Is Generosity the New Jaguar?

Wall Street Journal wealth columnist Robert Frank, author of Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich, said the recession had helped spur America's rich to search for new status symbols. "Yachts, private jets, seaside mansions are so 2007," Frank wrote recently. "But being wealthy enough and generous enough to get on the Giving Pledge list, (a joint philanthropy initiative launched by billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett,) may quickly become the ultimate badge of status -- both in the U.S. and abroad."

If philanthropy really is the next version of owning a private jet, what does that mean? Is a real change in how people, at least people of means, relate to their money really happening? Will that change impact the rest of us?

It seems that with every economic downturn, we see predictions about how people will adjust their lives, buy differently and now, give more away. But it rarely plays out that way, at least in any sustainable fashion. And as soon as there is a rebound, we go back to our old ways. Perhaps that's good and perhaps not, but it is so.

And on the issue of generosity among the wealthy, it may be even more likely that the predictions are more a reflection of the hopes of those making them than a description of some new reality. After all, there is a big difference between spending less, which even the wealthy are doing, and giving more. The former is a function of feeling diminished, while the later demands feeling flush. Or does it?

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