazon says it is intended for ages 3-8.
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