Paying your employees more and charging your customers less apparently doesn't look nearly as good as large donations to charity, regardless which helps more. At least in America.
Not being a cynic. There are reasons for this. We make a big deal of charity donations in general, and you get to claim a lump-sum. $1 million donated sounds better than 1000 donations of $1 thousand.
Edit: there's another upside, too. It's a lot easier to make large profits and then give back what you can later, than it is to figure out what you can afford to give up ahead of time and set a tight budget.
Not being a cynic. There are reasons for this. We make a big deal of charity donations in general, and you get to claim a lump-sum. $1 million donated sounds better than 1000 donations of $1 thousand.
Edit: there's another upside, too. It's a lot easier to make large profits and then give back what you can later, than it is to figure out what you can afford to give up ahead of time and set a tight budget.