Against Philanthropy

Bryan Klausmeyer

Coincidentally, I came across this website for the first time a few days ago… maybe it was through the same source?

Unless I’m missing something, it was kind of a “duh” article… wasn’t this already obvious from nearly 100 years ago with the rise of robber barons and the Gospel of Wealth, yet GOOD tries to posit itself as some sort of radical, left-wing fringe group (which, from the content of the article, seem to suggest anything but). I’ll agree with you about the design though, I like it.

Also: I think, though, that the article is on the right track, but it kind of peters out near the end when it suggests that philanthropists should do good through business instead (ensuring that workers are well-paid, the environment is protected, people are generally unharmed, etc., etc.—the hegemonic form of today’s liberal ideological constellation), rather than questioning the underlying dynamics of societies in which certain people can amass billions of dollars and others are forced to live in utter squalor…

Marxist plug: Along the same line, here’s an interesting article by N. Pepperell at Rough Theory on salvaging Marx’s labor theory of value.

Aug 27, 2007 @ 10:15 PM

tina oiticica harris

Greed is bad, the {it’s} has no apostrophe, sorry,I can’t help it, darn English teachers with their,”It’s I.”

Is this about “Feed a man to fish?”

Aug 28, 2007 @ 2:01 PM