The New York Times reported recently that “a non-profit organization focused on charitable giving, found that households earning less than $25,000 a year gave away an average of 4.2 percent of their incomes; those with earnings of more than $75,000 gave away 2.7 percent.”
In other words, the “brokest” people in America help heal others, while fat cats are mostly out for their own tushes. What a hot mess!
This sheer inability of those who earn within high cash brackets to give to others who suffer, shows just how morally poor we are as a society.
To be fair, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, who rank in the topmost class of wealth give back extraordinarily: they and 38 others announced not long ago that they would give about half their wealth to charity.
But, while the United States has a healthy appetite–and record–for philanthropy, we also have a culture of self-centeredness that thrives amongst the upper class.
It is the lower class that shows much more empathy for others in need. “Those from lower incomes may give because they have been helped in a time of need or may have experienced not [having been] given to in their difficult times,” says Professor R. L’Heureux Lewis, assistant professor of Sociology and Black Studies at the City College of New York.
The upper class, on the other hand, “prioritizes its own need,” according to Paul K. Piff, a Ph.D. candidate at University of California, Berkeley, who studies the matter and interviewed with the Times.
By upper class, we mean those whose incomes fall under the Warren Buffets of the world…for example, P. Diddy, who saw nothing wrong with buying his son a $360,000 Maybach for his 16th birthday at the beginning of this year, while the rest of the country lamented over a painful recession.
And, what was Diddy’s reason for buying his 16-year-old son a car worth, literally, 14 people’s salaries? “I think it’s appropriate to give my kids whatever I want to give my kids,” Diddy said to Martin Beshar in an ABC interview.
Ah! Well, gee, thanks for the heads up, Diddy.
Now that we know what you’re about, maybe we can finally take a good look at ourselves and re-evaluate whether our hard-earned dollars should keep going to you and some of these other hip hop “artists” whose consciences are disgustingly bankrupt.
We’ve created the Diddy Monster, ladies and gentlemen. We took cash from our paychecks, so that he could return a decade later and spit in our faces with that ridiculous comment.
Diddy seems to forget that without the grace, fandom–and most importantly–money of poor people, he would be nowhere.
Some rich people seem to forget that the truest wealth in life comes from giving to those are most in need.
…
…
