The headlines state that Taylor Swift gave $100,000 to the family of a shooting victim at the KC Chiefs Super Bowl Parade. The media reports she is worth around one billion dollars. The media (Forbes) also reports the Hunt family, owners of the Chiefs, are worth around twenty-five (25) billion dollars. There is no report of the Hunt family making any donation to the victims of the crimes at the KC Chiefs parade. What do you suppose that is all about?

I don’t know – but I like to speculate about matters that I have no experience with and matter not a bit to my daily life.

Fifty years ago my friend Eric graduated from CMSU with a degree in violin performance. He went on to get his masters in fine arts in violin performance. He took a job with the Houston Symphony. As a side gig he and a couple of other musicians formed a ‘string quartet’ to play at special events. This was the late 1970’s, early 80’s.

Eric laughed when talking about wearing his tux to a wedding reception where his quartet, all professionals with the symphony, charged a lot of money for a couple of hours entertainment. His humor was directed at what he called the ‘new money’. Houston was booming with new oil millionaires and the capitalist parasites that follow. Money was everywhere. Eric was somewhat astonished at the lack of culture of his patrons. The new money folks spent lavishly to appear like old money folks. His patrons had no idea what the string quartet was playing. They knew nothing of the music. They did not know the difference between Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart. They did know that rich people did things like hire string quartets for wedding receptions and they were not to be outdone.

Locally, in St. Joseph where I live, there are a couple of wealthy families. Forbes has not reported on their worth so we just guess. The Bradley’s own the newspaper. They own many newspapers and TV stations and recently sold their many cable franchises. They appears to have a lot of money. The Bradleys are several generations into wealth and they know how to do charity. They don’t act like rich people. They are easily accessible. Many years ago I was soliciting for a local charity and walked right up to the Patriarch of the Bradley family while he was working out at the local YMCA. He casually told me that his family has a trust and any charitable donations were handled through the trust. Pretty smart actually. Old money knows how to deflect the whimperings of the lower classes while maintaining personal dignity.

The Hunt family is Old Money. Clark Hunt grew up with instructions about how to be rich and not be taken advantage of. I don’t have any personal knowledge of the Hunt’s but I suspect they have layers of financial protection from the desolate needs of the masses. Most of these folks read Charles Dickens or Victor Hugo and roll their eyes as they exclaim, “Yeah, right!” Then they chuckle at the naivete of the liberal authors.

When Taylor and Travis get married and have children, like Patrick and Brittany, they will be advised about charitable trusts. Their money managers will sit them down for a serious talk about responsibility. They will talk about noblesse oblige – I think it is Latin for the obligation of the noble class. The oxford dictionary says “the inferred responsibility of privileged people to act with generosity and nobility toward those less privileged”. The children must be raised to understand their proper relationship with others.

It goes something like this: New money gives a buck to every homeless person walking down the street. Old money contributes to building new homeless shelters that bear the name of the Old Money patron. They don’t pay for the shelter – they just give enough to get their name on the building.