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Another Thank you letter

One thing that I admire for American society is their culture of giving. They give to churches, schools, community services, libraries, research institutions, the list could go on and on. Their government is smart enough to create an institution that supports this kind of benevolent act by giving tax-deduction, tax-exemption for those givers or what we generally call them as the ‘philanthropists’.

The obvious reason why American higher education is much better than others in terms of finance is that they have received a lot more resources and money, not from federal or local government or any kind of taxpayer’s money, but from donation by ‘alumni’ or other ‘philanthropic organizations’ or anyone who wants to contribute to education. This kind of giving makes American Universities become at the forefront of research/innovation of their fields. Research universities like Harvard / Yale / Princeton / Stanford and the likes have been endowed with billions of dollar by the money from donation/ alumni support and by shrewd investment. The difference is stark when compared to the best schools from the other side of the atlantics like Oxford / Cambridge that have been facing difficulties in financing themselves from time to time as they have been single-handedly relied on the money from British government as the prime purveyor (Bill Gates did donate a lot to Cambridge though). And absolutely it is incomparable to universities in Thailand that are still at the nascent stage in liberating themselves from the central government. My question for Thai universities is ‘will they be able to get more money from alumni or donation that they will not resort to raising tuition fee from poor or moderate Thai students? Probably not. We don’t have the culture of giving to schools that much.

I am reminded about this thing because yesterday I was told to write a thank you letter to my sponsor who has donated millions to universities, organizations and part of the money becomes my fellowship to study in this very expensive university (to my surprise, Chicago’s tuition is a bit higher than here, though the facility there is much worse- so it is quite illusory to say that here is that expensive). With their money, I and other hundred-plus students can afford to study with no financial burden. I am gracious to all of the sponsors in this philanthropic program. They are doing great service to us all. It really makes a difference to our lives (lot of them might have gone to other schools like Harvard or MIT had they earned less than this ..– no no, who would want to go to such a cold place when they have California sunshine here)

A bit about my sponsor that hopefully I will meet them sometimes. They are Mr.Burt and his wife Deedee McMurtry. Mr. Burt is a successful venture capitalist in Silicon Valley . I hope he could teach me to be successful like him and be a future generation of philanthropist. Like I always say, if I am rich...I will donate a lot to schools in Thailand, or if I am superrich I might donate to schools in USA as well. Maybe if I am able to establish a chair professor in my name, it must be cool. BTW, I have never seen a chair professor in Thai name yet. Perhaps 'Chang' or 'Redbull' could start first :)

' Willingness to work hard, diligence, perseverance, thoroughness and self-discipline’ are qualities of successful person – I try to read and appreciate it when I feel I should work harder.

Create Date : 03 พฤศจิกายน 2548

Last Update : 5 พฤศจิกายน 2548 0:42:04 น.

18 comments

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โดย: Zantha

วันที่: 3 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:10:07:18 น.

อยากเป็น ศ.กระทิงแดง แห่งวิชา ศศ. มากๆ ... Cool!!!

โดย: StrawHat IP: 130.56.33.2 วันที่: 3 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:17:28:54 น.

khun. StrawHat, wait till ECON TU becomes fully privatized and it might set up such chair professor na krub :). Prof. StrawHat, the RedBull professor of.....or Prof.Pin Poramet, the Chang (elephant) professor of Political Economy.

โดย: B.F.Pinkerton

วันที่: 4 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:3:36:13 น.

อ่านบทความของคุณ B.F. Pinkerton ทีไรนี่เเอบนิยมชมชอบอยู่ลึกๆครับ หวังว่าคงได้เจอทักทายกันบนเอ็มเอสเอ็นบ้างนะครับ suppaleuk@hotmail.com

โดย: Iconoclast IP: 69.108.115.144 วันที่: 4 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:12:24:28 น.

The B.F.Pinkerton professor of economics will be a cool name.

It's true that nobody seems to make a donation to schools or universities. Some 'other institutes' look more attractive because people believes they might guarantee a good consumption bundle in the next period (or next life to be precise). We may need to find the Euler's equation for such intertemporal decision.

โดย: Tony Almeida

วันที่: 4 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:14:10:48 น.

Nice to meet you guys.

well, I will go to lecture by Kenneth Arrow in 2 hours and hope I can write something about it ( quite excited to meet such legendary figure like this

)

-----------------------------------------------------
Reminder: Professor Arrow, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, will be
speaking today on obligations to children.

Kenneth Arrow
Professor of Economics

"Obligations to Children and to the Future"
(Abstract Below)

12:00 @ Bldg. 100, Rm 101K.

--------------------------------------
Most discussions of social morality are concerned with reciprocal
obligations and are based on principles of universalizability possibly
grounded in a "veil of ignorance." Obligations to children are largely
unilateral; those to unborn future generations completely unilateral. At
the level of fundamental principles, neither religious tenets nor formal
welfare analyses have come to grips with these issues. Policy implications
are multifarious. Family law and obligations (the rights of children
against abuse and to a stable family) are contested. The obligations to
future generations have strong implications for long-term social investment,
most notably in climate change abatement and nuclear waste disposal.

I do not have definitive answers but seek at this stage to clarify the
issues.

โดย: B.F.Pinkerton

วันที่: 5 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:1:13:11 น.

Oh what a day.. 9.30-11.30 lecture by Dalai Lama (ticket sold out..but can be viewed by webcast) / 12.00-13.00 lecture by Ken Arrow. I've started to like this school

. Not including the lecture by Cameron Diaz that I didn't have luck to attend :)

โดย: B.F.Pinkerton

วันที่: 5 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:2:09:49 น.

ให้ไวเลยคุณ BF

Econ TU รอรับทุนจากคุณ BF อยู่คับ

อิอิ

โดย: PoUpeE IP: 61.91.207.59 วันที่: 7 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:16:53:12 น.

ไม่มี ศ. ชินคอร์ป บ้างเหรอ อิอิ

โดย: แบ่งกันเซ็ง IP: 58.10.48.169 วันที่: 10 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:10:43:34 น.

I think it's a pretty funny name..

"......." says Mark Horowitz, the Yahoo! Founders Professor in the School of Engineering.

//www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/97/970212yahoo.html

โดย: B.F.Pinkerton

วันที่: 11 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:6:16:32 น.

It's a cool name! ... It will be a pretty competitive position in the future.

โดย: StrawHat IP: 130.56.33.2 วันที่: 11 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:20:23:42 น.

Check this out

//www.slate.com/id/2058561/

โดย: B.F.Pinkerton

วันที่: 12 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:8:43:46 น.

I have several theories about this. Since America was founded on the idea of 'anti-monarchy/aristocracry' the only way to get recognition is to hold a government posts and/or donate money to institutions (or built an institution like Rockefeller). Also, I think it's the old Christian idea of frugality and donations. If you have more money than you should, you ought to give it to less fortunate people (since money is associated with greed - one of the seven sins, if I'm not mistaken). Rockefeller's biographer backed this idea - when later on in his life, he donated his money to various institutions in order to 'clear his conscience'.

I once read this statistic a while back (forgot the title of the magazine) that Americans, on average, donate more money to various charitable organizations more than any other citizens.

โดย: amadeus IP: 202.5.83.85 วันที่: 15 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:0:36:11 น.

Thanks for your thought k.amadeus. I am quite convinced by that.

โดย: B.F.Pinkerton

วันที่: 15 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:8:34:59 น.

ศ.ชายสี่บะหมี่เกี๊ยว พอเป็นไปได้ไหมครับ

โดย: ผมกลัวถูกบอกเลิก IP: 61.47.114.191 วันที่: 15 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:21:19:41 น.

How about Somsri Tongdee, Redbull Professor of Chemistry or Somchai Tonglueng, Chang Professor of Physics or Somsak Tongdang, Singha Professor of Molecular Biology? That would sound interesting, wouldn't it?

Okay, I totally agree with Khun BFP that Thai people do not have the mentality of donating to schools, colleges, universities, or for educational causes for that matter. Not that Thai people don't donate, a lot of them do. However, almost all of the donation goes for other causes, which isn't necessarily wrong. But it's just the way the culture is, I suppose.

So much different from the donation culture in the U.S., you can always see, for instance, the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State, the Broad Center for Biological Sciences at Caltech (Broad is another generous philanthropist--not only in science, but also in arts as he has demonstrated by donating $$$ to many art and culture organizations, especially in Los Angeles), the Beckman Institutes at Caltech, City of Hope Medical Center, and UIUC (Beckman was another generous philathropist founding a foundation after his name), the Welch Foundation of Texas, the Keck School of Medicine at USC, etc.

P.S. I don't think I can entirely agree with Khun Amadeus since from his theory, it might imply that only Christians donate (and there are Christians in other countries also, not only in the U.S. so why isn't this the case in England as addressed by Khun BFP?). And in Thailand whose majority is Buddhists, its people have donated their money too (the amount of money they donate and/or they can afford to donate is another matter). Look at many temples and so on. And I'm not too sure if Americans would want to be recognized by holding a government post, or by becoming a Hollywood super star or a super model or an NFL player of the year?

โดย: CIT IP: 131.215.11.205 วันที่: 18 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:4:06:17 น.

Thanks for sharing..meanwhile, enjoy Thanksgiving.

khun CIT, I am seriously thinking about visiting Caltech (or LA/ Pasadena) maybe in the break. Can I get your contact ?

โดย: BF.Pinkerton IP: 171.64.137.181 วันที่: 22 พฤศจิกายน 2548 เวลา:7:11:50 น.

Khun BF Pinkerton, I am at Caltech too. I have been enjoying reading some of your articles here and threads on Pantip. Feel free to email me. d20u2d802@sneakemail.com

โดย: Toey IP: 216.165.224.224 วันที่: 2 พฤษภาคม 2549 เวลา:3:19:35 น.