In recent years, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Michael Bloomberg and many others have poured billions into fighting poverty, protecting the environment and improving health outcomes. Corporate giving has also grown significantly over the past five years. Yet despite these efforts, income inequality is worse than it’s been since before the Great Depression, and poverty and its associated social pathologies remain stubbornly pervasive. What gives?
There’s a simple answer, one you’ll never hear in the grand halls of the charity gala circuit: The math of philanthropy simply doesn’t work. And it never will.
Hans Taparia and Bruce Buchanan; professors at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
