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Sat 15 Jul, 2006 02:24 pm
Money as a Metric of Virtue?
Re: Money as a Metric of Virtue?
Here are some interesting statistics:
Quote:Most Charitable Corporations in 2003, measured by money contributions, ranked by percentage of income
Target: 2.1% ($88.8 million)
Nationwide: 1.3% ($15.8 million)
Coca-Cola: 1.2% ($67.2 million)
Safeway: 1.2% ($35.3 million)
Best Buy: 1.1% ($18.8 million)
Bristol-Myers Squibb: 1.1% ($64.4 million)
Boeing: 1.1% ($43.7 million)
Caterpillar: 1% ($32.6 million)
Wal-Mart Stores: 1% ($197.7 million)
Aetna: 1% ($17.5 million)
Source:
http://www.forbes.com/leadership/philanthropy/2005/11/11/charities-corporations-giving-cx_lm_1114charity.html (this article also lists 2003's most charitable corporations measured by contributions of supplies and goods)
Quote:60 Largest American Charitable Contributions of 2005
1 Cordelia Scaife May: $404 million
2 William H. (Bill) III and Melinda F. Gates: $320 million
3 Eli and Edythe L. Broad: $300 million
4 George Soros: $240.1 million
5 Boone Pickens: $229.2 million
6 David Rockefeller: $225 million
7 Michael Bloomberg: $144 million
8 Pierre and Pam Omidyar: $133.7 million
9 Ira A. and Mary Lou Fulton: $122 million
10 Lawrence J. Ellison: $115 million
11 Jan T. and Marica F. Vilcek: $109 million
12 David and Cheryl Duffield: $95 million
13 Josephine F. Ford: $90.9 million
14 T. Denny Sanford: $70.6 million
15 Robert Edward (Ted) Turner: $70.6 million
16 Sydell L. Miller and family: $70 million
17 Harold C. and Annette Simmons: $61.5 million
18 Peter B. Lewis Finance: $60.1 million
19 Bill and Louise Meiklejohn: $60 million
19 Theodore (Ted) and Vada Stanley: $54.4 million
21 John B. Ellis: $52 million
22 Oprah Winfrey: $51.8 million
23 Helen Snell Cheel: $49.3 million
24 Paul G. Allen: $49 million
25 Lorry I. Lokey: $46.2 million
26 Barbara Barrow Jacobs: $40.6 million
27 John W. Jordan II: $40 million
28 Donald and Barbara Jonas: $39.4 million
29 Bill Greehey: $36 million
30 William H. Jr. and Alice T. Goodwin: $32.5 million
30 Madeleine T. Schneider: $32.5 million
32 Robert E. Fischell: $31.1 million
33 Leonie Faroll: $31.1 million
34 Robert H. Smith: $30.2 million
35 Paul Merage: $30.1 million
36 Robert M. and Anne T. Bass: $30 million
36 A. James Clark: $30 million
36 Richard T. and Joyce Farmer: $30 million
36 James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin: $30 million
40 K. Raymond Clark: $29.3 million
41 Oscar Boonshoft and family: $28.5 million
42 William S. Boyd: $28 million
42 Charles Simonyi : $28 million
44 Bradford Freeman: $26 million
45 Andrew S. Grove: $26 million
47 William J. Godfrey: $25 million
47 Dorrance H. Hamilton: $25 million
47 Bruce Kovner: $25 million
47 Marlin Jr. and Regina Miller: $25 million
47 Ronald Spogli: $25 million
52 Larry H. and Gail Miller: $22.6 million
53 Arthur E. Benning: $22.5 million
54 Sidney Kimmel: $22 million
55 Lois Bates Acheson: $21 million
55 Frank E. Eck: $21 million
57 Geoffrey Beene: $20 million
57 John M. and Mary Jo Boler: $20 million
57 J. William and Mary Diederich: $20 million
57 Lacy and Dorothy Harber: $20 million
57 Roger and Victoria Sant: $20 million
57 Robert and Jan Weissman: $20 million
57 Albert Willner: $20 million
Source:
http://www.slate.com/id/2136397 (The numbers given here are total amounts donated or pledged, not total amounts actually paid. The article has more complete information, including where this money has been contributed.)
Where is Seyditz89 when you need him?
Max Weber linked capitalism in Europe to Calvanistic Predetermination and the Protestant Work Ethic, careful not to waste money, save it, invest it, and that economic prosperity reassured people that they were favored by God.
To Weber, capitalism grew out of this Christian philosophic base and this religious superstructure determined the infrastructure, the economics of capitalism. To the Calvinists, the evidence of God's favor were "providences," and every penny saved was another proof of their righteousness, and they actually referred to themselves as "Saints."
The Protestant Work Ethic is important to insight into the vissicitudes exhibited by excesses of capitalism in that the noblest impulses can give rise to somewhat contradictory consequences.
As Reinhart Bendix writes concerning this:
"Thus the disenchanted world order (no longer based on religious dogma-principles) of contempory industrial capitalist society has been spurred on its fateful course by . . . high-minded altruistic religious impulses."
btw: John Galt was a ficticious character who espoused a philosophy in conflict with the great moral and ethical teachers of humanity; he was in affect, a soulless idiot who searched for a philosophy to accomodate personal greed. His was a bastardized Nietzscheian "Will to Power" with none of the depth or appreciation for the archetypes or universal values of civilization or humanity.
His Ryndian philosophy is often greatly admired by clueless college sophmores who had their first encounter with Atlas Shrugged while downing their first bottle of cheap wine an hour earlier.
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