One genre of news coverage I hate is the “generous billionaire” story. This one’s from Forbes:

After an exceptionally tough year for public media, Connie Ballmer, billionaire philanthropist and wife of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, donated $80 million to support NPR’s future. 

I don’t have to read any more than this, which is cool, because I don’t have a Forbes subscription, and that’s all we get free of charge. The story falls into the media category of “Aren’t these people great? They’re donating millions to worthy causes? Praise be for billionaires!”

But, of course, it doesn’t put the donation in perspective.

Forbes has a daily update on billionaire fortunes. Steve Ballmer is the 15th richest person IN THE WORLD, with a net worth of $126 billion.

The median net worth of an American family is $192,900.

Let’s do the math. Proportionately, $80 million for the Ballmers would be the equivalent of $122.50 for the median U.S. family. That’s not even close to covering the cost of a week of groceries.

And we’re supposed to be impressed?

You want to try to impress us? The annual NPR budget is $300 million. Donate that!

Guess what? That still won’t impress, because that’s about the equivalent of $460 for the median American family, not even a third of a monthly mortgage payment in Kentucky.

Oh, hell, it wouldn’t impress us even if they paid NPR’s budget for 10 years, because, bottom line, the Ballmers would still have $123 billion.

Want to see what Steve Ballmer is willing to shell out cash for?

This from 2014:

Shelly Sterling announced late Thursday night that she has signed an agreement to sell the Los Angeles Clippers to former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.

And what was Steve’s net worth in 2014:

Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer tops the list for the sports world’s 400 richest Americans. Ballmer, a former Microsoft executive, is the 18th richest American, with a net worth of $22.3 billion.

Dude has his priorities. Public service ain’t one of them.