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Is Charity Hurting The Economy?


July 14th 2018



*And specifically… what is, “social responsibility?”

Whereby, I find that most Americans will choose to follow 1 of 2 philosophies concerning money and personal finances... in America today.

Where on one hand I think that most Americans adopt this mindset, "I have a personal relationship with my finances and what is mine, is mine alone and under that pretense; all investments, funds, incomes and finances, are solely an individual conquest combined with a personal belief system."

In God We Trust.

And I tie that philosophy into religion because I find that MOST AMERICANS adopt this philosophy and then they tend to believe that their bank accounts… essentially represent their religious beliefs (or lack thereof), quite literally. And even more specifically, I find that these people whom adopt this philosophy, typically also believe that other people who develop similar spirituality… are going to come about money, as well. Yet, for this reason, I also believe that these types of people… often don’t believe in social responsibility, nor charity, under the premise that these things actually HURT the economy, as well as the individual moving forward.

But then there’s another way of looking at it… through an entirely different lens.

Whereby, on the other hand… I myself… perceive finance in terms of my daily; food, electric and education, which I find bestowed upon myself and wealthy elites and middle class people(s) alike… in a communal fashion and I believe that we all have a certain, “social responsibility,” to acknowledge the economy as a whole and a duty to acknowledge our place within it. And I find that this is particularly true for those who make in excess of 10’s and 100’s of millions of dollars, in today’s day and age and that everyone is essentially in debt to society as a whole.

And along that second line of thinking (my preferred way of thinking), charity is not charity at all but a mindset of giving back to the society which essentially makes you, who you are. Whereby, in this mindset… charity then becomes a, “social responsibility,” that the wealthy have to the poor, in terms of hiring and maintaining a fair amount of workers but also in terms of spreading wealth to the lower class, as well.

Whereby, under this premise I believe that everyone both rich and poor… have an innate responsibility to think of the economy in terms of, “social responsibility,” and to acknowledge their own place within society as a whole.

However, these 2 philosophies are very different… and even contradict one another… while running a business today, whereby our society tends to reward greed and reward the former ideology, within America today. Nevertheless, as I work at Rockefeller Plaza in NYC… I can’t emphasize enough just how much these 2 philosophies impact people’s daily lives and the chasm that exists in terms of greed and people’s value of society to them. But furthermore, objectively speaking, it is somewhat fair to believe in either philosophy, yet, those who adopt the foremost philosophy tend to be more successful due to self serving bias.

And this is particularly true because in today’s, “internet age,” hiring large numbers of employees is often times un-necessary and as the owner of an Artificial Intelligence startup myself, (*www.ArtificialIntelligenceProject.com), I can attest that from my personal experiences I could run a fairly large tech firm… with very little human resources.

In fact, I would estimate that a really good tech guru… could run a major tech company, like my Artificial Intelligence startup, with 5 – 25 really good employees.

So what should a business do? Drive profits? Or help their fellow man? Which is scary to me because we’re living in an era of automation where most companies don’t need as many employees, as before. However, with that being said… in today’s economy the US government tends to reward people who take a more selfish approach towards social responsibility, particularly in terms of job creation and pay structures/wealth distribution.

Or in other words… I believe that our society is currently rewarding out-dated business practices through somewhat benevolent pay structures, depending upon the philosophy of individual business owners towards the public at large, who are operating under 2 different economic pretenses. And this is troubling to me because recent marijuana and gambling legislation is creating further leverage for the afore-mentioned business owners, who tend to be elitists and tend to look down upon society as a whole while continuing to take that selfish approach to personal finance!

And which is it? Should I be a greedy POS to my employees or not?

And which economic philosophy ought a person to adopt… in 2018, especially in terms of, “personal finance,” and building a private enterprise? Should we shun charity and view money as strictly an individual endeavor? And what if that means hiring only 25 employees, at a billion dollar tech firm?

Or should we bite the bullet and help those in need? And what if that means helping those who don’t always help themselves? Should we view money as a spiritual conquest or as a civilization, as a whole? Because we’re currently rewarding the less charitable philosophy and quite honestly… I can’t stand the ambiguity.

Which then leads me to the topic of today’s article… “charity.” Whereby, GoFundMe.com –the for profit, charitable donations website, is currently valued at 600m dollars… with a business model focused on collecting .30 cents per charitable donation! And where does, “a company like that,” fall into the spectrum of US politics? Or more specifically, is that charity? Or a free market enterprise?

Or to put it more broadly… what type of a business is that? And which approach to business should we take when charities are now growing rich? Should we side with, “social responsibility,” and hire more workers? Or focus solely on profits and let the government do the rest? Because if there was 1 change that I’d like to see, it would be to have this very conversation… and this is a conversation which I find acutely important when everyone seems to be an; IG model, rapper, or self help coach, today. Which is to say, are those things charity? What is charity? And what do we specifically reward, in today’s day and age? And in conclusion, with heated debates concerning welfare reform on the horizon, maybe now is a good time for all of us to talk about how we reward socially relevant, business practices… or in other words… how we tax the rich and whether or not that should be considered, “charity?”

-William Larsen, Civilians News