Rich Lady Fritters Away Fortune

Giving away millions of dollars is serious business. Sadly, that job sometimes falls into the wrong hands. Take, for example, philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, a.k.a. the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the second-richest man on the planet. She recently gifted  $84.5 million to Girl Scouts of the USA and $275 million to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. That comes to $359.5 million to make sure women are free to kill their unborn babies and little girls learn how to camp in the woods and sell cookies. (Ironically, the Girl Scout motto is "Be prepared," so I guess none of them will need the services of Planned Parenthood.)

One has to wonder what Ms. Scott was thinking, or if she was thinking at all. For that much money she could have built a homeless shelter for 100 people in about 40 cities in America, or maybe more if they scrimped on materials. Or she could have given it to St. Jude's Hospital for Children which pays for every child's treatment, or any number of similar hospitals for children across the country. Or she could have donated it to cancer research or any of the several underfunded research centers focusing on rare diseases. Or the Ronald McDonald House, which gives free housing to families so they can be near their sick children receiving treatment for cancer and other serious illnesses in cities all across the nation.

There there is the rest of the world. How about Haiti, still a mess from the earthquake that destroyed much of its infrastructure in 2010? And all those starving countries in Africa, where children with distended stomachs eat mud pies? Or perhaps help rebuild so many lives destroyed by natural disasters by giving a couple of bucks to the American Red Cross.

All she had to do was go on Amazon and search "best charities." (You'd think she would have started there.) Oh well, with a net worth of $33.6 billion she's still got some dough left. Maybe she'll read this blog before she writes another check.