Carlos Slim Helu has refused to join Bill Gates Jr. and Warren Buffet in their wasted lives playing bridge and giving away money. As the author of The Seven Laws of Money, I have thought a great deal about giving away money.
I have been president of three foundations that gave away money and concluded, as Slim Helu did, that it is not a socially positive activity. Slim Helu adds further, that creating jobs for people is the only productive activity for a person who can make money.
I only go so far as to agree that giving away money is not productive, that $trillions in charitable giving has not been helpful in any field. I demonstrated that in the field of health and medicine.
However there are two other reasons for charitable giving by the wealthy. One is to try to bribe history. If one is known as a great benefactor, maybe history will treat the donor as a more compassionate and decent human being.
That is nonsense. Rockefellar and Carnegie are still called 'robber barons' in most history books of the world, a century later. Since donating money didn’t do any good for them, history has no reason to change, post mortem Gates or Buffett.
The second reason for giving away your money is to avoid destroying the lives of your offspring by leaving them as crippled trust fund kids. Sorry, we don’t have any good examples of that (none for the kids) strategy succeeding.
Here are two alternative suggestions: to deal with your historic appreciation, give your money the way John M. Olin did. Give to pro commerce causes* that will help the public understand the great contribution of great commercial builders. Make sure the donor operation dies shortly (10 years at most) after your death or the Left will gain control of it.
Bring your children into your business in some way, help them to spin-off into their own firm when they are capable. Never give them power in your operation. Never.
*See Roger Hertog on this same subject.
I have been president of three foundations that gave away money and concluded, as Slim Helu did, that it is not a socially positive activity. Slim Helu adds further, that creating jobs for people is the only productive activity for a person who can make money.
I only go so far as to agree that giving away money is not productive, that $trillions in charitable giving has not been helpful in any field. I demonstrated that in the field of health and medicine.
However there are two other reasons for charitable giving by the wealthy. One is to try to bribe history. If one is known as a great benefactor, maybe history will treat the donor as a more compassionate and decent human being.
The second reason for giving away your money is to avoid destroying the lives of your offspring by leaving them as crippled trust fund kids. Sorry, we don’t have any good examples of that (none for the kids) strategy succeeding.
Here are two alternative suggestions: to deal with your historic appreciation, give your money the way John M. Olin did. Give to pro commerce causes* that will help the public understand the great contribution of great commercial builders. Make sure the donor operation dies shortly (10 years at most) after your death or the Left will gain control of it.
Bring your children into your business in some way, help them to spin-off into their own firm when they are capable. Never give them power in your operation. Never.
*See Roger Hertog on this same subject.
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