One of our finest American ideals is our Generosity of Spirit. Our sense of wanting and encouraging others to do well along with our willingness to extend the helping hand of time, talent or treasure to those in true need.
This Generosity of Spirit is a measure of our commitment to each other as a community, a nation and a larger global society and can only be truly measured in proportion to the personal sacrifice required by the giver. A dollar is never more valued, then by those who have the fewest.
So when does a $1 million donation reflects poorly on the giver?
When the giver has shown itself to be a bad corporate citizen and it makes Billions annually!
From the Huffington Post:
Goldman Sachs press office has announced the firm “will be donating $1,000,000” to the Haiti Relief Effort.
Goldman Sachs made $9Billion in profits last year. That is $174 Million per week, $38 Million per trading day, $5.7 Million per trading hour, $96,000 per minute.
The Goldman Sachs donation represents 11 minutes of the firm’s profits.
Wow. Goldman donated 11 minutes of profits to Haiti relief. With 525,945.6 minutes in a year you can tell they really wanted to go all out. Can you feel their pain?
As Theodore Roosevelt explains in True Americanism
Too much cannot be said against the men of wealth who sacrifice everything to getting wealth. There is not in the world a more ignoble character that the mere money-getting American, insensible to every duty, regardless of every principle, bent only on amassing a fortune, and putting his fortune only to the basest uses …
…such a man is only the more dangerous if he occasionally does some deed like founding a college or endowing a church, which makes those good people who are also foolish forget his real iniquity.
$1 million for redemption and respectability? I’d call that chump change.
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For Clinton Foundation Haiti Relief and links to Haiti earthquake relief organizations including the Red Cross and Doctors without Borders.
Here are a few others who have generously donated $1 million (or more) for Haiti relief.
American mobile cell users (by text messages only) – over $20 million
Sandra Bullock – $1 million
Gisele Bundchen – $1.5 million to Red Cross
Wyclef Jean – raised $1 million
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt – $1 million to Doctors without Borders
Not On Our Watch (the Pitt, Clooney, Damon, Cheadle, Weintraub advocacy group) – $1 million
University of Kentucky “Hoops for Haiti” telethon – raised over $1 million
Starbucks Foundation – $1 million to Red Cross
Bank of America – $1 million
Morgan Stanley – $1 million
JPMorgan Chase – $1 million
Citigroup – $2 million
General Electric – $2.5 million
Google – $1 million
Mc Donald’s – $1 million
UPS – $1 million
Comcast – $1 million
Abbott – $1 million
Amgen – $2 million
Lowes – $1 million
Coca Cola Foundation – $1 million
Northrup Grumman – $1 million
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