Warren Buffett convinced several gazillionaires to pledge a major chunk of their charity, which at the top is a very selfless act.
A few days later, Der Spiegel reported that Germany's super-rich rejected the idea, saying those duties should be the responsibility of the state, arguing that such donations in the US are tax free and there is a profound difference in the societal system between the two countries.
Which, had me thinking, which is best expressed in story form:
Begin
Long long time ago, there was a greedy Raja who oversaw a huge swath of land. He would tax all his citizens atrocious rates, leaving them with just enough food and material to support themselves. With all the taxes he collected he bought himself gold, lots and lots of gold. He pinched every single subject that they hated him and wished nothing good to him.
Several years later the Raja now had tons of gold in his coffers. But age was catching up with him; he felt the need to do something with all that gold. So he set up charitable institutions to distribute the gold - to his citizens - so he could feel good about having done something good.
End
It's true there are several factors involved in such personal wealth, including stock prices and CEO salaries and so on, and that Gates has pledged a lot of his fortune to research; but still, the German's opinions sure sounds reasonable.
3 comments:
a post after a very loooong time..
Essence: Realization comes late in life until then its ignorance and Ignorance is bliss.
i remember somewhere reading that what Rockefeller did as charity never justifies his actions to get the money in the first place. :)
I think it's time for the Billionaire's to start thinking of societal changes and influence the government in that direction.
Post a Comment