ABSTRACT
Some years ago I watched a film interview with J. Paul Getty. He sat at the end of a long table, cracking walnuts. Asked by the unseen interviewer why he never gave to charity, Getty may have shown nothing except that he was a good actor, but he sounded as though he once felt such an obligation, had thought the matter through and had reached the decision which he proceeded to explain. He believed he was doing far more for people in providing them with a reliable source of energy, he said, than he would be doing in building them a day care center. And there can be no doubt that a reliable energy source is more vital than a day care center. Yet who has the greater stature according to the conventional ideal of helping others: Getty, or a city councilman who campaigns noisily and successfully to build a day care center for the neighborhood?
