Recently, I have seen a spate of TV ads for TIAA-CREF Financial Services. All of the ads play a light instrumental version of “Somewhere” by Bernstein/Sondheim in the background, and the visuals involve scenes from the education or health care fields.
TIAA-CREF, which stands for Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund, was inspired by Andrew Carnegie and founded by one of his top lieutenants and with Carnegie Foundation money in 1918 as TIAA.
The goal of the ads, and the goal of TIAA-CREF’s services, is to extol the virtues of financial planning for those in the education, health care, and non-profit sectors. As you can see from their logo, they provide services “for the greater good.”
Does anyone else other than me feel a little insulted?
The implication is that only the education, health care and non-profit sectors are altruistic enough to do things “for the greater good.”
I suppose UPS or FedEx, which makes many deliveries to educational, health care and non-profit institutions, doesn’t help the “greater good.”
It would also seem that construction contractors, who build the edifices where health care and education take place, don’t help the “greater good.”
All of this also ignores the fact that most education and health care firms and institutions are just as interested in the bottom line as the greedy non-altruists at the delivery company and the construction firm. Go to any big-city hospital complex, and one of two things or both are forever happening there: Construction and major renovation. The only difference is that the profits earned in health care and education aren’t subject to Federal corporate income taxes.
