[rollei_list] Re: OT Culture (was Re: OT History)
- From: Eric Goldstein <egoldste@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 20:29:13 -0500
Richard Knoppow wrote:
> Corporations no longer have the philosophy that
> thay owe anything to the public plus changes in tax laws
> over the years have made much former charitable or cultural
> donation no longer deductible. Publically held businesses
> follow the rule that maximising return on investment for
> their stockholders is their _only_ responsibility and will
> do that regardless of any costs to the society that they
> exist in.
(snipped)
First, this is a grossly misstated over-generalization, to which there are
hundreds of thousands if not millions of exceptions (in the form of
donations from US private and public companies).
Second, private donations have always dwarfed corporate donations to
charitable institutions as a whole and to the arts specifically. If you
would actually like to see some facts regarding trends in corporate and
private giving to the arts specifically and charities generally, see:
http://www.mtn.org/mca/factspgs/giving.html
http://www.law.harvard.edu/faculty/ fferrell/pdfs/charitable_giving1.pdf
amongst other references available on the net. Any short-term effects in
diminished corporate or private charitable gifts seem to be a consequence of
short term economic and political conditions, and not a general trend.
I return to my original statement, which is accurate, that generally fewer
and fewer Americans choose to consume/support a traditional type of culture
and cultural institution. They (and hundreds of millions of people all over
the world) do however make and consume different cultural choices which are
less traditional.
Eric Goldstein
Other related posts:
