A star-studded lineup of billionaires including George Lucas and Bill Gates recently pledged to donate half of their fortunes to charity. But researchers at UC Berkeley are claiming that the poor and lower classes are inherently more charitable than their fat cat counterparts. Via NPR: “It’s really compassionate feelings that exist among the lower class that’s seen to provoke these higher levels of altruism and generosity toward other people.” Check out the article for an in-depth look at how psychologist Paul Piff came to his conclusions. Spoiler: It involves hypothetical credits!
One response
Hmmmm…wonder if those Berkeley researchers are counting the creation of jobs for millions of people as “altruistic?” Wonder how many financial risks those researchers took in their careers, and how many employees they hired to be paid out of their own pockets? My guess is zero.
The beauty of capitalism, ie: free markets is that pursuing selfish interest leads inadvertently to the betterment of all. Sadly, we’re on a one-way path toward an entitlement society, and sooner or later the producers and employers are just going to give up and join the hogs at the trough. Then the trough will be empty.
Click here to subscribe today and leave your comment.