Sorry, but why are more people increasingly expecting the rich to give away their hard earned money to the so called ‘poor,’ just like that? Why make money just to give it all away? Michael Bloomberg recently retired from politics after serving out his third and last term as New York City mayor and according to The New York Times; many in America are expecting the 72 year old entrepreneur to ‘devote most of his time to giving away his $32.8 billion fortune,’ as if he borrowed it from someone! It’s funny when capitalists start to unknowingly spew out communist ideas such as advocating for the wealthy to donate their riches to the poor making one wonder when they started agreeing with socialists on the thesis that ‘community is above the individual? And the speed at which capitalism is developing communist symptoms suggests that the theory is in fast self-demolition mode.’ At the centre of capitalism are markets, competition, ownership of private property and protection of self-interest but these tenets are fast waning. Actually, American journalist Tiffany Gabbay only recently produced a thoughtful exposé titled, ‘are we headed toward a constitution or the communist manifesto’ in which she shows how America is slowly embracing the ten tenets described in Marx and Engels’ infamous 1848 publication which describes how to establish communism. Capitalists might have defeated communists in the cold war but in all honesty, some acts of communism such as collectivism and resource sharing are just inborn virtues of human nature that didn’t die in the cold war. Rwanda’s Umuganda is a good example; despite paying taxes, taxpayers help government to clean up every month without whining about ‘our taxes!” However, it’s different when a company that pays its taxes to the government, employs citizens also spends extra millions in the name of ‘corporate social responsibility’ or ‘giving back to society’ as if they stole from it? I am very generous, my dad too. Every Christmas, it’s a tradition that the whole village comes to our house to have lunch. However, I get irked when ‘poor people’ start feeling ‘entitled’ that the rich owe them these acts of charity. It’s this mindset that’s currently dogging African states. We have come to believe that Europeans owe us and so we sit on our bottoms and wait for their aid something that has now become a conundrum. Most people who ‘give’ to so-called ‘charity’ normally have hidden self interests such as a need to ‘preserve a positive public image of themselves or their companies, or in attempt to give the impression they are adhering to religious teachings while some simply want to escape scrutiny. Only a few give just because they genuinely want to help. And this ‘giving’ can be dangerous to recipients. First, it’s unfair that one man uses his natural talent, skills and hard work to amass wealthy honestly only for another (with no physical disabilities) to receive it because they are reportedly ‘poor.’ Boxer Floyd Mayweather got a backlash from lobbyists when he revealed that while he has a “good heart,” he does not feel obligated to give to charities, specifically in Africa. Many critics slammed the boxer calling him ‘ignorant’, ‘arrogant,’ and ‘insensitive.’ But his argument was solid based on capitalist tenets. “I never got involved in the sport of boxing to say ‘I’m going to fight and make hundreds of millions of dollars and just give it all away…You hear people talking about, ‘well, he should donate to this or donate to that.’ No, I should donate to Floyd Mayweather; donate to Floyd Mayweather’s family.” That should apply to all the wealthy people who have honestly earned their fortune. No one should expect them to give because they are rich; doing so would be promoting laziness and lack of innovation. In any case, these tycoons have already given away enough in form of creating millions of jobs and paying taxes. It should be governments that should utilise taxes to benefit the ‘poor’ through social welfare programmes such as social housing, food stamps and unemployment allowances. If one must give to any kind of charity, it should be because they really want to not because someone expects them to donate. At 72, Bloomberg is an old man who can afford to spend the rest of his life relaxing by a beach side condo in any part of the world; instead the man has chosen to resume fulltime management of his media company, Bloomberg LP-he still values hard work. In a nutshell, if we are for capitalism, let’s not start breeding communist tendencies that ridicule the whole idea of hard work.
