A Drop in the Bucket: Pledging is the New Purging for Society’s Elite

$2 billion dollars sounds like a lot of money. And it is- except when it’s not.

If you haven’t already seen the news, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos recently pledged $2 billion dollars for a new fund to combat homelessness and provide preschools in underfunded communities.

This is his first public philanthropic initiative, and many people gave him accolades for his first step into the charitable arena. After all, $2 billion dollars is more than most of America can even fathom giving.

Yet this pledge represents a whopping 1% of Bezos’ wealth. His current value is $150 billion dollars, making him the richest man in America. And for this to be his first charitable move, and for it to be such an insultingly low amount given his current value, is not a good look. For him or for our society.

Let’s take a step back in history for a minute. In 1st century AD, Pompeii was a prosperous Roman city, with great wealth due to their fertile land. Many people within this city enjoyed an elaborate lifestyle, with large houses, lavish parties, and time for entertainment. We still reference this period as one of overt hedonism, complete with brothels and bathhouses and gladiator fights.

I visited Pompeii in 2010. At the site they showed these large, intricate vases that the elite had in the dining areas of their homes. The guides at Pompeii recounted that the wealthy used to throw up in them at parties and large dinners so that they could continue eating and drinking in excess.

I remember wondering, “How could they allow this practice as a society? To literally have to purge to continue consuming. What about everyone else? Were there no “have-nots” in this society?”

I don’t wonder anymore. The new purging is pledging, as we can see from Jeff Bezos. He has more wealth than we can comprehend, and certainly more than he can spend in a lifetime. Bezos makes what his average worker makes in a year every 9 seconds. Instead of throwing up in vases, the elite now just purge a couple million (or billion) dollars here and there to make themselves feel better and then continue consuming in excess.

This recent pledge is an insult. It only highlights continued hoarding by the top 1%. This is not a feel-good moment in the nonprofit sector, it is a reminder that someone with enough resources to solve serious systemic issues is just going to continue to purge(pledge) occasionally and we will try to salvage enough scraps to enact some change in our society. It’s just a drop in the bucket.

And yes, we know it’s “his money and he can do what he wants with it” (I know some of you are thinking it), but please let me end with these words:

“It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.” -Albert Einstein