Pete’s blog

Philanthropist: a person who seeks to promote the welfare of others, especially by donating money to good causes. Origin: from Greek philein ‘to love’ + anthropos ‘human being’.

Was reading something in the Economist last week which made me think about tonight’s topic.

Philanthropy is a very difficult thing to understand in theory or with maths and equations. It makes no economic sense, it breaks every law of supply and demand, and it even goes against some of society’s teachings. I love it – it is that little voice at the back of the economics class that says “But sir, I am a human being, not an equation!” Why do people do it? Why are people willing to part with their money and their time for no tangible benefit? Why is it the richer you become, the more willing you are to part with your money for free? Surely if you are wealthy, you are paying the most in taxes? Why pay more than you have to? And not only that, people aren’t just stuffing the charity box with money, they are also giving their most precious asset – their time. Maybe the ultra-rich do have the luxury of being generous, but why should they even bother? They have everything that they could possibly want.

So often modern society is portrayed and seen as a cold, heartless, dog-eat-dog world. “Get them before they get you”, “Nice guys finish last”, “If you trust anyone, they will only stab you in the back”, “I worked hard for my money, that beggar is just being lazy”, “Get a job, you bum!”, “Stab/sleep/kiss your way to the top, then crush everyone below you” Marx polarised the world into the evil bourgeois with all the money and capital at the top, paying the working class proletariat as little money as possible and bleeding them dry. Game theory and strategic thinking say that the only ‘rational’ choice is to not trust the other guy and to screw him in case he screws you. Build nukes, because your neighbour might decide to build nukes. Invade their country, otherwise they might invade yours. Pay yourself a huge salary and pay him a tiny one, because he would do the same thing if he were in your place. Look after your own interests, because no-one else will.

And yet, we still trust and yearn to trust. No matter what the world throws at you, no matter how betrayed you have been, some tiny part of you wishes that you could trust someone. We also yearn in our own way to be trusted. This is what is often forgotten, and is lost in the maths – humans are social beings. Community and looking after one another was one of our greatest survival instincts, and it is not something that will be overridden soon. Being nice or helping someone in need feels good. Doing charity work for free is most often a thousand times more rewarding than working for large salary. Cooperation is the natural order of things. Maybe that is why we hate our jobs and get so angry and annoyed at the world… Modern society forces us to choose the path of non-cooperation – only the super-rich actually have a choice. Unless you look out for you own interests first, you won’t have a job or a salary, and you won’t survive…