Sunday, October 14, 2007

Oprah's a Piker

I just sent in our taxes. I was a little shocked by the % we gave to charity. It's OK. It's Seed. But shocked. Things just loom in importance when they are black and white.

Last year Oprah Winfrey earned 233 million dollars. She gave away 40 million to a school in South Africa. I don't know if all that came from one year's earning. I'm guessing not. I think its good what Oprah did but she's a piker compared to our giving.

She needs to give away 53 million of her 233 every year she earns it to keep pace. The year before she earned 250 million. Let's see, she would have had to given away 62.5 million to keep up with the Redlins. I didn't see any press releases or media swoons over this so I'm guessing it didn't happen.

I'm happy that she gives money to worthy causes. I wish all people of huge means would. Very few do. Very few. What is interesting to me is how it relates to their world view. Most of those people talk big about being humanitarians but are cheapskates. It's like Ebeneezer Scrooge lecturing the world on taking care of the poor. Barbara Streisand's legendary cheapskateness is a great example of the level of hypocrisy.

I'll wait and see. I'm guessing things won't change. People don't put their money where their mouth is.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

first question: so you are saying you gave 25% of your BEFORE tax income to charities?
second, were they REAL charities or churches that use them mostly to fund services for their own people, which makes them more like private club dues and not real charities.
third, how much of your TIME did you volunteer outside your home to non-church do-gooding?