You may have heard that Bill & Melinda Gates (together the richest people in the world) have combined efforts with Warren Buffett (the second richest person in the world) to create a $600 billion challenge. Basically, they are asking the world’s super rich (even Oprah!) to contribute 50% or more of their net worth to charity.
Well, the media has had a field day with this and it is the cover story in this week’s Fortune magazine. The basic message is, “Isn’t this great that the rich are going to do this when there is so much need in the world?”
And my answer is yes . . . but.
Now let me be clear. I have no problem with people making money, and flow itself is not about financial suffering. But I do find it ironic that a lot of these billionaires who are suddenly so charitable made their money in very uncharitable ways. Take Warren Buffett. His has made himself and many others very rich by wisely investing in companies that are both solid and growing. That’s great, and he should be commended.
Yet one of his big investments is in Wal-Mart, a company notorious for things like “dead peasant” insurance policies (Wal-Mart takes life insurance policies out on employees and lists only itself as beneficiary,) endless abuse of worker rights, significant (and illegal!) racial and gender discrimination, and so on. Yes, Wal-Mart has been cleaning up its act as of late, but it is too little, too late.
As a major investor Warren Buffett had ample time and power to demand Wal-Mart treat employees fairly and as human beings, not disposable cogs in a machine. But he did nothing and never has.
Which brings me back to my original question. What is the point of giving away all your money if you have made it by hurting the very people you now want to help? I see this as hypocrisy of the highest order. There are many, many, many successful companies that treat workers with respect and make a decent profit. Yes, no company is perfect, but Wal-Mart’s abuses are known to all and should never have emerged to begin with.
Maybe Buffett will find a conscience and devote some of his charity to all the lives Wal-Mart has ruined along the way. That would be a start, one in flow.