Restaurants are among the most affected businesses during the coronavirus lockdowns. Forced to cut down their operations to just deliveries or shut down their place altogether, restaurant owners are dealing with huge losses.
Fortunately, a lot of people have continued to go out of their way to support their local food joints amidst the ongoing crisis. Among them are Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan.
Generous Giveaway
As reported by SFGate, eight Bay Area restaurants received $100,000 each from the couple. Zuckerberg and Chan handpicked these establishments as their favorite ones in the region.
The generous donation would certainly help the restaurants to stay afloat and survive the pandemic to continue serving food. The restaurants were identified as The Liberties Bar & Grill, Dohatsuten, Chef Chu’s, Palo Alto Sol, La Ciccia, Fuki Sushi, Vesta, and Sushi Sam’s.
Put into Context
Although the gesture is definitely a welcomed one, some people can’t help but point out how their $800,000 giveaway appears in the context of Zuckerberg’s immense wealth.
Looking at his net worth of $76.3 billion, his restaurant donation only amounts to around 0.000131% of his entire fortune. And when the donation is further put in the context of the median family in the United States, giving the same portion of their wealth would only amount to a 13-cent donation.
This demonstrates just how big the income divide is between the common people and the wealthiest people in America.
That doesn’t take away from Zuckerberg and Chan’s generosity, though. After all, they aren’t stingy when it comes to sharing their wealth. As signatories of the Giving Pledge, they have promised to donate 99% of the shares they own in Facebook in their lifetime.
Billionaire Contributions
A similar kind of scrutiny about donations has also been observed when other billionaires go public with their charitable acts.
For example, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO and the current richest person in the world, has been criticized for various donations he’s made before. After giving $690,000 to help the Australian wildlife recovery, he received flak as the amount was less than what he supposedly earned in five minutes.
On the other hand, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey received praise when he announced that he would be giving away $1 billion of his wealth to help the ongoing COVID-19 relief efforts and other related causes. The pledged amount comprises 28% of his net worth.