The Dark Side of Modern Day Philanthropy

Everyone loves it when a wealthy man gives away money for charitable stuff or maybe for the Arts. He might even be called a philanthropist. The word philanthropy has connotations with good things such as generosity and kindness however, in reality the modern day philanthropist is anything but that. Take for example Warren Buffett who made his riches as an investor and has the largest share on one of the largest companies in America, Berkshire Hathaway. He has given away around 3.2% of his net worth, which is 1.8 billion dollars to charitable causes. However, I don’t understand why all of a sudden he is hailed as a good or honorable man when the manner in which he made his profit’s was anything but that. He maximized profit by adding tight quotas on his companies spending budget and by having minimal improvements made to his workplace. Rather than increasing pensions and increasing the quality of his workers lives, which would ultimately reduce profit, he chose to focus solely on reeling the money into his bank account. Only after his large sum of money, which was stored in off short bank accounts, piled ridiculously high did he turn to ‘higher causes’ like donating money to charity and to the arts.

Despicable.

My one week study leave is coming to an end. After this weekend I begin my exam period with Religious Studies being my first exam on Monday. Revision has been a complicated affair for me, I’ve been reading numerous textbooks and trying to absorb a lot of information in one go, and I worry whether most of it will stay with me. The only thing which is keeping me sane is the meticulous planning of my extra long summer, post GCSE’s. I am currently salivating at the prospect of being able to play league without the constant guilt nagging at the back of mind or something as simple as doing nothing for the whole day.

I will try to keep updating this blog regularly, however taking into consideration current stress levels and the looming exam period, forgive me if the posts come in irregular intervals.

Josh

08/05/15