June 18, 1998 | Read Time: 2 minutes
“America could be on the verge of a golden age of philanthropy, of a sort not seen since the 1900s,” says The Economist (May 30). “But if that is to happen,” it says, “many more of the entrepreneurs who are changing the rules of everything from computers to high finance will have to start applying their minds to the art of giving as well.”
Among the major philanthropists of the 1990s, the magazine says, most “show little imagination.” It says that Silicon Valley millionaires “seem more likely to create creches for their employees’ pets than programs designed to assist the poor and the unskilled who are being priced out of the area’s soaring property market. When the geeks do stoop from time to time to charitable work, they tend to do self-serving things such as providing local schools with free computers.”
The Economist says that “all this is a missed opportunity. Larger forces are changing the rules of American philanthropy; if the new rich acted more creatively, they could influence the outcome, and their legacy would be multiplied.”
For philanthropy to seriously ameliorate social conditions, the magazine says, it needs help from business leaders. “The old foundations have stood the test of time and still give generously. But many lack a sense of urgency, and more are led by the conservative and the old-fashioned. American philanthropy needs to call on the same brains that have changed American business.”
But the magazine also says that business leaders themselves will need to recognize that poor and middle-class Americans feel that the rich owe a debt to society that should be repaid through philanthropy. It says a “dangerous” idea abounds that “America’s rich owe their wealth entirely to their own brilliance, when in fact they also owe much of it to the system that allows and encourages great wealth to be created.”
“Philanthropy is part of the unspoken contract that underpins the American dream. If that contract is broken,” the magazine warns, “a backlash is likely. Every American, rich and poor, would lose.”
