Jackson Hole & Philanthropy

In my first post, I discussed an interest I have in questions of corporate philanthropy.  Why is it that some businesses give money, goods, or services to non-profit causes?  A starker question is will this philanthropy continue as businesses are started and grow with a corporate form, as opposed to a pattern a century ago of businesses that started as individual enterprises and then took on a corporate form? 

I was reminded of this while watching Ken Burn's series on PBS about the national parks.  As a teenager I spent a lot of time backpacking in Grand Teton National Park.  The camp was on the eastern side of Jackson Hole with a clear view of Tetons to the west.  That view, and the 17 mile drive across the valley, was unmared except by elks, and that all had to do with John D. Rockefeller, Jr., buying up the valley floor and waiting 15 years to donate it to the nation.  Burns' series tells that story in two parts and it, like similar uses of vast wealth as a tool for good, has its source in something more that one man's desire to improve his family's reputation.  There must be something deeper than that -- something about the purposes of wealth. 

This is not a broad-based critique of wealth, or of corporations, or of capitalism.  In that debate, I will be a strong defender of those.  But it is a querie about how the culture of giving is generated and how it is transferred to a corporate culture. 

Comments

[Dianne Schmidley]

Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Carnegie Institute, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (to which Warren Buffet gave his millions). Do charitable works exonerate those who exploited labor? Don't know the answer to this tough question, but I am happy the National Parks got the support they did, even though I have not see the Grand Tetons. God bless them all.

[TJD]

Diane, your comments are likely to provoke a spirited debate--I'm not sure that Bill Gates needs exoneration in my view, nor necessarily the others on your list. I just don't agree that succesful capitalists are inherently bad and in need of redemption.

On another note, I've spent some time in Jackson Hole and the Tetons as well--it is pretty spectacular country!

[Salvatore DeGennaro]

I think these corporate giants need to be judged on an individual basis. Most of these figures have a pension for philanthropy, some more than others. With someone like Bill Gates, I always have a problem with comprehending how a single individual amasses such wealth, but a lot of people got rich along with Gates. A lot of people are employed because of Gates.

I think that Andrew Carnegie is an interesting individual among these corporate figures. He was certainly a great philanthropist, spending a great deal of money on many good works, but I remember reading about the working conditions in his steel mills; dangerous conditions and shockingly low pay. This was common for the time in industry, but I find it disturbing how a man gained such wealth while his labor force toiled under horrifying conditions. I don’t think we can but Bill Gates quite in that camp!

[Dianne Schmidley]

As a die hard lover of Quatro Pro and Word Perfect, I was dragged kicking and screaming to MicroSoft products. I was never in the Mac camp, but understand some Mac lovers felt the same way about their product. Is Bill Gates really that great? He was a major George Bush donor, and shortly after the first campaign, Micro Soft landed the Civil Service contract for software thus causing Civil Servants being ordered to use MicroSoft products. Any connection here? Meanwhile, the Europeans took him to court and won a judgement against Micro Soft. On the other hand, George Bush and the Gates Foundation have done good fighting AIDS in Africa and Asia.

And how about the Sage of Omaha (Buffet). Many folks idolize him, and as far as I can tell he make his millions as a hedge fund manager. Wonder how much he is implicated in the Mortgage meltdown mess? Maybe we idolize those we know the least about.

No, I as far as I know I have never seen the Tetons, but I lived in a National Park in NC when I was a child (long story).