Rich Men and Poor Governments

“All Santa Clauses Bill Gates and Warren Buffett Included” Carlos Slim.

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Who said “if you have money donate it”, whoever he be the Mexican tycoon Mr. Carlos Slim does not agree with it. Mr. Carlos Slim with an asset base of $ 49 billion is the third richest man in the world as per the recently published “Forbes list” and fast catching up with the other two who are placed above him. It was not fashionable to say such words poking fun at the billionaires who spend billions of dollars to charity. The venue where the above comments were passed was also of interest, he was inaugurating the billion dollar hospital sponsored by none other than himself!

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“You people go and build stronger companies instead of roaming the world with pockets full of cash and distribute it like Santa Claus” was his wise remark in a lighter vein. Rich people generally do not talk in such plain languages and give any chances to unwanted controversies.

Mr. Slim being an altogether different rich man, and never regret of being rich can express his opinions as it is felt whether it is diplomatic or not. He is of the view that rich people too have place in the world and they have a duty to perform remaining as rich men itself and not by losing their “rich-ness”.

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Mr. Slim candidly remarked that “poverty cannot be solved by donations” and businessmen can better handle the money themselves rather than giving away as donations to some or other body not appreciated for prudence in spending the same as efficiently as the donors.

These statements should be read in the context when Mr. Bill Gates the #1 is flying around the world offering large amounts to charitable organizations and the # 2 Mr. Warren Buffet is proclaiming a dead-line when all his money would be fully handed over to charities! By calling them “Santa Claus” Mr. Slim had been really very kind and diplomatic to his peers.

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Rich people have a role to play in the world and they should grow richer and nurturing the corporations they own. There should be more and more corporations to serve the world, the more the merrier. A corporation should be there to provide good products or service to people, job to its employees, good business to its venders, tax to the government and profit to the owner like a banyan-tree which gives shades to the travelers, food and shelter to birds which live on it.

When a rich man or a corporation pays the taxes as per the law its responsibility towards charity is complete, each pence paid extra is extra itself and the corporation is not morally bound to do it. By indulging in extra charities corporations make the government machinery complacent in performing its actual duties. As usual a complacent government machinery resorts to waste the amount it collects. Such governments go on urging corporations to build roads, flyovers, hospital etc without any sense of shame as a spoilt child which look upon mother to everything persistently and refuse to grow.

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If there are corporations to do all these jobs why should government do this is the mindset of the ministers they have nothing to say about the money they collect as taxes.

The fact is that amidst poverty company owners live in luxury and it is the guilt feeling make them donate more and more, in this process they spoil an already lazy and corrupt government. The company owners deserve a good life as they are the back-bone of an entity that supports so much people.

Can giving generous alms lessen the number of beggars? An emphatic “no” is the answer, more alms will only attract more people to begging thereby increasing the number of beggars, so is charity, it will only increase the number of crooks who thrive upon charities and pocket a lot of money. There are many crooks that have minted money by forming charitable organizations.

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Companies are not governments they don’t collect taxes and its owners need not be Santa Clauses. The rich have a right to live a life of luxury as long as the money they earned is through proper business and all taxes are duly paid. They playing government’s role is not desirable and is comparable to populism exhibited by politicians.

The owner of a company has one duty to the nation “pay taxes honestly” one to the public “render quality goods and services”, one to his family “be a good home-maker”, one to the staff who work for him “be a good pay-master”, and one to the company “enrich and let it grow more and more”. If company is comparable to a tree, charity is like cutting off its branches to feeding it to lazy cows which refuse to graze!.

Forbes List

The gap gets ever wider

The Forbes list of the richest people in the world was published recently. According to the list, which gets made annually, the number of billionaires in the world is on the rise (946 to be exact). The combined worth of these people grew by 35% in the past year to $3.5 trillion. This is more than the GDP of every nation in the world other than the USA, China, Japan and India.

The list in itself is a worship of the richest people on the planet. Topping it for the 13th consecutive time is Microsoft’s Bill Gates with an estimated net worth of $56 billion. Coming in second place is investor Warren with $52 billion.

The third in this list of the wealthiest people in the world is Mexico’s telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helu worth $49 million. His wealth has increased by $19 billion, the biggest one-year advance in a decade. Coming from one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere his wealth comes to 6.3% of its annual economic output. To put this in perspective consider this, if Bill Gates had a similar share in the US he would have been worth $784 billion!!!

India too has its share billionaires in the list. In fact we have the most number of billionaires among all Asian countries with 36 billionaires making the list with their combined wealth at worth a total $191 billion. This has ended Japan’s 20 years old reign at the region’s the top spot. Japan had 24 billionaires with a combined wealth of $64 billion.

Forbes goes on to explain that the world’s rich mainly cashed in on a worldwide boom in equity markets last year to amass its wealth. It also amassed wealth from real estate and commodities markets. They have even announced this as the richest year ever in human history. They go on to claim that such an advance of has never occurred in human history. Advance in what? Nearly a billion people on this planet go to sleep every night without food. If anything the list is a proof of the widening gap between the rich and the poor.

I really admire these billionaires for their ambition, tenacity and hard work. Most of them are not where they are because of their blood line or just because they were born lucky. But these guys also have a commitment to the very society from where they have come up from and found such success. True, most of these guys do donate for charity. But it’s too little and for causes like the cancer research funds and so on. While this is very noble of them how many of the poor or even the middle class is able to afford these cures and treatments. The findings of the research in effect become useful only to the rich.

Please understand that I am not preaching to take from the rich and give to the poor like some modern Robin Hood. Charity will not solve world’s poverty. Education, development of people’s skills, scientific methods in agriculture and above all an opportunity to earn a living are the only solutions to eradicating the plight of a significant percent of our fellow human beings across the world. Maybe some of the billionaires are doing this. But there needs to be more of them joining in the process.

How about this for an idea? Each of these billionaires can take up a small village in a third world country (or maybe their own countries) and set up a small business suitable to the local economic environment there. May be their profit margin might be less. But if it gives jobs to another 25 people it is alleviating their troubles. The billionaire should be happy because these people then will in turn have the money to buy other products and services of the very same billionaires. Or maybe they could help in educating the people in modern scientific farming methods and help them start off.

The billionaires could set up facilities for quality education in those villages and give more opportunities for those who have potential by giving scholarships. For those who are not academically inclined, their other skills and talents should be encouraged so that they too can be a useful member of the society. The government too can play a role of encouraging this by providing adequate support in the form of infrastructure and tax benefits.

Maybe all of this is a utopian dream and the idea suggested is an unrealistic one. But surely there are more intelligent people out there than the author of this post who can come up with more realistic solutions. Whatever it maybe the rest of the world should have an honest commitment to removing poverty. According to recent reports poverty even in US (the country with the most billionaires in the Forbes list) is at its highest in the last 3 decades, and Forbes proclaims humans have advanced more than ever?

The gap between the haves and have-nots is widening day by day. The bloodiest revolutions in the world were as much for bread as for anything else. The byproduct of poverty throughout history has been violence. Unless the word takes notice of this situation, civilization as we know it could plunge into anarchy and decadence.