General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhatever happened to the uber wealthy doing grand gestures to benefit the public good?
Not that I'm advocating for the 1% but there was a time when they took great pride in contributing portions of their wealth to the public good. There are no Carnegies or Rockefellers today. The only one who comes close is Bill Gates, but his focus seems more global. Are there more that I'm missing or is that generous public spirit and American pride now gone?
undeterred
(34,658 posts)Freddie
(9,275 posts)May have gotten wealthy in less-than-honest ways, but he believed that "from whom much is given, much is expected" and taught his children to do the same. unlike the GOP "I've got mine, f*ck you" values
undeterred
(34,658 posts)Welcome to DU!
cali
(114,904 posts)What about Chuck Collins?
(Collins is an heir to the Oscar Mayer fortune)
Chuck Collins is co-founder of Wealth for the Common Good, a network of business and civic leaders, wealth individuals and partners promoting fair and adequate taxation to support public investment in a healthy economy. He is author of 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It. He is co-author, with Bill Gates Sr., of Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes (Beacon Press, 2003).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chuck-collins/
And actually, there are more than a few others.
Now you know.
Raine
(30,541 posts)info! I had no idea about the Oscar Meyer heir. It gives a person hope to know not all are greedy.
cali
(114,904 posts)scarletwoman
(31,893 posts)The spirit of our Age is selfishness and greed. The uber-wealthy feel no commonality whatsoever with the "public", much less any regard for the "public good".
Courtesy Flush
(4,558 posts)I believe the rich used to walk on eggshells for fear of a popular uprising against them. Now, trailer parks are full of Randian Tea Partiers who staunchly defend the 1%'s right to keep everything for themselves.
I know unemployed people who feel this way. The rich have replaced god.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)Raine
(30,541 posts)land for parks etc ... but none of that kind of giving anymore.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,400 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Pigs.
slampoet
(5,032 posts)Nikia
(11,411 posts)To celebrate his 50th class reunion. I'm not sure if he gives money other places and what percentage of his assets $1 million equal.
Where I live now, a local business owning family mostly finance the boy's and girl's club which is all well and good except they pay their production workers $9.50, which is why their parents couldn't afford youth programs otherwise.