Why do the vast majority of people with large sums of surplus money not become philanthorpists and feel proud?

Question

I know people who are so poor, yet they care about others and give acts of kindness, and what money they can afford to help others. I admire and will aspire to their character and heart, rather than the greed, arrogance, and pursuit of status and power of the business men, celebs and most of the well off.

Answer 1

It is just human nature to usually not be satisfied with what you have. This is by no means a justification, just a statement of the obvious. Sometimes, I believe rich people have a hard time relating to the poor, while the poor know how bad it sucks to be there so they choose to help with whatever they can.

The only advice I can give you if you want to see a better society is this. You should start working on bettering yourself in all aspects of your life and principals. Then you should work on your family and friends, and eventually (hopefully) you will create a chain reaction that will help all of society. As Ghandi said it, "be the change you want to see in others."

Good luck with that, I promise you I will try and maybe both of us and probably many others can one day help to change the whole of society.

PS: I am sure there are many rich people out there that help what they can. I also want to say that not everyone can make it to the top, I have been blessed and have made it, but sometimes the mistakes you make in life catch up to you and can keep you down.

PSS: Many people will tell you that if you are not following your own teachings to the exact point, you have no right to teach them. This is not true, warning others can help wake them and yourself up, so keep on preaching my friend.

Answer 2

I think the majority of wealthy people would like to give money to the poor. The problem is that charities through which a weaalthy person can contribute to the fight against poverty are normally corrupt, and can not be trusted use all the money for charitable purposes. And setting up a private fund is too time-consuming; most of these wealthy people are only wealthy because they work so hard at what they do. Average people can afford the time to help other poor people. Overall I think there is growing culture of philanthropy among the wealthy: Oprah's school in South Africa, Buffet's multi-billion dollar donation to the Bill and Melinda Gates Fund, and the number of academies being set up and supported by sports stars are a sign of a good trend. In truth, its difficult I suppose to part with hard-earned money.

Answer 3

Do you mean people like Bill Gate whose Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation funds amoung other things, HALF, yes, HALF of the world's malaria research?

Like Warren Buffett who maybe a year ago announced that most of his money after he died would be going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?

Gee. I don't know why some of the most rich men and women in America don't have huge philanthropic enterprises.

This country has a lot of examples of the very rich giving to the public good. Libraries were built with I belive Andrew Carnegie's money is anothe example.

Sure, there are plenty of rich who don't do much, both on the conservative side and on the liberal side. One thing seems to be that conservatives tend to give to things that they know work, things that are actionable and producing results. Liberals tend to believe that if you throw money at a problem you can make it go away. Take one of the most famous fund raisers that was spearheaded by a liberal, Live Aid. That raised a TON of money for famine relief. However, it didn't address the most basic problems of overpopulation in famine areas, corruption in governments in those famine areas, tribal fighting and genocide actions in those areas, etc, etc. All it did was get money for food that was promptly put into corrupt officials hands and did little more than prolong someone's life in a horrid, horrid situation.

Answer 4

Your assumption is ignorant and bias. Greed is not a personality trait of the wealthy; it is a trait of humans in general. Even a poor person can be greedy.

The only way a wealthy person can NOT give back to others is if he or she burns or buries their money.

However they spend or invest their money, they are passing their wealth back to others. They are creating jobs, funding technology and providing scholarships. Hopefully they are doing this in our country.

I have worked with the wealthy, and without exception they have had enormous character and heart, rather than the greed and arrogance demonstrated by the socialist's ideal of confiscating the wealth of others by way of pandering politicians, hungry for their votes.

Instead of depending on their own abilities in providing a marketable product or service and assuming the responsibility for their own lives.

Many wealthy individuals give to charitable causes far more than you realize. They don't advertise their gifts because they do not want to be inundated by requests.

Beware the wealthy person who does pronounce their charitable nature for they are usually the 'well-off ' who are arrogant and looking to increase their status and power through celebrity.

Answer 5

GREED GREED. It is everywhere. If I had tons of money, I wouldn't work, I'd volunteer my time to help others and I would give money to ligit charties and definitely set up college funds for kids that work so hard in school to make the grade and just finish High School and are unable to do go any further. I could list so many things I would like to do. Of what I do have I donate all clothes, shoes and any items to local charities.

I just wish people that had a lot more would do a lot more. I feel the same way you do.

Answer 6

I firmly believe that anyone who has a vast fortune, and does not give a fair proportion of it to people that desperately need it are evil in every sense of the word. How can a man sit in one of his mansions and drive one of his exotic cars without a hint of guilt? I believe a lot of rich people do give generously. The ones that don't are bad people. Its alright in my books to have 1 mansion and one Ferrari, not 10 and 20. That is pure evil greed!

Answer 7

at the start ... mom ought to be changing that funds. What corporation does she have going into your room and doing something with the bag. Secondly, I lost a $a million,000.00 handbag as quickly as and $six hundred.00 in funds (the money wasn't in the handbag, 2 separate events). Embarrassingly sufficient, I even have lost $six hundred.00 in funds two times. =(

Answer 8

1. you haven't seen poor if you live in America.

2. Why don't people without huge sums of money work harder so that they can give more money away?

Answer 9

Sounds like class envy to me , How do you know that they don't give to charities just because they don't make a big show of handing out money doesn't mean they don't give.

Answer 10

not only the wealthy can donate money and time to charities.. i imagine you are like most that have done very little yourself, if anything at all

unless you dedicate your life to the needs of others, you really have no moral ground to stand on