MB Civic

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/opinion/16tierney.html?pagewanted=print

In the wake of Google’s announcement that it has started a for-profit philanthropic foundation – and the ongoing corporate philanthropic efforts of companies like Ben & Jerry’s and Whole Foods – Tierney discusses the idea of “compassionate capitalism”:

“Tycoons traditionally discovered their inner saint only after exoricing their inner capitalist. Carnegie, Ford and Gates made their money and then gave it away. But Google’s young founders are already taking on poverty, disease and global warming…To hard-core free-marketeers, the corporation’s only mission is to generate profits for shareholders….That’s too narrow a vision…Socially conscious companies like Whole Foods have flourished because their founders, employees and customers want a corporation to have grander goals than enriching shareholders.”