Weapons of Mass Distraction:

Philanthropy

---Kevin Walsh, NACAZAI Editor 

Suppose you were carrying $100 in your wallet while on an evening stroll by a dark alley, and a mugger demanded it all at gunpoint, and you gave it to him. Then suppose the mugger, after counting it, said, "You know, since you've been such a good sport about this and haven't made any trouble, I'll give you back $5." Would you be impressed by what a generous man the mugger is, or would you still say you were out $95?

This is quite an absurd scenario, but it is a small-scale version of what we do when we praise corporations for funding charities and "giving back to the community." It is also what we do when we praise "non-profit organizations" for skimming most of the donations for "administrative costs" and giving a pittance to the cause to which it is supposedly dedicated.

The wealth of corporations does not represent the sweat and toil of the stockholders, the chief executive officer, and the board of directors. It comes from the sweat and toil of those working for the corporations. The corporations are being generous with our labour, not with their own, yet they expect to take credit for being charitable, and too many fools give them that credit and think well of the parasites.

Sometimes this practice reaches the level of absurdity of the capitalists trying to get credit for the labor of the workers without even going through the motions of paying wages. In 2001, I was a construction laborer for Starpointe Properties, engaged in remodeling an apartment community in northern Scottsdale for conversion to condominiums. The construction superintendant, Charles Grasser, came to me one Friday afternoon and asked if I would be interested in doing some Saturday volunteer work the next day at a Habitat For Humanity project in a low-income neighborhood in western Phoenix. At first I was favorably inclined toward this, but he hesitated and said, "There's just one thing, Kevin. If you go, you have to wear a company uniform."

I asked, puzzled, "Why is that?"

He said, "We want people to see that it's our company that's doing it."

I said, "Then it isn't charity. It's free advertising. If you want this to be charity, I do it anonymously in ordinary street clothes. If you want me to represent Starpointe Properties and serve as advertising for you, then you can pay me time-and-one-half overtime, just as you would for any other Saturday job. I'm not giving you free advertising." Needless to say, Mr. Grasser withdrew the proposal. I found out Monday that several of my co-workers did show up in their company uniforms and do this "charity work." I dare say many other "corporate volunteers" have gone along with giving away their services in company uniform in the name of "charity."

Let every Ronald McDonald House burn down. McDonald's would do far more for the community if they paid their own employees a living wage. Let Bill Gates never contribute another dime to any charity. He would serve the community far better if he abandoned his monopolistic planned obolescence scam with overpriced and defective software. There are many other examples of this philanthropy scam. The nature of the profit system is such that the "philanthropists" owe us far more than they will ever give us.

True philanthropy (i.e. love of one's fellow man) means fighting to end the system of the exploitation of man by man, not glorifying those who practice it. If you have money to spare, and you want to spend it to help other human beings, put it into that cause, not corporate charity.