One of the most frequent charges leveled at market economies is that they promote greed and little care for the less fortunate. This is perhaps one of the greatest falsehoods ever perpetrated in the last 200 years. Not only has economic development (unique to market economies) brought cheap food, clothing, transport, housing, entertainment, luxuries etc., etc. to the masses, but societal wealth actually births a culture of giving. Although many countries often criticize the U.S. government for giving a relatively small percentage of GPD in foreign aid (even though it gives the most in dollar terms—by a factor of 2 to 1 over the number two giver—Japan), they overlook the fact that Americans themselves voluntarily give more to people in other countries than any other nation on the planet. In fact, at $34.8 billion individual Americans choose to give 83% more to foreigners than their own government and more than four times as much as the governments of the next four major donors—Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
Even more striking is the apples to apples comparison between private giving. The $34.8 billion given by Americans is nearly 22 times that given by individuals in the United Kingdom, which is home to the world’s next most generous persons with Germany, Canada, and Australia rounding out the top five. While $34.8 billion is a lot, it is further dwarfed by the nearly $295 billion Americans gave in total to charity in 2006—most of which goes to organizations renowned for their effectiveness in stretching dollars for the alleviation of society’s ills.
The purpose of this post is not veneration of the generous, nor castigation of the stingy, but to highlight the fact that market economies are prosperous societies; and prosperous societies are generous societies. Far from reckless and uncaring, “cowboy capitalists” appear more than willing to share the contents of their saddlebags. The more there is; the more there is to share. If this is true in countries that embrace market principles, then it can be true in companies that do the same.
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