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CHAPTER 12<br />
THE NEW DESK<br />
by Dr. Al Overholt 2/11/97<br />
THE BIGGEST GIVER<br />
OR THE BIGGEST HOG<br />
Excerpted from THE ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 8/23/96, [quoting:]<br />
When Ted Turner forked over $200-million to charity two years ago, he felt a tremor.<br />
“My hand shook when I signed the papers,” he recalls, about his first big gifts to universities and the<br />
environment, “because I knew I was taking myself out of the running for the richest man in America.”<br />
Instead of the joy of giving, he was consumed by the fear of falling-off The Forbes <strong>Four</strong> Hundred list of<br />
wealthiest Americans.<br />
But he learned that giving can be as much fun as making, and now he wants his fellow billionaires—or “ol’<br />
skinflints”, as he calls them—to “open their purse strings” wider.<br />
“That list is destroying our country!” He bellows cheerfully over the phone. “These new super-rich won’t<br />
loosen up their wads because they’re afraid they’ll reduce their net worth and go down on the list. That’s<br />
their Super Bowl.”<br />
America’s flashiest extrovert, the Jim Carrey of capitalism, has gone existential on us.<br />
“How many times do you get asked which is your favorite restaurant in New York, your favorite sport,<br />
your favorite place to go on vacation?” he asks. “My favorite place is wherever I am! Why do we have<br />
to rank everything? Why can’t we like a fish restaurant on Sunday and a Chinese restaurant on Monday?<br />
Why isn’t it better to be the biggest giver rather than the biggest hog?”<br />
The man who raises buffalo here in Montana and businesses in Atlanta, the Rhett Butler romantic who<br />
married Jane Fonda, the adventurist who has stacked up amazing achievements in sailing, baseball, television<br />
and preserving the condor, peregrine falcon and Western lands, has another great idea. Why not start<br />
an annnual list of the most generous, offering an “Ebenezer Scrooge Prize” that embarrasses stingy billionaires<br />
and “Heart of Gold Award” to honor philanthropists?<br />
Turner, aka Captain Outrageous and the Mouth of the South, is getting warmed up now. “I talked to both<br />
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, the two richest men in the country, and they would be inclined to give more<br />
if there was a list of who did the giving rather than the having. What difference does it make if you’re worth<br />
$12-billion or $11-billion? With a billion dollars you can build a whole university.<br />
“They are fighting every year to be the richest man in the world. Why don’t they sign a joint pact to each<br />
73
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