Connect with us on Facebook!
Subscribe.
Follow us on Twitter!
Make us your home page!
Authors, sign in!It's been said that poorer people tend to be more philanthropic than wealthy folks. Don't believe it? Well, here's some strong anecdotal evidence:
Paul and Evelyn Cassat were frugal, hard-working people who never earned more than $6 an hour. On Monday, the accumulated savings of their thrifty life and financial acumen became the second-largest gift ever to Wichita State University: $8.5 million.As with every good story, there are some interesting lessons to learn:
...Evelyn Cassat appeared to be the one with investment skills. She invested carefully and wisely, balancing stocks, bonds, mutual funds and U.S. Treasury instruments. She even made overnight loans to banks, pointing out that she gained a quarter-percent interest on those loans, he said.And then there's my favorite part of the story......Evelyn Cassat confided that a neighbor of her parents once offered to pay for her to go to law school because he was so impressed by her intelligence. She was interested, but her parents told her that law was not a good career for a woman, and she declined.
The Cassats were intensely frugal. Rhatigan [consultant to the Wichita State University foundation] said that in preparing their home for auction, he came across stacks of empty cereal boxes. A health care worker told him that Evelyn Cassat used the boxes to line her shoes when the soles wore thin to make the shoes last longer.I can't help but think the obvious: when the U.S. was a nation of frugal people - people who (literally) saved their pennies; fixed, repaired household items, rather than throw them away; and "splurged" by going to see a movie or simply buying a beverage on a weekend evening - weren't we a little better off? Perhaps even a little happier?
Published May 6, 2008 by Henry Schwaller |
Permalink
| Tags:
Charity
Economy
Middle Class
Philanthropy
