Good for Robin Williams.
Jodie Foster just sold her home for almost $15 million.
Susan Sarandon has a $12 million dollar California home. And various other million-dollar properties.
They don’t care about the homeless. The fact that you think they do just proves my point.
Good for those celebrities.
I’m not in the habit of disclosing what I may or may not do for the underprivileged. I’m not rich. If I was, I would certainly do so, in the hopes that other rich people would follow suit. I wouldn’t drive by the homeless in LA to my $12 million mansion.
Let me get this straight: they don’t care about the homeless because, although they are active in charity work benefitting the homeless, they are still rich.
What would you have them do? What could possibly satisfy you?
I mean, I really do think that $10 million homes are excessive, and income inequality and the existence of the super-rich are not good for society, but criticizing people for not giving away enough of their wealth is illogical. If we felt that people were obligated to give up a portion of their wealth in order to benefit society, we would tax them. We used to, but decided it would be more efficient to rely on ad hoc charitable giving that sustainable programs to help the indigent.
For an example, I mistakenly had TMZ on the TV tonight, and learned that Rihanna is worth $600 million dollars. I would have her go on TV and say “I’m donating $100 million dollars of my own money to help alleviate homelessness in LA”
That would satisfy me. Since there is no real difference between $600 million and $500 million.
So it is okay for Rihanna to keep $500 million, but unacceptable for otherwhosis to have sold a $15 million house. Okay.
You know who has way more than $600 million? The federal and state governments. You know who is in a better position to do something to alleviate the worst effects of homelessness? The federal and state governments. But by all means, let’s blame the overpaid celebrities. It’s clearly their fault.
Depends on their net worth
You know who doesn’t go on TV and say “I’m so #woke. blah blah blah”? Federal and state governments.
You know who doesn’t drive by homeless camps in LA to their million-dollar mansions? Federal and state governments.
To repeat a list from earlier, here are 400 Americans who could give away half their fortunes and still be richer than Rihanna:
Why aren’t you asking these people to give away more of their money? Why are you talking just about people in the entertainment community? Is it because you don’t actually know how money is distributed in the U.S., where the amount that people in the entertainment industry own isn’t nearly as much as the amount that people in many other businesses own? Is it because you want to blame liberals for everything, and the only way you can do it is to pick on people in the entertainment industry, since you think that they are mostly liberals? Why do you think that they are mostly liberals? Have you actually done any research on their political opinions, or did you just see a headline on a tabloid about one liberal actor and decided that this proves they must mostly be liberals?
I don’t think it’s any worse for someone to preach about helping the homeless and not give away most of their fortune than it is for someone to publicly scorn the homeless and not give away most of their fortune. I can’t do anything about people’s free speech. I can do something about the tax structure in the U.S. I don’t waste time reading about what celebrities say about politics. They aren’t experts on it. Read things by people who are actual experts on politics and economics, not things by people in an irrelevant field like entertainment.
You know, I don’t even know what religion she is, if any, but my own says that one should not publicize one’s donations to charity unless one expects the publicity to help the cause.
Would Rihanna publicizing any and all donations she makes (and which right now you have no idea if she makes any, or by how much) lead to you donating money or time to those causes? 'Cos if not, and since you’re also not any taxation authority to which she’s beholden, it’s none of your business honey.
I’m not even sure you have to wait until you’re wealthy. I’ve only just re-entered the lower middle class from the bottom up and yet I am helping to support a soup kitchen and have helped furnish the new homes of two needy people in the past three months. If collectively we all want a better society then I’d say we all need to help those less fortunate.
Of course, the extent of my help is going to be less than that of a millionaire (or billionaire) simply because I have fewer resources. The more resources a person has the greater the moral obligation to use that wealth wisely. IMHO. Of course, others have different opinions.
Caring about the homeless and helping others does not require the philanthropist to beggar him/herself in the process.
You’re setting up an impossible situation there.
There’s a website that talks about how much some wealthy people have given to charity. It’s called “Inside Philanthropy”. Here’s what it says about Susan Sarandon:
Here’s an article about the charities that Robin Williams donated to:
I can’t find any articles about the amount of money that Jodie Foster has given to charity.
Rihanna does an awful lot. This thread is ridiculous.
True story about Robin Williams. A while back, a friend of mine was doing some legal work for him when they started talking about problems my friend was having with addiction. Robin spent two hours talking to a complete stranger on the phone helping him.
Sure, he could have done more. Maybe fly across the country and hold my friend’s hand through recovery but it seems to me he did more than 99.9999% of people would do. This thread isn’t just ridiculous, it’s offensive to some pretty good people.
P.S. Fifteen million dollar houses aren’t all that extraordinary anymore. The guy who bought the house down the street from me paid over a million and he drives a taxi.
I tried to determine if it’s surprising that Jodie Foster should buy a house worth $15 million. I found a website that says that she’s worth $100 million. So how much should someone worth $100 million spend on a house? I know that the rule of thumb is that someone with an annual income of X should never spend more than two and a half times X on their house. But all we know is her net worth. One website says that someone with a net worth of X should never spend more than 10% of X for a house. However, it’s not true that she just bought a house for $15 million. What she did just this year is sell her house for $14.9 million. Furthermore, her wife, Alexandra Hedison, has a net worth of $14 million. (I got three wildly different numbers for her net worth, so I picked the middle one.) Furthermore, note that Foster is probably now an empty-nester, since her two sons are 21 and 18. So perhaps she decided that she and Hedison can live in a smaller and cheaper house now. So as far as I can determine, Foster and Hedison can afford to live in a house worth 10% of (100 + 14) million, which is $11.4 million, not that much more than $15 million.
How many bathrooms?
The house that Jodie Foster just sold has five bedrooms, five full bathrooms, and two half bathrooms.
Good for her. I was at college with Jodie Foster. She was, like, a year behind me. I remember the big brouhaha on campus after Wahatizname took a shot at Ronnie.
I walked into Kissinger’s son’s room, who I didn’t know, because he had one of the few TVs in the place. My cries of “Woo HOO” seemed to disturb his guests.
Later my friends and I bought bottles of cheap wine and sang songs. Th’ squares were aghast.
Cheering violence? Nice:dubious:
I went to a middle school that 98% Black. When Ronald Reagan was shot, the principal announced the news. My classmates started laughing and dancing. I sat in my chair terrified. As our teacher settled the other students down, you could hear the roars of celebration from the other parts of the building. It was surreal.
I thought pretending to be an Avenger was profitable for Hollywood actors.
Turns out the real money is in pretending to be liberal.
I guess I just don’t understand capitalism.
Interesting.
If I think they DON’T care about the homeless, does that disprove your point?
manson1972, how can you or anyone else know whether anybody really cares about the homeless? That requires knowing what’s going on in their minds, and nobody really knows what’s going on in other people’s minds. All you know are what they supposedly gave to some charity for the homeless (and you discovered that from a news story that may or may not be true) and how much money they have (and you discovered that from another news story that may or may not be true). Why don’t you just quit wasting your time reading about what celebrities supposedly do for charity? Why is what they do more important that what anyone else does for charity?