How do you feel about wealthy people that don’t give back?
I’m pretty firmly in the “there are no good billionaires” camp and borderline “eat the rich” camp, even if they do “give back.” The mere concept of giving back is preposterous to me. That a person could have amassed so much wealth as to starve their community to a point that they need to give some of it back is insane.
Charitable giving is good. I’m not saying it’s not. But it shouldn’t be necessary in the first place. In an ideal world, charities wouldn’t exist because people would just help one another. Everyone would have what they need to live comfortably.
Of course, we don’t live in an ideal world, and our communities are many and varied. It might be nice to think of humanity as a whole as one community for the sake of this prompt, but the world is not so simple as that. Still, the moral is the same either way.
Wealthy people, groups, nations, what-have-you, they hoard resources. They collect their treasure troves and roost upon them and guard them jealously, believing with every fiber of their being that they earned their riches through hard work and perseverance and that they deserve every cent. Even if that were the smallest percent true, they’ve still stashed a sizable portion of available resources that would better serve the community as a whole. Keeping it in reserve is morally reprehensible and borderline malicious.
Yes, most wealthy people give back in some form. But the miniscule good it provides for the beneficiaries does not counterbalance the larger problem. The donations are a pittance compared to the vast sums attributed to the benefactors and they continue to grow their wealth even as they give back. They don’t even notice that money.
The most charitable givers are the people who have nothing and still do what they can to help their fellow man. When wealthy people start “giving back” a proportionate amount, I’ll stop complaining about what bad people they are.
Notes: Well this prompt got me feisty, huh. Money is a blessing and a curse. I’m just happy to have enough to live comfortably and eat well and have enough left over to help other people when I can. I would really love to have enough to quit my day job and focus on writing full time, but alas, that’s probably still a few years away. Unless of course some wealthy patron wants to “give back” and pay off my student loans. *winkwink* *nudgenudge* No? Ah well, sometimes you just gotta shoot your shot.
That’ll do it for this week’s prompts. Tomorrow (today, I guess, technically) there’s a nasty winter storm coming in the afternoon. My plans are to snuggle up on the couch and finish my first read of the year (Warrior of the Altaii by Robert Jordan) while hubby plays video games and then spend the rest of the afternoon/evening writing. I’m very excited for that. Dunno yet what I want to work on, but I’m gonna write so much!
Have a great weekend!
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