#8/24 on inheritance tax, criticism of 'effective' giving, and the 'Hoarding Pledge'

Dear readers,

almost always, when you read in the media about people who give a lot, the online comments are dominated by statements like "that's way too little compared to their wealth", "that's probably a tax trick", "such wealth shouldn't even exist" or "the state should have done that instead".

Normally, I celebrate giving in this newsletter. But sometimes it is useful to see one's own topic from the other side. No, not like in those comments. But today I have selected three stories that encourage critical reflection on where giving begins and where it ends.

Warmly,

Felix

A number to remember: €7 billion

Why donate when you can simply pay taxes? This is perhaps what the recently deceased Egyptian-American billionaire Fayez Sarofim asked himself. Why only "perhaps"? Because we do not know for sure where a single inheritance tax payment of €7 billion came from, which a journalist found in a public list of the state of Texas. It has become so easy to avoid inheritance tax that paying such a huge sum must almost be understood as a voluntary payment, as a donation to the state. This fits Sarofim, who repeatedly said how grateful he was to his adopted home for the opportunities it gave to an immigrant like him. Or is Elon Musk behind the payment after all?

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A person who inspires me

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827) was a fascinating personality: an epileptic, a brewer, a novelist, and even founder of an Illuminati order. And perhaps the most influential pioneer of reform pedagogy. And he could formulate ideas with powerful imagery!

Thomas Gebauer quotes him directly in support of a fierce critique of "effective" giving, which I find very much worth reading. He argues, along with Pestalozzi, that we fall back even further than the French Revolution if we undermine legal entitlements to state services through private generosity and only stabilize inequality. With the aid organization medico, he developed a kind of critical concept of aid that "simultaneously defends and seeks to overcome this". One example of this is the (also privately financed) International Campaign to Ban Landmines, for which Thomas Gebauer accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.

An idea to ponder: Hoarding Pledge

Two weeks ago, I was invited to dinner with Bill Gates in Berlin. Unfortunately, I had to cancel at short notice (my podcast co-host Janina Breitling was there as a Gates Goalkeeper), but I would have liked to ask him about the criticism from NYU professor Scott Galloway. He took a closer look at how the wealth of most signers of the "Giving Pledge" increases much faster than they reduce it through donations - even though they promise to give away half of it in their lifetime. The 73 members of the Pledge, all of whom were billionaires in 2010, have tripled their collective wealth in the last ten years. "Hoarding Pledge" would therefore be a better name.