Values and Ethics of Charity

Charitable contributions by some of the world's richest individuals has thrust an interesting question into the headlines - why do they do it? If we accept that most humans are motivated to support public ethics to some extent as well as personal values, we might assume charity to be the 'public ethics' part. However, ethics requires independent management by disinterested parties not necessarily sharing the value system of the individual making the charitable contribution. This is the ethical distinction between personal charity and public taxes.