Altruism or Egoism

The New York Times Magazine this last Sunday (March 9) featured a brief story on “Darwinian” explanations of altruism as self-interest in disguise. The author, Jim Holt, introduces the story by illustrating four possible explanations for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s generosity: kinship selection; reciprocal altruism; reputation repair; and a “potlatch” plan to bankrupt his rivals (e.g. the Google bros.) by stimulating competitive expenditure. Discretiting the explanatory value of each, Holt goes on to suggest that the Darwinian explanations often fail.

Gates philanthropy has always struck me as being susceptible to another accusation: investment in the infrastructure of a future market. Why wait for the markets for his products to emerge through traditional means (domestic capacity building in developing countries and investments from foreign development agencies), when he is in a position to – as Keats said of his poetry reading public – “create the taste by which he is to be appreciated”? Thinking of the Gates Foundation in terms of “patient capital” seems to me a more plausible explanation for the hidden self-interest driving his foundation’s ostensible acts of altruism. That said, I don’t buy it.

America Votes on the Number Two Issue

Ok. Fear, smear, sarcasm, threats and potential lawsuits, and leaked memos …. apparently it all did the trick.

Congratulations Mark (“Being human is overrated“) Penn.

Maybe Walters Bagehot and Lippman, and Leo Strauss, were right after all.

This newsclip, by the way, is irresistible — (thanks to my infinite friend):

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

Tony Rezko = Dr. Phil?

Please tell me its a coincidence that that the Tony Rezko federal corruption trial was scheduled to begin on the eve of the biggest election day of the primaries since Super Tuesday?

Is it possible this whole thing is just a case of mistaken identity? Maybe Barack Obama thought he was dealing with Dr. Phil all along. Who wouldn’t trust Dr. Phil?

But don’t believe the rumors that Tony Rezko is Dr. Phil’s alternate personality, like Dr. Jeckyll’s Mr. Hyde, his dark side, despite the evidence of deep ties between Dr. Phil and Hillary (see below):

http://revver.com/video/606694/dr-phil-rushes-to-hillary-clintons-bedside/