Susan Smith is cynically ungrateful for the launch of the $45bn Chan Zuckerberg Foundation
Congratulations to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla, who gave birth to a baby girl Max and a charitable foundation worth $45bn this week.
The Chan Zuckerberg Foundation Facebook page is home to a nauseating video, filmed two weeks before the birth of Max, showing two of the wealthiest bright young people in the world smugly looking forward to a rosy future for their daughter. The heavily stage-managed party political broadcast feel to this is enough to challenge even the least cynical in our society.
It is accompanied by a seven page founding document for the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation that lays out its principles in the form of a letter to Max. This has been well thought out over a long period (dare I suggest perhaps even before the miracle of Max’s conception).
This bright young couple are playing god because they are allowed to believe they are gods.
The initiative intends to take a long-term view, invest in developments that may not reap results for 100 years, and take risks, says Zuckerberg in the letter. Initially it intends to focus on personalised learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities – so far so safe.
Of course, the world is not going to be a worse place as a result of the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation. It is bound to do some great work and will no doubt keep many a research scientist in a job in the hope of curing the human race of disease altogether one day (a bold claim made by Zuckerberg in his letter). This could play a part in finding a cure for cancer, heart disease or Alzheimer’s disease, all of which will of course be fantastic developments.
So, why is this foundation's launch viewed with scepticism amongst us lowly charity workers?
It's simple. It's because this bright young couple are playing god because they are allowed to believe they are gods.
Mark Zuckerberg has been able to amass such an extraordinary level of wealth at such a young age due to a corrupt system. It is a system that keeps poor people in poverty and values inequality. It is a system that makes communities weak as a result of poor living conditions, violence and crime.
Facebook can legally pay less tax in the UK than the average reader of this article so that Zuckerberg and his colleagues can become richer. This prevents our welfare state from supporting people to move out of poverty and develop the skills and confidence to take advantage of personalised learning opportunities.
Is Zuckerberg aware of this? Does he care?
Philanthropic instincts most likely come from genuine desires to make things better, but a few rich people promoting their own pet projects will never change the world. Nobody expects those who reap the rewards of a bad system to lead a revolution, but forgive me for not receiving their bounty with unqualified gratitude.
