June 1, 2005 | Read Time: 1 minute
Generation Deluxe: Consumerism and Philanthropy of the New Super-Rich
by Iris Nowell
Iris Nowell, a Canadian writer, describes “generation deluxe” as two types of super-rich people: those who consume extravagantly, adding to the social and environmental problems of the world, and those who use their largess to solve global problems. In this book, Ms. Nowell focuses on these trends to explore how the world’s richest are using their money both for good and bad.
She contrasts billionaires who spend vast amounts of money on themselves and their environments, building multimillion-dollar mansions that encourage sprawl, illegal logging, and the overuse of chemicals and energy with those who use their wealth to combat many of those same problems. Ecology has been a priority for many philanthropists, she says, noting that environmental organizations depend on the support of rich donors. A new breed of “eco-philanthropists,” meanwhile, is following after the Mellons and Rockefellers, who donated private land for conservation.
Ms. Nowell writes that the collapse of the technology boom, followed by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, had the effect of strengthening the social conscience of many wealthy people. She argues that today’s biggest philanthropists are focused more than ever on identifying problems and measuring change.
For example, her book examines how fighting world poverty, hunger, and disease has become the modus operandi for some of the world’s richest people. She looks at how contributions from Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and the musician Bono are being used to fight HIV/AIDS, for instance, and how Ted Turner and George Soros have used their money to tackle problems they don’t think government is doing enough to solve.
Publisher: The Dundurn Group, 8 Market Street, Suite 200, Toronto, Canada M5E 1M6; (416) 214-5544; fax (416) 214-5556; http://www.dundurn.com; 336 pages; $21.99; ISBN 1-55002-503-1.
