NEWS: Oprah: She's Rich, Bitch

CELEB: Oprah: She's Rich, Bitch

Oprah Winfrey is fucking rich, and she wants you to know that she is a-ok with being fucking rich.

While speaking at a Baltimore school fundraiser, Oprah Winfrey bragged about her closet full of shoes and her Pratesi sheets. She derided her naysayers relaying a conversation with another wealthy friend.

Oh, Oprah. How coy…

Perhaps if Oprah were broke, she couldn’t help anyone. Considering she is one of the wealthiest and most famous women in the world, she and everyone else with her resources should feel guilty and ashamed that she hasn’t helped enough.

They all hate you when you're on top...

How much has she helped?

She did get America to start reading (or at least buying) classic literature again, at least for awhile. And that whole "pay money to people who turn in child molesters" thing went well also.

I can't find anything on her personal donations to charities, but according to Wikipedia, the charity that she funds has raised $50 million for the underprivelaged of the world.

Still, if you are worth a billion dollars, $50 millioin is a drop in the bucket.

Or even 5%.

I wonder how much of one's "worth" is available for a person to actually spend. For example, with my car, my electronics, my other stuff... I'm probably worth a couple grand. But I have about $60 in liquid assets.

What Clov said. I own a photo studio. I'm worth a helluva lot of money on paper. But I've got less than ten grand in liquid assets. If I died and my friends had to cash all this stuff out on eBay, it wouldn't keep my nieces in ramen noodles for a year.

No doubt she could afford to do more, but giving back 5% is more than most of us ever do.

Not to mention the fact that even if I gave 50% of my money, and she gave 5%, she's doing a whole lot more to help than me.

When she was on Letterman, she said she was building a school for underprivileged girls in Africa.

Me, I sometimes give my spare change to buskers (if they're good).

Yeah, BEAT THAT FOR CHARITY, BITCH!

Now, I like bagging on Oprah as much as the next guy, but unlike the Paris Hiltons of the world, Oprah didn't just get handed that money; she made it all herself, and deserves to enjoy every penny of it.

And, as a few people above observed, the fact that she has $50 million to give to charitable causes and has shows that she has a conscience. Feeding and educating thousands of starving and underprivileged kids is worth a lot more than any sort of moral righteousness I might have.

Actual help is worth a thousand times more than potential help.

What's the magic number of donations a rich person has to give before they shouldn't feel guilty and ashamed of their contributions? Can you post the formula so poor folks can know how much spare change we need to hand out to keep ourselves righteous?

I'm not an Oprah fan at all.

However I am a huge fan of creating your own life an doing whatever you want with it. She has no obligation to be charitable nor should she feel guilty just because she has a lot of money.

And, hate to be the one to tell you, most wealthy people giving those seemingly altruistic monetary donations, are doing so for the tax break.

I wish Oprah was president..she does alot of good shit for people..she deserves whatever she wants..fuck whatever anyone has to say bad about her..she's fucking helping people..her and bill gates are doing more than our government to lift the underpriveleged out of poverty...she can do no wrong in my book...at least she's not stealing people blind or trying to take over countries for bullshit reasons..i really admire her..carry on

Why you assume Oprah is famous worldwide I don't know- sure, Brits have heard of her, but I guarantee she'd get fewer people recognise her in a UK street that Trisha.

1) I doubt you know enough wealthy people to make that statement.
2) So? I'm sure homeless shelters would rather have 100,000 dollars given to them for selfish reasons than 10 dollars given for purely altruistic reasons.

1) You're speculating.
2) True, but my perspective was from giving not receiving.

Exactly. You don't honestly think without his wife pushing him, Bill Gates would care fuck all about giving his money to charity? He gives it away because it makes him/Microsoft look good and gives his wife something to do to make her feel good about herself.

i remember that. she seriously made it sound like she was going to build the damn thing with her own two hands. i really admire her quite a bit, i just think she takes too much credit for certain things sometimes.

who cares why people give so long as they do.

As far as I'm concerned the ends justify the means whether it's to feel good, for public relations or for a tax break or just because it's the right thing to do. Giving to charity should never be poo poo-ed

You don't really know that at all. And I don't know that he would. But it's guesswork either way.


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I used to hate Oprah, merely for her ubiquity. It was silly. The truth is that she has done a lot for people, and she did work hard for her money, so I don't think she should feel guilty at all. Honored, humbled, privileged, yes. But guilty, no. If she feels good because she's giving to charity; if she gets a tax break, so what? Altruism doesn't exist.

[Edited on Apr 13, 2006 by mamet]

Define enough. And I'm serious, I'm not just being quippy, because unless you have a magic formula to tell me what enough is, and can prove that on a percentage basis you've contributed your fair share, I find the assertion that "Oprah hasn't helped enough" to be fairly obnoxious.

[Edited on Apr 13, 2006 by FridgeMagnet]

Two more dollars.

Ok, now I fee bad for being all "dicky" in my edit up there.