The pursuit of philanthropy is in the news. Do you know what philanthropy means in 2022. Stephen Smith wants to know if it means the same thing in the US and the UK.
Sam Bankman-Fried was a leader in the new philanthropy movement known as "Effective Altruism"
Instead of working for a charity, supporters of the company prefer to make money in finance and tech and give it to charity. FTX went bankrupt earlier this month.
He had been worth $10.5 billion on paper, but his wealth disappeared in the blink of an eye. His creditor are out of pocket by as much as $8 billion because of his actions.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, said he would give most of his fortune to charity. According to the same source, he has already parted ways with over 2 billion dollars.
It's not known how Bezos will fulfill his promise. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet launched the Giving Pledge to convince their fellow super-rich to give most of their assets to charity.
Critics point out that Bezos's wealth is not related to his company's tax record. In the UK, Amazon pays tax on its profits but not its sales, and it took in over 20 billion dollars in taxes last year.
The company has been accused of low wages and poor working conditions.
Bankman-Fried and Bezos have had a lot of attention for their statements on philanthropy, even though the subject is not talked about in this side of the Atlantic.
The British are reluctant to discuss their efforts on behalf of good causes, so much so that even the humble-brag "I don't like to talk about my charity work". We like to say so.
A new type of philanthropist has emerged in the UK in the last few years. This year's leading donors include Lewis Hamilton, Mo Salah and Stormzy, all of whom donated to Marcus' campaign against food poverty.
Differences in attitudes to philanthropy in the UK and US can be explained by aspects of culture and taxes. In the US, Americans gave $484.85 billion to charity in 2011.
The Charities Aid Foundation says Britons gave over $11 billion. The US has more people than the UK, but Americans give more.
Dr Beth Breeze is the director of the Centre for Philanthropy at the University of Kent.
Success in the US is judged by how open-handedly they give away and how much an individual makes, according to her.
Being both the richest and the most philanthropic is what Bill Gates exemplifies. In the UK, there is no expectation of such things. The non-philanthropic wealthy don't come under any social pressure to follow in their footsteps.
According to Dr Breeze, the United States is the most developed country in the world in terms of raising money.
She says that Bezos lives in a culture that expects people like him to give and that his ex- wife is the most admired contemporary philanthropist.
He has not pledged to give it all away any sooner.
The Sunday Times giving list.
The founding fathers of the United States wanted free, independent religious communities separate from the state and churches are the biggest beneficiaries from American philanthropy. 27% of donations went to faith organizations in 2011.
The US is fond of small government. Spending and taxes are low compared to Europe. noblesse oblige is a tradition of America's wealthiest dynasties. Art is a great example. Without the generosity of private donors, the museums and galleries of the US would not be as well-stocked as they are today.
You don't have to go all the way back to British history to find a pattern of philanthropy that's as important in shaping society as it is in America.
The pioneers of the industrial revolution in Britain were the ones who signed the cheques and acted out of self-consciously godly motives.
One of the great textile barons, Titus Salt, built homes and schools for the workers who worked in his Yorkshire mills. His town was named after him. It would be free of alcohol, he said. Less days would be lost to drink related illnesses and injuries as a result of his nonconformist beliefs.
Salt's model was followed by the Lever Brothers. They built a garden village to house their workers and called it Port Sunlight, though they didn't commentary on the rainy local climate.
There was a pub in Port Sunlight that was alcohol-free. Jonathan Coe's new novel, Bournville, is based on a real town in the British Midlands where the Cadbury family made their eponymous chocolate bars.
In 1895 the company acquired more of the land surrounding the factory buildings and soon the workers could enjoy further recreation grounds and a cricket pitch. The ambitions of the Cadbury family were much more than that. They thought of houses with deep gardens where trees could grow.
Jonathan Ruffer, a religious-minded City trader who has lavished millions of his own money on his native north-eastern England, is a descendant of those God-fearing Victorian grands.
Kynren, a whistlestop tour of British history, is staged in the grounds of Ruffer's home to raise money for the area. According to a report, Mr Ruffer's generosity is worth over half a million dollars a day to the community of Bishop Auckland.
The tech bros of Silicon Valley are not connected to the mutton-chopped worthies who built Saltaires and Bournville.
If recent reports about temperance are correct, then the creation of state-of-the-art accommodations for the workers and surrounding it with recreational facilities is out of the Silicon Valley template.
What goes around comes around in philanthropic work.
Victorian England's industrial barons had vast private fortunes that were untroubled by taxes.
How might a rich man use the word to give?
I'm a philanthropist, they pay their taxes, and you give to charity.
Stephen Smith is a radio and television personality.
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