False Promises To Those Living In Hope

This is building up to be the age of the Phoney Philanthropist. The Phoney Philanthropists are people who take very public credit for giving away huge sums, people who get all the glory and celebrity for doing it, but who pay zero towards it – because it is always someone else’s money. I was reminded of this most forcefully this week with the scale of the excess of Oprah Winfrey’s giveaways.

As publicity for her new season, Winfrey gave away a car to each of the 276 members of the studio audience.

"Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car! Everybody gets a car!" Winfrey yelled as she jumped up and down on the stage. The audience members screamed, cried and hugged each other - then followed Winfrey out to the parking lot of her Harpo Studios to see their Pontiacs, all decorated with giant red bows.

Not only that, but she also gave away a four-year major college scholarship, a makeover and $10,000 of new clothes to one woman, and a $130,000 house makeover to another. And all that on the first day! This morning, my local morning radio show was talking about it. One of the hosts said: "Well, she can afford it." And there you have it -- Oprah Winfrey personally getting credit for the $8 million extravaganza even though she didn't contribute a single penny.

"The Pontiac G6, built in Orion Township, starts at $21,300, but audience members will be permitted to customize their cars with all the options, pushing the price of the car to an estimated $28,400 and the cost of the giveaway promotion to at least $7.8 million. GM's Pontiac division is covering all of the costs, including the tax and licensing fees ... "It's a marketing stunt."

You can bet every farthing in your grandkid's piggybank that the college scholarship and the home makeover didn't come out of Oprah's pocket either. Not only that, but Oprah and her production company make tens of millions of dollars on the syndication of each of her shows. So, she is being paid millions to pretend to give away millions. And she's praised as a saint for it. Bizarre.

Of course she isn't the only one. It sure isn't Donald Trump who pays for the paycheck that "The Apprentice" winner takes home. And if Mark Cuban is really out of pocket after "The Benefactor" airs, I'll eat a roomful of hats.

What's wrong with all this? A couple of things. First, while people like Winfrey and Trump and the others are gaining wealth and celebrity giving away other people's money, genuine benefactors like Bill and Melinda Gates are villified even though they genuinely donate billions of dollars of their own money. Given my views on capitalism, I don't like the way any of them make their money; but at least Bill Gates tries to do something with his wealth while the others are feeding off their fraudulent images.

More importantly, this whole giveaway commercialism for the very lucky few feeds a Micawberish expectation in some people's minds that a miracle will come along to magically "fix" everything for them. Why plan and save for a house repair -- why not just wait for Ty Pennington to burst through your living room wall and give you a deluxe makeover courtesy of ABC's money? Your car barely clunking along? -- maybe Oprah will leap out of the bushes and hand you a new set of keys! You think this is crazy? A few years ago there was a public opinion survey conducted in Canada. Something over 60% of British Columbians had "win the lottery" as a significant part of their retirement planning.

The greater the expectations, the greater the diappointments. Bread and circuses won't cut it for long when the odds of winning are stacked against the majority. Fifty years ago and more Erich Fromm wrote of the searing alienation felt by those failing to keep up with the broad and slow sweep of middle class economic expansion. Imagine then the desperate alienation fomented in neighbourhoods where one in a thousand or less are struck with excessive good fortune, and the rest are left to wallow in the mire of shrinking social services, failing education standards, and nothing but $9 an hour jobs. No wonder our prisons are bursting at the seams.