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Duped Twice

 I have been reading Anand Giridharadas' Winners Take All and his rants against philanthrocapitalism. His ideas have merit certainly but at some level his tirades against the rich and powerful trying to good without hurting their own interests, does ring hollow. It seems like a cozy win-win situation here. He takes down some holy cows, calls some babies ugly and skewers the rich for trying to solve problems that they created in the first place. 

Yet he speaks at Google on this very topic so the powers that be gain absolution while scoring points for self-awareness. Maybe they are not like the rest of their well-heeled ilk. By giving Giridharadas a platform to tell it like it is, the philanthrocapitalist is able to legitimize whatever it is that they do to "make the world a better place". Works out great for the author too - an endless publicity tour for his book and platform for is opinions. The average person in the meanwhile is being conned twice- into reading this book ( that at some point made a big splash and everyone had heard about) and then having to read rich people tell is the system is screwed.

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