Thread by @charleshb

The concepts of doing well by doing good, impact investment funds & the like substitute "generosity" for "justice". Justice often requires the powerful to lose something, to stop standing on someone's back. 1/x

Generosity in this context is like continuing to stand on someone's back while throwing them a bone. Generosity of this kind where the system doesn't change but scraps are thrown has become a very powerful idea. 2/x

paraphrased from a conversation between @AnandWrites & @deray on he Pod Save (@PodSaveThePpl) the People #podcast crooked.com/podcast/never-… #economics #politics #business #philanthropy 3/3

In a society that was working right there would be less money to give away. Because people would already have it...in wages. It would be spent on maternity leave. It would be spent on everybody getting $25-35K spent per year per pupil not just those in "rich" communities. 4/x

It would mean actually having retraining and late life education for people who've lost jobs due to industrialization. It would mean universal health care. It would mean universal free higher education 5/x

Listen to the whole interview. Also listen to @ezraklein's interview with @AnandWrites stitcher.com/podcast/vox/th…. 6/x

Then listen to Anand's talk at the @AspenInstitute: Anand Giridharadas: The Thriving World, The Wilting World, & You 6/x

The biggest thing I learned is that many decent people can uphold an indecent system. An indecent system doesn't require that everybody be indecent it simply requires that people rationalize, fall pray to justifications, turn the other way, tell themselves stories 7/x

and you can get to a place where great injustice is tolerated by people who are good family members, who are trying to do the best at their jobs, who think that they are making the world better in some modest way or some grandiose way,...8/x

And who in fact are contributing to the problem...Simply getting rid of some villain is not how you solve this kind of problem. This is the kind of problem you have when your culture is warped in such a way that it tells lots of people, decent people 9/x

faulty stories that cause them to think that generosity is the same things as justice. That cause them to think that they are changing the world when in fact they are keeping it the same. That cause them to feel like they are making a difference when they are in fact 10/x

...protecting their opportunity to "make a killing". And so if that is right what it really requires is not just vigorous public action to renew and restore the American Dream, but a shift in our culture, language and values so that we don't valorize phony attempts...11/x

to make the world better and we actually lift up and celebrate movements and people who are actually working to make this country better the only way it has ever really gotten better which is from below. 12/x Last few tweets were more paraphrasing of @AnandWrites

@GabrielleBkr_ & @sugyroxdemsox check out the above thread and the podcasts, video and book it references.

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World
by Anand Giridharadas goodreads.com/book/show/3750…