Sharing wealth

Zoe Williams's attack on the hedge funders who donate millions to help kids around the world is the latest in a long line of unhelpful comments from Guardian writers who seem to view the philanthropic rich as the worst type of wealthy people ( Be a real titan philanthropist – and close your hedge fund , 9 June). Every time I reread Williams's column, including the boast that "I object to high-net-worth philanthropy in principle", it makes less sense. Does her assertion that "inequality is a precondition of this kind of lavish spending" mean she would prefer the wealthy end of society to refrain from sharing their wealth, or perhaps that they should lavishly spend it on trinkets and baubles instead of the less fortunate? When the media regularly use words like "unpleasant", "vulgar" and "obscene" to refer to rich donors, is it any wonder that so few of the UK's wealthy decide to give much away? Better to buy another yacht than to risk putting your head above the philanthropic parapet. Dr Beth Breeze Centre for the Study of Philanthropy, Humanitarianism and Social Justice, University of Kent