Every dollar you make can be divided into two parts: the part you can keep, and the part you can't keep. You might call the part you keep your personal capital and the part you can't keep your social capital:
You can control what happens to your personal capital by applying it toward your own financial ends: your home, your family, your investments and retirement plan. If you manage it well, money goes to the people and causes you favor in the proportions you approve.
You can also control what happens to the part you can't keep - your "social capital" - by directing it to charitable causes; or you can do nothing and let the IRS take it. If you choose not to do estate or tax planning, you become an involuntary philanthropist, since your dollars go to the IRS and are appropriated and disbursed by Congress according to the current U.S. Budget. If you set up the appropriate financial instruments and claim the proper exemptions, your assets can go to the causes you specify. In this case you become a voluntary philanthropist.
It's up to you - do you want your money to go to "Uncle Sam" or somewhere else?
