Wonderful Wealth

Wealth often gets a bad rap. It's often associated with greed, excess, and other less-than-desirable qualities.

But wealth can also be a good thing -- or even a great thing -- when used in the right way. That's exactly the point made by Forbes editor Rich Karlgaard in this piece titled "Wonderful Wealth". He starts by addressing those who think poorly of wealth:

Item from a hurricane Katrina-related Washington Post story last month: "John D. Podesta, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and head of a leading Democratic think tank, says Democrats must start by casting Bush's brand of conservatism--emphasizing an ‘ownership society' elevating individualism and private enterprise--as fundamentally flawed and hostile to society's collective responsibility to help citizens."

Really? The hole in Podesta's logic is of Category 5 size. Which groups did the better job in aiding Katrina's victims--government or the loathed individuals from the netherworld of "private enterprise"? That's easy: the private sector. Government, at all levels, failed New Orleans. Paralysis prevailed in the public sector--from Mayor Ray Nagin to Governor Kathleen Blanco to the Bush Administration. But it is the poor souls stripped of their dignity and initiative by living for 40 years under the umbrella of welfare who are paying the price.

He then uses examples of how privately-owned wealth was used for good to respond to Hurricane Katrina. First, let's see what businesses did:

• Wal-Mart, even before Katrina hit, had mobilized its world-class distribution network to stock New Orleans-area stores with bottled water, canned food and other essentials. It gave $3 million worth of items, $2 million to the American Red Cross and Salvation Army and has pledged $15 million to the relief fund run by former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. According to published accounts the Walton Family Foundation has donated $8 million to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund and $7 million to relief organizations, including the Salvation Army, America's Second Harvest, a food-bank network, and the Foundation for the Mid South.
• Microsoft engineers, in four days, developed Katrinasafe.org, a Web site to help evacuees locate missing family members.
• IBM and Lenovo sent more than 1,500 laptop and desktop computers, worth more than $1 million, to several Katrina relief groups.
• Home Depot gave $1.5 million to relief efforts. As of mid-September its employees, on their own, had given $700,000.

Now, let's review how some prominent people gave:

• Paul Allen, Microsoft cofounder, is giving $500,000 to the Red Cross for immediate relief efforts for food, shelter and medical care. He pledged another $500,000 to aid in longer-term efforts.
• Bill Gates and his wife are giving $1.5 million to the American Red Cross, $750,000 to the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, $500,000 to America's Second Harvest and $250,000 to the NAACP. Meanwhile, Microsoft is working closely with local and state governments and businesses to help repair IT systems and is giving away $9 million in cash, technology and hardware.
• Michael Dell and his wife pledged $2.5 million to be used immediately and another $2.5 million to help in rebuilding. Dell's company pledged $1 million in cash, set a target of $1 million in employee donations and gave away computers, servers and storage units.
• Robert McNair, majority owner of the Houston Texans football team, and his wife, Janice, are giving $1 million to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund to help displaced Gulf Coast residents now taking refuge in Houston. McNair has also offered to let the New Orleans Saints use Reliant Stadium, where the Texans play.
• Oprah Winfrey, the billionaire Queen of Talk, was one of the first celebrities to visit the Gulf Coast. A native of rural Mississippi, Winfrey delivered an emotional broadcast from New Orleans on Sept. 6, just days after the hurricane. Her charity gave $1 million to America's Second Harvest and reportedly shipped 500,000 bottles of water to the area via FedEx.

He then quotes one of the most prominent Democrats in the past century to support his point:

"Dependence [on welfare]," said FDR in 1935, "induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole our relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit."

The creation of wealth does the opposite. It builds up the human spirit. It strengthens the national fiber.

So, what do you think?

Comments

[robert the red]

Paul Allen is worth about $20 billion, so $1 million is 0.005% of his net worth. I've donated about 0.07% of my net worth (whoop de do). However, if we figure the rebuilding/recovery/aid costs at $100 billion and the net worth of the US as $20 trillion, we in fact need 0.5% of the country's net worth to fix things up after Katrina. Very rough numbers. In other words, us well-off folk are so far being stingy, not generous. I should give what I already gave 6 times over (or even more, since I'm at about the 93-rd percentile in wealth, and so won't be hurting), and Paul Allen 100 times over. Or the government can do it, and we all give via taxes.

I remember the hoopla over the private generosity of the 'Live Aid' efforts for famine relief in Ethiopia, about 20 years ago. Worldwide they raised about $50 million. The US government alone gave $500 million, and other countries' governmental contributions more than doubled THAT figure. Much less publicity and self-congratulation for the much larger government amounts, which counted for a lot more in actual help.

Now, as far as generosity goes, I do admire Bill Gates for donating so much money to the fight against malaria -- $1 billion, I think.

[ron]

Whoop-de-do. microsoft made some webpages and Oprah Winfrey exploited the tragedy for some nice ratings. Who did all the actual studies and weather forecasting and told people to get the hell out? The government. Who organized the actual rescues when they finally happened? The government. Who will provide 99% of the funds to rebuild? The government. Who will organize and plan the rebuilding? The government. And on it goes.

Private businesses fail everyday and I've worked for some of them. And the reason they failed was terrible leadership at the top, not bad products, or bad organization, or poor execution by the underlings. Businesses can be just as bad and worse than government but we can't afford to have the US go out of business.

The solution is to improve government and to elect better people to lead it. Why? Because it is OUR government and OUR country and it's what I have loyalty to and am patriotic about and it is in EVERYONE'S best interest. I couldn't care less about Walmart or Microsoft.

[UncommonWay]

I totally agree with the quote about welfare being destructive to the national fiber. "If you want to destroy a man," I've heard it said, "just give him everything he wants without effort on his part." Welfare creates a sense of entitlement that lasts for generations, and saps the spark life from those who are on the dole.

As for Walmart, Microsoft, and the rest, they are a highly visible example of the deep desire that many people have to give to those in need. If you look back in our nation's history, before the New Deal, most men belonged to mutual welfare associations. That way, if one of them fell on hard times, he had a safety net. He also had a sense of responsibility to his benefactors because he knew them all by name, and he wanted to be able to look them square in the eye. If only it were still that way.