“A classic PR idea gone bad” was one of the derisory reactions to the news on August 16th that Tony Blair is going to donate the profits (the advance alone is £4.6 million, around $7 million) from his forthcoming memoirs to a charity helping ex-servicemen in Britain. That may well be true, although Mr Blair is adamant that […]
When Britain’s leading liberal commentator on social affairs, Polly Toynbee, laid into Prime Minister David Cameron’s Big Society project last week, she was at pains to say that she has nothing against stronger communities and more volunteering – she was bristling at the fact that the public spending axe has fallen on charities. Since “governments are defined […]
While the overall reaction to this week’s Giving Pledge has been positive, there have been a few critical voices. Rather than knocking the generosity of the individual billionaires, critics have focused on the wider questions about inequality, taxation and plutocracy. These are important issues that we discuss in detail in the book. As we argue, there […]
“Why isn’t it better to be the biggest giver rather than the biggest hog?” That was the challenge laid down in 1996 by the godfather of philanthrocapitalism, Ted Turner, to two tight-fisted billionaires – Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Fourteen years on and Gates and Buffett are the world’s biggest givers who have laid down their […]
Today’s launch by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett of the giving pledge is a big step forward for philanthrocapitalism. Indeed, it marks philanthrocapitalism’s coming of age as a movement, with the Gateses and Buffett as its activist leaders. They are challenging every billionaire family in America, and ultimately the world, to pledge in […]