I sometimes wonder what kind of impact it would have on American politics if high-visibility euergitism was still something we expected and our elite performed - instead of nothing, political activism or (low visibility) 'effective altruism.'
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I should probably be clearer about what I mean by 'high visibility' here - that used to mean 'build prominent public buildings/institutions and name them after yourself so everyone knows who did it.'
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I invite you to imagine the public image consequences of a situation where, say, Jeff Bezos funds the poorest 200 urban high schools in America back up to a tolerable level in exchange for having them named after him. You may well oppose that idea - and for good reasons!
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But it would have some pretty big long term consequences, I am guessing, to the public sense of Bezos in particular but also the wealthy in general if you ended up with a situation where half the country lived in a town with at least one "Jeff Bezos High School.'
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I think the problem of reputational capital is much deeper. Social media, by erasing gatekeepers, has democratized influence. The old systems of elite networks was dependent on the limiting effect of those networks on who could gran microphones and who couldn't.
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On the financial front, reputational capital has collapsed in large part because it was replaced by the state+increased individual prosperity. The old model was based on the trade off that the individual elite was given immense power in return for their spending.
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I would argue that this is still in practice. For "public deeds" you can see the donations of the Sacklers, for "good for society" you get things like the Gates Foundation.
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Not that we can see it as a good thing, as most of these guys are using their money either to cover their shameful behaviour, or to bypass the government by setting up parallel control/development structures.
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