[crazygringo]

First of all, why don't you take a look at the median rather than the average.

Second -- if you're 65 your savings have got to last you for the next 20-30 years. Including often expensive nursing home care. Suddenly even a million bucks... isn't that much.

So no -- in general, they can't spare an entire twelfth of an investment. But more importantly, even if they want to, it should be up to them. Not somebody deciding for them.

[Zambyte]

> But more importantly, even if they want to, it should be up to them. Not somebody deciding for them.

They can decide to move their money out of Apple whenever they like...?

[crazygringo]

No they couldn't.

Because the moment Apple announced that they were going to implement a policy like that, the value of the stock would drop by a twelfth. Instantly.

So by the time you found out about it, the damage would be done.

But you're missing the bigger picture anyways: business is business and charity is charity. The job of publicly traded corporations is to make money, not to give to charity. Then individual people can take the money the business made, and give to the charities of their individual choosing.

Having to choose which stocks to invest in based on their charitable giving portfolios just mixes everything up. The profits are all the same in the end, but charitable giving decisions around those profits should be in the hands of individual people, not corporations.