The Price of Humanity by Amy Schiller

The Price of Humanity by Amy Schiller

"[Schiller] memorably chronicles why philanthropy is important, how it became flawed and what can be done to transform it for the greater good." -- Tobias Carroll, InsideHook

An attempt to rescue philanthropy from its progressive decline into vanity projects that drive wealth inequality, so that it may support human flourishing as originally intended.

The word "philanthropy" today makes people think big money--Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffet, and Andrew Carnegie come to mind. The scope of suffering in the world seems to demand an industry of giving, and yet for all the billions that are dispensed, the wealthy never seem to lose any of their money and nothing seems to change.

Journalist, academic and consultant Amy Schiller shows how we get out of this stalemate by evaluating the history of philanthropy from the ideas of St. Augustine to the work of Lebron James. She argues philanthropy's contemporary tendency to maintain obscene inequality and reduce every cause to dehumanizing technocratic terms is unacceptable, while maintaining an optimism about the soul and potential of philanthropy in principle.

For philanthropy to get back to its literal roots--the love of humanity--Schiller argues that philanthropy can no longer be premised around basic survival. Public institutions must assume that burden so that philanthropy can shift its focus to initiatives that allow us to flourish into happier, more fulfilled human beings. Philanthropy has to get out of the business of saving lives if we are to save humanity.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781685890223
ISBN 10	1685890229
Title	The Price of Humanity
Author	Amy Schiller
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Melville House Publishing
Year published	2023-12-05
Number of pages	272
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.