CAN BILLIONAIRES WITH A CONSCIENCE MAKE THE DIFFERENCE?

I couldn't resist! Soon after posting my earlier post I came across this so as an addendum...

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have caused widespread debate with their recent call on the wealthiest people in the world to give half their fortunes to charity, writes WMG Media. Some saw their move as unacceptable interference in the private affairs of others, while activists resurrected the argument that taxation would achieve social justice far more effectively than philanthropy.

The Gates Foundation is now by far the biggest philanthropic foundation in the world, with three times the endowment of its closest rival, the Ford Foundation, and has a truly global reach to its activities, reports The American Prospect, in an examination of the giving game.

One of the reasons that such foundations are needed is because efforts by national governments and international organisations to address world poverty, such as the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, have been rich in promises and poor in delivery. Melinda Gates believes that persistent nagging – including with powerful world leaders – is key to improving outcomes in neglected areas.

It is an approach they are hoping to expand upon. Along with Warren Buffett and David Rockefeller, Bill and Melinda Gates recently convened a series of secret meetings to convince other billionaires to become ‘Great Givers’, in line with Buffett's belief that “huge fortunes that flow in large part from society should, in large part, be returned to society.”

Over lavish meals, they convinced 37 other major money-makers including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, media executive Barry Diller, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and energy tycoon T Boone Pickens to embrace their view that more money donated equals fewer problems, writes The American Prospect.
The American Prospect: Gatekeepers

But what works in one society does not necessarily work in another, writes WMG Media.

The announcement that Gates and Buffett would visit China to promote the Giving Pledge was met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm from China’s roughly 500 000 millionaires, reports Global Times. Columnist Mike Freier writes, “while strong Christian traditions and the frontier heritage have forged charity into an integral part of American society, in China altruism typically does not extend outside of the family circle.

“Statistics prove that their stinginess hardly is a unique Chinese attribute but is shared by rich people virtually worldwide from countries with a collectivist legacy,” argues Freier.
Global Times: China’s rich haven’t caught on to charity’s benefits

And then there is the small matter of what the motivation is and whether that should even matter, writes WMG Media.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s $100m donation to inner-city schools, made on the Oprah Winfrey show just hours before the release of an unauthorised biography and a film that depicts Zuckerberg in an unflattering light, is a case in point. A sceptical nation asks, was it all a PR stunt?