Man born in poverty, who works his way to being a successful business man, wins lottery worth $315M. Goes on to live in the same small town that he had established himself in all of his life, not a bad choice per se. He then goes on to set up a charity that instead of doing a social good, ends up making him a big sugar daddy to moochers. His business also gets hammered to the tune of about three million dollars a year in frivolous lawsuits. Out of misguided generosity, he gives his granddaughter four cars and two thousand dollars a week to spend however her teenage heart felt was appropriate. The drug dealers moved in, and got his rich granddaughter hooked on drugs. Man looks around and wonders why everything went to hell when he didn't set up his assets to be handled correctly, and why no one likes him after he became known as the "rich, miserable, violent drunk."
That's three pages of ABC news story in a nutshell, "nuance-free" and insured for Maximum Bluntness Or Your Money Backtm! I can't say that I am lacking in sympathy for the man, but he should have known better, especially given his background. He should have known that it wouldn't do him or anyone else any good by just handing out money like that. It'd be one thing to have set up a massive college fund and trust fund for his granddaughter, it's quite another to give her enough money to become a great target for drug dealers.
As usual, ABC misses the point. The moral of this story is not that money breeds misery or that being rich is actually dangerous for you and your family, at least in America. The real moral of the story is that being overly generous is in fact quite dangerous for the people you are trying to help. If you really want to help them, make them work for the money, and allocate most of the donations in such a way that you encourage them to develop themselves as people. All this poor guy did was become the unofficial private welfare agency for his community. His intentions were noble, such as all of the money he gave to the church and trying to give people something nice, but the reality is that just giving money away is not the answer. Never has been, never will be.
but the reality is that just giving money away is not the answer.
Does the government know about this?
Seriously though, I feel bad for the guy. It's not like there's conventional wisdom out there about being a lottery winner. Still, he should have known better. What teenager has $2000 to spend every week?!? And how do those who do have that kind of money to spend - Paris Hilton - usually turn out?!
Sad, sad, sad.
Sad.
but the reality is that just giving money away is not the answer.
No, but we can't exclude it from being part of the answer either.
Money isn't inherently bad. It is the root of all kinds of evil, but not all evil.
I should have known better than to sin, ever. So should you.
But we did. Now, what are we gonna do about it?
Condemn or forgive?
Like Pablo, I have some sympathy for the guy. Not saying what he did was right, but I can understand his plight.