Considering Giving

I found a draft of this old post from way back, I can’t remember if I put it on the blog or not, likely not since it’s not really finished. This quote has echoed in my head since I read it, so perhaps it will provide some discussion or consideration wherever you’re at.

I’ve been following Brother Maynard’s blog lately and this post caught my eye… he talks about how over the past 20 years American churches (we Canadians have done much better right???) have raised/spent over 1 Trillion dollars. Here’s the quote that brought home the signifigance of that to me:

What could $1Trillion buy? You could pay off the total debt of 27 of the world’s poorest countries: Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and 9 others (not named, see BBC link above). This would reduce your cash on hand to only $945Billion. Covering off every other country in Africa might only cost you $275Billion, taking you down to a worrying $670Billion. Getting concerned about your dwindling fortune, you could purchase all of Microsoft, McDonald’s, Walt Disney, and Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway. Based on market cap at the time of writing, you’d then only have $180Billion left over. With this, you could support about 25,000 indiginous pastors for 10 years. You still have $100 Billion left (not to mention that stock portfolio sitting there for a rainy day). Just start splitting that up between AIDS research and various global relief organizations. You’ll only be worth a little under $500Billion in your stock portfolio, better pray for the markets to do well… you just gave away a little over half of the $1Trillion you had to work with, better ration it from here on. If, however, you sold it all, you could give $76 to each person on the planet. Some would scoff at what you’re doing and spend it on overpriced coffee, and others would be very grateful — you just provided for them and their family for a full two and a half months.