Unsurprisingly, very rich people asking people who aren’t rich for money doesn’t tend to go down very well among those who don’t have millions of dollars at their disposal, with Dwayne Johnson and Oprah Winfrey coming under fire for donating $10 million to launch a relief fund for the Maui wildfires.
It sounds ridiculous when you put it like that, but an A-list duo with a combined net worth said to be over $4 billion – with Johnson the significantly less wealthy of the two having to scrape by on just $800 million in personal wealth – pleading with the public to chip in has continued needling folks the wrong way.
The Rock is either completely unaware of equally oblivious to the backlash, though, because he recently reposted the exact same video on social media that he’d uploaded less than 24 hours ago, where he outlines what the relief fund is, what is stands for, who it helps, and how you can contribute.
It’s winning idea on paper, but after various corners of the internet were left incredulous that two people so rich – never mind the ongoing controversies surrounding the sheer amount of land Oprah owns in Hawaii – would make a point of saying “we gave away millions of our own money, so where’s yours?”
There’s a balance to be struck when walking tightropes like these, and suffice to say, the overriding sentiment is that Johnson and Winfrey have slipped and tumbled into the gaping abyss below. It’s for the worthiest of causes at the end of the day, but maybe there was a better way to go about it.
