Final Bid = $36,800.00 Includes the Celebrity Autographed SunShade "100% of the proceeds from this auction will go to help the victims affected by the recent South Asia tsunami and earthquake." -Ellen http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAP...5&category=6737
"Barring unanticipated circumstances" the winner will have to wait 4 months for the car. and no mention is made of how the proceedes are to be donated to the tsunami victims.
I wonder if UNICEF and the Red Cross will have to wait as long for their money as the buyer has to wait for his car? Or is the buyer required to pay now, for a car he'll get in 4 months, in order for the tsunami victims to get the aid when they need it? Or will Toyota give the money now and recuperate it when the buyer pays for his car? It's great that everyone involved is giving some money. Toyota donates a car, and a buyer pays ten grand over MSRP (in effect another donation). But it seems to me like a screwy way to raise money for an immediate need. I have bought stuff at charity auctions. You buy something you like and pay more than it's worth because it's for a good cause. But they don't have to wait 4 months for their money. Guess I'm just an old curmudgeon.
It actually might be a good thing if the money shows up later, since the recovery from the tsunami is going to be quite a long-term affair. Everyone is donating money now, while the disaster is fresh in the memory, but the real challenges are going to come a few months down the road, when the tsunami survivors will need their homes and economies rebuilt at a time when the event is fading from the consciousness of the wealthy nations not directly affected.
Someone on the radio was saying that many times more people die every year from lack of clean water than were killed in the tsunami. Yet the U.S. gives only 40 million a year for clean-water projects, and last I heard had promised 350 million (still a pittance!) for the tsunami. Human beings have the capacity to use logic to solve problems, but we never act logically.
