With the recent death of a parasitic billionaire Indian oligarch, there have been numerous articles written on how he was a ‘philanthropist’ because he gave a part of the surplus his corporations generated to ‘charitable projects’.
Firstly, the profits generated by a private company are derived from the exploitation of workers; the surplus comes from the labor performed by the workers by giving them less than what they deserve in the form of wages.1
Secondly, philanthropy has historically been used by the richest, most exploitative capitalists to improve their image in the eyes of the public, many of whom rightfully saw them as parasites.
Thirdly, the state doesn’t need the generosity of billionaire capitalists to abolish unemployment and poverty. In fact, the billionaires require the state to provide them with infrastructure and public services to increase their surpluses. Where do you think the money they give to charities ultimately comes from? In India, it’s the Reserve Bank of India.
In India, nearly 30% of college graduates are unemployed and millions more in other sectors are underemployed.2 I’ve talked about a very potent solution for this in previous blogs, a universal unconditional job guarantee where anyone who can’t find a job could work 40 hrs a week at minimum wage and with benefits. This is a scheme which no billionaire philanthropist will ever fund. Why? Firstly, it is expensive in monetary terms, which is why only the Indian Central Government as the Sovereign can implement such a scheme at a national scale. Secondly, it goes against their interests; it will empower the working class who will no longer have to work at sub-minimum wage in the informal sector, no longer be the ‘reserved army of unemployed’.
There is yet another criticism that can be made against philanthropy: Why do billionaires get to decide which cause is the best for their money? They aren’t elected officials, they aren’t even bureaucrats who pledge to work in the public interest. They are random private individuals with extreme levels of privilege.
Prominent employer of these techniques was John D. Rockefeller, who made PR history by hiring the famous press agent, Ivy Lee, to help change his public image from that of an infamous robber baron to that of a caring philanthropist. Breaking with contemporary norms, Lee encouraged Rockefeller to widely publicize his philanthropic bent instead of making his charitable donations in anonymity. It did not take long before this strategy — which effectively “branded” Rockefeller, and implicitly his business endeavors, as benign and caring — was emulated by others
https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/viewFile/228/117
There are many others far better than me who have written entire books on how philanthropy is a scam, I urge everyone to read.
Current Affairs – Rethinking the Concept of ‘Philanthropy
Jacobin – Philanthropy Is a Scam
- https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch25.htm ↩︎
- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-29/young-indians-more-likely-to-be-jobless-if-they-re-educated ↩︎