wealth

The Super Rich Have a Super Nice Pledge

- Adam Clare 3 Comments

Thirty-eight US billionaires have pledged to give at least half of their total wealth to charity during their life or after their death. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates (who have previously donated very large sums of money) have made an impression on other extremely wealth individuals in the USA with their new organization The Giving Pledge.

The campaign was started in June to convince US billionaires to give away at least half of their fortunes either during their lifetimes or after their deaths.

“We’ve really just started but already we’ve had a terrific response,” Mr Buffett said in a statement.

He added: “The Giving Pledge is about asking wealthy families to have important conversations about their wealth and how it will be used.”

Those who pledge their money to “philanthropic causes and charitable organisations” must publicly state their intention through a letter of explanation.

Read more at the BBC.

New German Government: USA nukes to GTFO, Rich want to tax themselves

- Adam Clare

The new German government has begun a process of asking the American government to take their nukes out of Germany.

Time has the scoop

“We want the last nuclear weapons that are stationed in Germany to be taken away,” Westerwelle said at the conclusion of the coalition talks on Saturday. The U.S. doesn’t disclose the exact number of nuclear warheads it still keeps in Germany, a legacy of its Cold War policy that dates back to the 1950s, and which made western Germany the frontline of its Soviet containment strategy. But German sources estimate there could be as many as 20 nukes still in the country.

Germany has also changed some of its taxation policies to help get through the global economic hilarity, but the rich are arguing that their taxes should be raised.

The BBC knows what to say about this.

A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes.
The group say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany’s economic recovery.
Germany could raise 100bn euros (£91bn) if the richest people paid a 5% wealth tax for two years, they say.

The Rich Stop Sending Money Down the Line

- Adam Clare 1 Comment

Rich snobs like Paris Hilton make other rich people bothered, and most likely entire societies bothered. Well, hopefully a trend of people who worked hard to earn their fortune not passing their wealth to their children will continue.

Being born into wealth helps people advance in life, and for people who have indeed worked for their fortune, as opposed to be being born into it, realize that knowing other rich people helps just as much as being rich. This is why people like the Late Body Shop founder leave relatively very little material to their children.

Many of these rich do not come from riches. They are self-made, and generally the self-made have a different attitude to money – or specifically, the acquisition of money – compared with those who have always had it. They generally do not, for example, have the “legacy assets” of the old rich – the 4,000-acre pile in Scotland that has been in the family for generations and must be passed on in good nick; or the idea of noblesse oblige that used to go with such assets: the responsibility to the tenants of the land, to the local community. “With inherited wealth, the current generation may simply consider themselves custodians for the time being of the family wealth and will follow the path laid down over many generations,” says Stuart Chappell, director of Barclays Wealth. “With self-generated wealth, it is the responsibility of those who made the wealth to decide what is to happen after they are gone. It is more likely that the creators of new money will feel that those who follow them should not be ‘feather-bedded’.”

Multi-Billionnaire Buffet Gives Away 85% of Net Worth.

- Benny Powers

Super-rich American investor Warren Buffet will be giving away 85% of his $44 billion estate to charities, most of it going to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This will be the largest single gift in history!

Warren Buffet is the owner of Birkshire Hathaway. He made his fortune through astute investing. Despite his astounding wealth, he lives a relatively modest life. He takes an annual salary of $100 000 and lives in the same house he has since 1958.

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