In the Atlantic, Maribel Morey notes that there was a time when philanthropists courted the White House, but nowadays it's the opposite.
"On March 27, the Obama administration hosted a summit in the White House for an elite group of 100 young philanthropists and heirs to billionaire family fortunes. Writing for the New York Times, Johnson & Johnson scion Jamie Johnson recounted a conversation with Zac Russell, a 26-year-old who recently had joined the board of his family’s Russell Family Foundation....To be fair, though, the federal government’s collaboration with elite private philanthropists is not new to this second gilded age. It has existed since the turn of the 20th century, when elite philanthropists such as Andrew Carnegie had amassed unprecedented wealth and inaugurated the field of philanthropy. A big difference between Carnegie's moment and Mr. Russell's, though, is who in the philanthropy-government relationship is doing the admiring and pursuing." -- Maribel Morey, the Atlantic
