There is no denying that financial wealth disparities in the US have reached obscene proportions. The total wealth of households with more than $50 million in assets–the wealthiest 0.1 per cent, approximately–has exceeded $30 trillion. To put this into perspective, 42 million Americans,  more than one of ten, live in poverty and similarly shocking numbers of people are uninsured, underemployed and unhoused.   

The excessively wealthy are lauded in the US for their philanthropic efforts. It is important to remember that philanthropy is a consequence of market-based public policy in favour of the ultra rich. Participating in institutional philanthropy provides a particularly problematic way to hoard wealth. Often seen as selfless and as serving the public good, in reality, philanthropy starves our government of revenue necessary to create and sustain thriving communities.

Rather than incentivising philanthropy to make bold, substantive contributions to solve the most pressing problems of our time, the policies governing philanthropy instead act as a throttle on giving. Philanthropy is also a poor replacement for good government; it does not allocate resources equitably or democratically across areas of need.  A recent report by the Institute for Policy Studies, found that the burden borne by US taxpayers for charitable giving was over $73 billion in lost tax revenue in 2022 and likely to be several hundreds of billions of dollars each year if we were able to include the full cost of estate and capital gains reductions.

The ins and outs of big philanthropy, charitable giving and the tax policy in question are not always easily nor widely understood. This creates the ideal context for the social burnishing of the excessively wealthy’s reputations.