Wealth now, philanthropy later

Seeing this latest monument to Bill Gates’ ego reminded me of the following quote from the book Slow Money by Woody Tasch:

“Wealth now, philanthropy later” is an inappropriate response to the challenges of the 21st century.

It has long bothered me that born-again philanthropists are lauded for their contributions for society, while ignoring all the suffering they caused and damage they’ve done to the environment. Suddenly they got old enough (or guilty enough) to start being concerned about their legacy.