This is an exciting time in the field of social impact, social enterprise, social finance, and all things relating to community good. Billions of dollars are flowing into philanthropy and market-driven solutions. World is being changed! Or so we are led to believe. Yet, in Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, Anand Giridharadas, a former New York Times foreign correspondent, explains why we should not be so quick to celebrate these advances. In this important book Giridharadas challenges those working for social change within existing systems of power to consider whether they are inadvertently perpetuating the problems they seek to solve.
MarketWorld Philanthropist
The book argues that today’s elite citizens of the world are philanthropic and are as concerned about the plight of the poor, poverty and the “losers” as any elite in the history of the world. But they also consider themselves a new breed of leaders who can help solve the world’s most intractable problems through the power of philanthropy and their successful business knowledge and expertise. They see solving our problems through market-friendly ways that result in “win-wins” for everyone involved. In the book, Giridharadas argues that what he calls the “MarketWorld” change agents see themselves as those who have succeeded under the status quo. They therefore believe they are also those best equipped to fix the world’s problems.
But ultimately their approach, he argues, serve only to protect and further their interests and cement the status quo. “For when elites assume leadership of social change, they are able to reshape what social change is — above all, to present it as something that should never threaten winners,” he states. They see poverty as a major issue but don’t want to address inequity that is a root cause. He questions the system that allows people to make money in predatory ways and compensate for that through philanthropy.
Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world
Industrialist, philanthropist
Roots of Philanthropic “Giving Back”
Giridharadas argues the this as a problem dates back to Andrew Carnegie, the famed American industrialist, who advocated that people be as aggressive as possible in their pursuit of wealth and then give it back through private philanthropy. This was an extreme idea of the right and at the time was viewed with cynicism – not today though. Carnegie and future 1% winners viewed that they could make money in any which way, and through a commitment to give back could address their wrongs. Today philanthropists are heralded as champions of social change. But Giridharadas writes that their paternalistic approach never considers that “the poor might not need so much help had they been better paid.” And could it be that some of the problems created by this aggressive pursuit of wealth in fact caused many of the global challenges we face – from obesity to climate change to water shortages and beyond.
Carnegie-ism has grown into what Giridharadas calls “MarketWorld.” In essence, this is the cult-like belief that intractable social problems can be solved in market-friendly ways. This notion extends its tentacles in all sorts of ways, such as the idea that big, powerful firms like McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, because of their business success, can also teach some “elusive way of thinking that was vital to helping people.”
“Winners Take All” is so readable because it is told through characters and well-known global philanthropists, many of whom have a way of framing a problem that makes it about giving bits of power to those who lack it “without taking power away from those who hold it.”
In his view, Giridharadas determines there is not much moral difference between the Sacklers, the enormously wealthy, extremely philanthropic family who made their money getting people addicted to OxyContin; Bill Clinton, who adopted MarketWorld’s beliefs during his presidency and in his work afterward; and others who have done nothing so obviously huge or harmful, but who aren’t willing to go radical, either.
He cites the B Corp movement as an example. Companies can commit themselves to using “business as a force for good” a solution he considers to be relatively safe and small. B Corps “seek to ‘change the world’ by doing what can be done within a bad system but remain silent about that system. Could organizations like the American Sustainable Business Council, BALLE (now Common Future), B Lab, Net Impact, Opportunity Collaboration, and so many more—are they themselves providing cover for a rotten system?
From Fighting Poverty to Addressing Inequality
Giridharadas concludes that MarketWorld, along with its philosophical antecedents, like Carnegie-ism and neoliberalism has been an abject failure. He cites his indebtedness to Thomas Piketty’s “masterpiece” on the growth of inequality, “Capital in the Twenty First Century.” He argues that any thesis that the world has actually improved over the course of human history is simply a form of brainwashing. He describes it as a “socially acceptable way to tell people seething over the inequities of the age to drop their complaining.”
Giridharadas key idea is to reinvigorate our democratic institutions. He argues that when a “society helps people through its shared democratic institutions it does on behalf of all and in the context of equality.” For better or worse our shared common institutions – courts, law, elected officials, police, agencies and shared infrastructure uphold our civilization and are owned by us all. He pleas for a strengthening of these institutions and a move away the giver and taker, the helper and helped, the donor and recipient – all that reinforces a relationship of inequality. He goes on to argue, “When a society solves a problem politically and systemically it is expressing the send of the whole; it is speaking on behalf of every citizen.”
New Gospel of Wealth Movement
Is anything being done? How do we shift our focus away from helping someone in need to solving the problems that created the need in the first place? One inspiration in the book is Giridharadas’ focus on efforts being made to address inequality. He shares the story of a few leaders bravely working for change - one is the Ford Foundations visionary CEO, Darren Walker. While it is still in context of “meeting wealthy philanthropists where they are,” he is none-the-less trying to forge a new path forward. One that considers equity and justice as the focus. Check out the Ford Foundations efforts: From Generosity to Justice.
Winners Take All gives due reason for reflection. The author argues that the current system of philanthropy and MarketWorld philanthropists must be called out. There must be a willingness to oppose the tendencies of business that perpetuate injustice, regardless of how much it costs or who is offended. We must enable the victims to help shape the solutions. We must hold government accountable to serve the public good. And we must be alert to those subtle but crippling compromises that enable us to combine a life of wealth and privilege with the pursuit of social justice. A book I highly recommend to anyone working in social innovative and partnerships.