I think there are a couple of things here: - a lot of these people ARE doing a lot of these things, but people with money who are in the public eye get deluged

I think there are a couple of things here: - a lot of these people ARE doing a lot of these things, but people with money who are in the public eye get deluged with requests for help. Can you imagine how after a while you might get "giving" fatigue? - for a lot of rich people, they are never rich enough. There was a great study recently about this (I'll try and dig it up and post here) about at every level they thought they needed a bit more to be truly secure. So my point is to them giving away money even to a worthy cause reduces their feeling of security. In the last few years I have worked with a very wealthy hedge-fund manager (who is a philanthropist) and met a billionaire and I can assure you that these thoughts do go through their minds.