We need to cut rich people some slack. It seems like lately they have been demonized for things that are realistically not their fault. We get that many Americans are frustrated, especially now, but taking it out on rich people seems petty, bitter and jealous, and that’s just not the American way.

 

​It’s not difficult to see why super uber duper rich people are sometimes villainized in today’s America. For one thing – although it’s an entirely unfair thought – it’s easy to believe that it’s impossible for someone to make that much money without some sort of moral deficiency or shady behavior.

 

Plus, it’s not easy to reconcile social justice and capitalism. On one hand, you have the promise of the American Dream, where every American can achieve success and prosperity, regardless of their originating circumstances. On the other hand, you have statistics that reveal a shocking level of income inequality in America.

 

​It can also be maddening when money seems to make life so much easier, at least in the short-term, for people who do bad things (à la Jeffrey Epstein) or super entitled things (college admissions bribery scandal). Listen, we have seen people born in the most devastating conditions imaginable work four jobs just to pay the bare minimum of their bills. We have also seen plenty of people raised with a ton of money and opportunity who have crashed and burned. However – from our  experience and with minor exceptions – this last group seems to miraculously rebound virtually unscathed from their mistakes and bad decisions. Redemption seems to come much easier when you can afford rehab and qualified attorneys. It’s funny how prosperity can hide a multitude of sins.

 

​But these are separate issues that seem to get unfairly wound up in one another. The truth is that most rich Americans not only greatly enhance our society and democracy, but they are also incredible public relations ambassadors for the United States on a global scale. As a nation, many of them make us all look good.  

 

Over a billion people worldwide have emerged from poverty in the past two decades. There is no question that Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates deserve a ton of the credit for this. Over the past two decades, the Gates Foundation has spent almost $80 billion on everything from American education, health care, and social justice to increasing economic opportunities and providing emergency relief overseas.

 

Dolly Parton, already a national treasure, gave $1 million to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in early 2020 to help fund research efforts for COVID-19. Her contribution helped lead to the Moderna vaccine. Plus, Dolly’s Imagination Library charitable organization has sent over 224 million books to children since 1995. She’s just a gem… so much so that Jeff Bezos gave her $100 million to charitably give as she sees fit.

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Over 240 of the world’s wealthiest individuals and families from 30 different countries have signed The Giving Pledge. The Giving Pledge was introduced by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffett in 2010 to “help address society’s most pressing problems by inviting the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to commit more than half of their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes either during their lifetime or in their will.” This is just an extraordinary thing for these people to do.
 

MacKenzie Scott – who is just a stone-cold bad ass – has given away $19.2 billion since 2019. She donated around $6 billion during the pandemic alone. Most of that money went to places like Meals on Wheels, food banks, and other organizations that greatly helped Americans survive the COVID-19 crisis. Other funds went to organizations like the NAACP, Easterseals, Goodwill, the United Way, and over 100 separate YMCA and YWCA organizations. She has also given millions upon millions to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). In addition to giving over $300 million to help disadvantaged students throughout the last two decades, billionaires Bruce and Martha Karsh gave $10 million to Howard University, a HBCU, in 2020 to fund scholarships in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.

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Deeply concerned by the 2017 domestic terrorist attack in Charlottesville, the couple turned their attention to the protection of the rule of law and democracy. In 2018, they gave $43.9 million to the University of Virginia law school to promote programs to that end.  In early June 2021, largely in response to the election lies circulating around the 2020 election and the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, the couple gave an additional $50 million – which the university will match – to establish the Karsh Institute of Democracy.

 

One question we've heard repeatedly, asked in response to these huge donations, is: While the generosity is greatly appreciated, why do we live in a country where this is even possible?  How can these people even have that much money to give when many others can’t even put food on their table?

 

Again, we understand the frustration behind this question, and we really dig into this and other social justice issues throughout this website. But for now, maybe we should show a little more gratitude. All in, Americans donated $557.16 billion to charity in 2023 alone. That number is enormous. It’s a shame there is no line item for this on the U.S. Balance Sheet because it’s nearly impossible to quantify exactly how much this generosity boosts the entire American economy – but there is no question it has a significant impact.

 

Rich people also spend lots of money, which helps spark economic growth. The top 10 percent of U.S. households account for 49.7 percent of all spending. Moody’s Analytics estimates that this spending alone is responsible for around one-third of our gross domestic product. 

 

This is not to say that rich people don’t need to pay their fair share because they certainly do. In 2021, ProPublica published a special report based on “troves” of federal tax documents involving thousands of the wealthiest Americans – including President Trump – over a fifteen-year period (the documents were leaked to ProPublica and The New York Times by Charles Littlejohn, an IRS contractor. Littlejohn was sentenced to 5 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information). In what the president of ProPublica Richard Tofel called “the most important story we have ever published,” the organization revealed that: