In Defense of Philanthrocapitalism

When Mark Zuckerberg, the C.E.O. of Facebook, announced that he would be donating ninety-nine per cent of his Facebook stock to a new nonprofit organization, he got his share of positive headlines.

But the move was also dismissed as a tax-avoidance scheme, a public-relations gambit, a way to boost Facebook’s profits under the guise of doing good, and the latest expression of the “white savior industrial complex.” The economist Thomas Piketty, the author of “Capital,” said simply that the donation “looks like a big joke.”

Yet philanthropic investment in global projects continues to increase. Anne Petersen, the president of the Global Philanthropy Alliance, told  :

“American philanthropy used to be all about giving locally. But there’s been a dramatic trend toward international giving, and that’s only going to continue.” It’s reasonable to lament the fact that a small number of billionaires have so much power over which problems get dealt with and which do not. But they have that power precisely because they are spending so much of their money to solve global problems. We, as a country, are not.”

Read the full article on “The New Yorker” website

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