• Giving more than they get.

• Giving more than they get. To our great benefit, there are other folks who spend their own time and money in far-off places, sometimes at the risk of their lives and health, helping tsunami survivors, war refugees, and the like. I know people who have built homes in Haiti and the Gulf Coast, who have treated kids in a Cambodian refugee camp. Their work is heroic. Is it selfless? They would be the first to tell you the rewards of their work, and even at that they might miss one: the satisfaction of acting in accord with their own internal stories about who they are-- our sense of self, which is our greatest instrument, vehicle and shelter in the world. If we had the infrastructure to sustain them, if we had adequate health care and social services, there would be a lot more do-gooders in the world. Now it's easier for idealists to go into the military than to help kids with learning disabilities.

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Of political prisoner Zha Jianguo, imprisoned for 9 years for starting a political party in China, his sister wrote: "Maybe the question of whether Jianguo is a hero or a fool is beside the point. Above and beyond the consequences of his action is the moral meaning of his action. By keeping his promise to himself, he has fulfilled his own vision of a righteous life, his own sense of purpose. . . . 'Character is fate. Just remember this: your brother is a simple, old-fashioned, outdated, and stubborn man. Once I make up my mind, I stick to it.'"
-- Zha Jianying, "Enemy of the State,"The New Yorker 4-23-07 p.57
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Still, the rewards are there. I'll give you an example closer to (my) home.

In my professional do-good years, it wasn't just a paycheck that I earned. I won tokens of respect from colleagues and constituents, got to try out my ideas, learned new skills, overcame some fears, spent time with people I greatly admire, had many opportunities to shoot my mouth off in a good cause, and cheered on those who defend me against the deathdealers. Most of all, my job sustained for me the hope that what I did mattered, that it would affect the world in some way, that the results would somehow make up for long hours and a degree of anguish. I'd thought for many years that I was unusually lazy or picky in needing Important Work to keep me going. I'd thought most folks cheerfully tolerate useless or destructive work. But we're not built that way. As the men in Faludi's Stiffed attest over and over, we all need a sense of meaningful work.

Even for Halliburton, life is not just private chefs and golden toilets. The very rich have their spiritual side, too. In fact, they are more spiritual than the rest of us. They don't just go to church, they build churches-- or enlightenment centers. They have entire museum staffs on call to appreciate art for them. They can travel the world to commune with forests and glaciers. They don't just send a check to the Red Cross, they establish their own foundations. (Did you see the weeks of sycophantic news coverage about the Bill Gates / Warren Buffett giveaways in the summer of '06? The most pampered slaves at the court of Suleiman the Magnificent couldn't have groveled with more squirming enthusiasm. ABC framed their story around the question, Can the billionaires do what government can't? The Gates Foundation is going to teach teachers how to run schools like businesses. Every first grader comes with 400 terabytes installed; permanent banners will display their current rankings.) And for love, what can beat a two-story wall screen transmitting your every word and gesture to the salutes and applause of ten thousand uniformed employees? How did that commercial go? "Those special moments . . . priceless. For everything else, there's Master Card."

================= ingenious excuses, xtreme xplanations =================
“ . . . a wealthy and pious village woman said . . . that monks are much happier than wealthy laymen because happiness is derived from spiritual, not from physical, possessions. When I asked her the obvious question --if material possessions do not bring happiness, why does she live in an expensive house, wear silk skirts, and so on?-- she said this was not her choice; in her style of life she was only carrying out the karmic retribution determined by the merit acquired in her previous lives” (Spiro 445).
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Believe it or not, we even find corporados justifying capitalism itself as a form of idealism: they amass wealth just so they can give it away. Where would we be without their generosity? The symphony, the art museum, medical research, none of these are possible except as the gift of rich men. Why, civilization would crumble without them. I myself was the proud recipient of years of salary from grants by left wing foundations, funded largely by airs & airesses.

Christian real estate mogul slash radio missionary Dave Ramsey is very explicit: get rich and then give 10% to the church. At the same time he hates taxes. Tithing builds character, but where's the merit in doing something we have to do anyway? How can we show our generosity if everyone is expected to contribute? Maybe some folks figure, paying taxes doesn't count as a good deed when it comes to earning that heavenly crown. And maybe I don't want to encourage laziness among the homeless or unemployed. Why should I pay taxes just so the riffraff can leech off my hard-earned wealth? Why shouldn't I have the right to donate my millions to the symphony or the new tech center at Stanford or the campaign to defend marriage against the onslaughts of the gay agenda?

A friend of mine met a guy at a party. By his own account, this fellow was very generous to homeless shelters and other worthy causes. But I wouldn't do it if I didn't believe in God, he told my friend. He didn't say, "If I can't score with the Big Guy, what's the point?," but that's what he meant. I've met guys like this; they are really very scrupulous. They try to live their lives by spreadsheet: What's in it for me? It comforts them to have a simple rule to live by. But sometimes they can't see what they can't price. This man saw no benefit to himself of living in a city where people didn't have to sleep on steam grates. How about you?