"It is a shame to die rich." This is the famous saying of the early American philanthropist Carnegie.
On the one hand, he may indeed be worried that "it is more difficult for a rich man to enter heaven than for a camel to enter the eye of a needle." However, a great philanthropist actually has more noble moral impulses and practical concerns. Therefore, Carnegie stated that if wealth makes the rich and the poor, who were originally brothers, become enemies, it will cause social tragedy, and the rich will be nailed to the pillar of shame in life.
Old Rockefeller’s father was a ***, and the mother and son devoted themselves to religion in humiliation. The pastor preached a motto that Rockefeller kept in mind throughout his life: "To make more money is to give more." He was extremely frugal in his life, almost an ascetic. From childhood to his death, he never smoked a cigarette or drank a sip of wine. After his success, he became a figure in many aspects of the struggle to help the poor, blacks, and the abolition of slavery. Later, he became the first billionaire in human history, and since then he has devoted himself wholeheartedly to charity and education. He successively established the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University. In 1909, he founded the Rockefeller Health and Education Foundation, the world's largest charity, with donations of up to US$500 million during his lifetime.
Steel tycoon Morgan has been passionate about art collection throughout his life and has many rare treasures in his collection, including masterpieces by masters such as Raphael and Rubens and three Bibles (all of them) printed by the German Gutenberg in the 15th century. There are only 48 copies left in the world), and two years before his death, he decided to donate the entire collection to the museum.
Financial tycoon Soros also made it clear that he is ready to hand over his work in the foundation to his eldest son, who is nearly 40 years old, and his inheritance will be donated to public welfare institutions in his country and educational institutions in Eastern Europe.
Although South Korea’s richest man and founder of Hyundai Group, Chung Joo-young, is wealthy, he is extremely frugal and simple. When he started his business, he once warned his subordinates to be thrifty on the grounds that he was "wasting foreign exchange by drinking coffee." In the early 1980s, in order to save the cost of replacing the soles of his shoes, he nailed iron cleats on the soles of his shoes. To this day, he still wears the work clothes he wore in the 1970s, and the TV he uses at home is still a 17-inch TV produced in 1988.
After taking office, U.S. President George W. Bush announced a $1.6 trillion tax cut plan, which included the gradual elimination of estate taxes before 2010, which should have been good news for the wealthy. However, 120 wealthy people signed a letter to oppose the government's cancellation of inheritance tax. These people include Bill Gates' father William Sr., Buffett, Soros, financial giant Rockefeller, etc. Old William wrote in the petition: Abolishing the estate tax will allow the children of American millionaires and billionaires to get something for nothing, making the rich forever rich and the poor forever poor, and will harm poor families.
The "Wall Street Journal" once published the results of a survey that even if the inheritance tax is abolished in the United States, 50% of wealthy Americans still intend to donate at least half of their property to society.
At the end of July last year, Susan Buffett, the wife of the famous American investor Warren Buffett, known as the "Stock God", passed away suddenly. According to the will reached by Buffett and Susan, the huge inheritance Susan inherited from her husband will be transferred to the Buffett Family Foundation and will not be inherited by her children. In the eyes of most Chinese people, Buffett's approach is somewhat inhumane.
Compared with Buffett, Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, has made more achievements in philanthropy. Gates has a fortune of more than $40 billion and has donated more than $25 billion to date. In his will, he announced that he would use 98% of the money to establish the "Bill and Melinda Foundation" named after him and his wife. The money would be used to research vaccines for AIDS and malaria and provide assistance to poor countries around the world. Gates' three children each received only $10 million from their parents and a home worth $100 million. Compared to the wealth of a wealthy country, this money is nothing.
Walter Hubert Annenberg, the president of Triangle Publishing Company, known as the media empire, who passed away three years ago, made a will to donate all his family property of approximately US$4 billion for university research and children’s education. . He explained in his will that his family already had a good life and that "wealth should not be concentrated in the hands of a few people."