With Strings Attached

[smoothmoniker]

I've been thinking about this, Zen, and I'm not sure it matters in quite the same way. Money is fungible, and I don't think people would say certain dollar bills become saintly or evil. So, if the transaction of dollars doesn't have moral implication, then what we're left with is evaluating what the dollars are purchasing. In the case of Altria, they are implicitly trying to purchase public goodwill with their ill-gotten dollars. The earning of the money is what got them into public bad graces, the spending of it is trying to resuscitate their public image.

With the rich old aunt, it's not quite the same thing, I don't think. Even if she earned the money by doing evil things, she's not trying to compensate for that by purchasing public goodwill.