One of the concepts from Baumer and Cortines' God and Money which resonated with me is that charity should be given from a genuine heart though financial giving is nonetheless a moral requirement (2016). Consider if everyone who had the means to donate their money to they in need actually did so without a frugality that is a masquerade for hoarding an overabundance of wealth. Or ponder upon if all philanthropy were done without a frugality that is to be undone primarily when one wants to acquire luxuries when so many cannot even afford necessities. The counter-argument to this notion is that the individuals whose coffers overflow with riches should be mandated to give up a reasonable portion to aid the economically disadvantaged (whether through changing tax codes or through rhetoric alone).
However, the caveat to this sentiment is that wealthy individuals with hardened hearts (or hearts who are asleep to the extent of economic destitution) are more likely to exploit loopholes to enforce stinginess upon their giving, dig their heels further into their stance of not donating money (due to being forced into it, which is apt to be aided by the stigmatizing feeling of being unduly punished for their success), and will be more likely to snap back into reticence of withholding money if those mandates were to be weakened or done away with. This concern is aided by the Biblical supported position that God desires one’s heart rather than actions alone. The revolutionary concept of charitable giving is highlighted by real life accounts in God and Money. ~ ~ ~ Will Pope is a gas and oil executive whose business reaps a flurry of riches though he is an exemplar of donating money out of the abundance of one’s heart (Cortines & Baumer, 2016). His love for other people who aren’t as fortunate as him is reflected in how he employs charitable giving, rather than merely how much he gives. According to the book, Will voluntarily caps his annual salary at $200,000 (an astonishing cut, given that he’s the CEO of a financially robust company), he pays his employees much more than what is normal for the industry, and he gives the remaining money to charities, as well as interns who often don’t get paid in other organizations, even if those companies are wealthy (Cortines & Baumer, 2016). Furthermore, he regularly pays it forward by leaving envelopes of encouraging letters and $20 dollars upon random people’s car windshields. His generosity is shared by many corporate executives according to God and Money yet not enough of them do so. Cortines and Baumer elaborate that if such philanthropy were carried out by they who are at the tip top of the economic class then poverty would be sent into extinction. However, the authors’ revelation that the economic system is mostly rigged (where the wealthy wouldn’t be nearly as successful without their employees; and by extension, the economically privilegeds' inherited mass wealth) ties into the notion that poverty cannot be eradicated without making our economic system truly equitable. Poverty cannot be wiped out without economic structural reform as per a recent analysis from the United Nations' (UN) Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, titled: The parlous state of poverty eradication (Alston, 2020). The report noted that no amount of philanthropy alone is capable of eradicating poverty and that truly progressive taxation, rather than a piecemeal form of it, is an essential tool for fixing our inequitable system. Likewise, healing our Capitalistic institution to leave no one behind also entails restorative justice. The UN analysis also relayed that tax avoidance (which are partly aided by tax havens), effectively low corporate tax rates, and too much deregulation of corporations has led to billionaires effectively paying lower taxes nowadays than the people who are entrenched in lower economic classes (Alston, 2020). So how does one reconcile the enriching morality of charitable giving alongside the necessity of fixing an economic system with loopholes and inequitable taxation? The choices aren’t a dichotomy and both should be accomplished. Since there is an economic life-and-death emergency (which has existed for decades), we need to implement economic reforms even when there is resistance amongst the ultra wealthy. Besides bringing restorative justice, the action of rescuing people who are victims of an emergency is necessary. Not doing so would be akin (though in a simplified manner) to if neurosurgeons didn’t do their jobs because their hearts weren’t sufficiently moved to empathy...all while the medical board enabled them to get away with it as their patients suffer, even unto death. Therefore, the solution to this unique problem is to enact an equitable economic system (which includes closing tax loopholes) while simultaneously striving to appeal to the heart of individuals who are exceedingly fortunate in their finances, aided by the example set forth by executives who buck the norm, like Will. ~ ~ ~ References Alston, P. (n.d.). The parlous state of poverty eradication (Rep.). Retrieved July 2, 2020, from United Nations Human RIghts Council website: https://chrgj.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Alston-Poverty-Report-FINAL.pdf Cortines, J., & Baumer, G. (2016). God and money: How we discovered true riches at Harvard Business School. Rose Publishing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
December 2022
Categories
All
|