As Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell whinge away about how rich David Cameron’s family is, they might consider that in the last six years he has funded schools ’n’ hospitals to the tune of £402,283. How much have they put in?
Since wealthy ancient Athenians loved to boast about the vast sums they contributed via property taxes to the public benefit, they would have been amazed that Cameron did not long to reveal how rich he was. The 5th-century BC thinker Democritus argued that there was nothing like the rich giving to the poor to produce concord that strengthened the community. The Greek orator Hyperides (389–322 BC) pointed out that Athenians allowed statesmen and soldiers to make large ‘personal profits’, provided they ‘were used in the people’s interests, not against them’. One could hardly walk down a street anywhere in Greece without bumping into an inscription, often with statue, thanking someone for their generous funding of a public benefit of one sort or another.
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