EDITORIAL
Thailand's selfish super-rich
The Nation

Our wealthiest families continue to ignore the philanthropic example set by Western counterparts like Bill Gates

BANGKOK: -- Recent reports of wealthy individuals in the West choosing to bequeath most of their money to charity rather than to their children indicate a growing trend.

John Roberts, a British entrepreneur worth £500 million (Bt27 billion), has gone even further, telling the media he plans to leave his entire fortune to charity and that his children would be "getting nothing".

Roberts says he has passed on to his children the words he heard as a child from his father: "I'll give you the best start in life I can afford and what you do with it is up to you." He says he wants his five kids to be "happy and normal" in their chosen careers.

Meanwhile Bill Gates, the world's richest man, with a personal fortune of $76 billion (Bt2.43 trillion), has vowed not to leave his Microsoft fortune to his three children. Gates says that he prefers to give his children a good education so they can rely on their own abilities rather than their parents' fortune.

Promising large portions of your wealth to charity might not yet be the norm, but it is a rising trend in developed countries. Some 122 billionaires have signed up for Giving Pledge, a campaign started by Gates and business magnate Warren Buffett to encourage the world's richest people to donate more than half of their fortunes to charitable causes, either during their lifetime or as a legacy. Gates and Buffett have been joined by familiar names like Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, filmmaker George Lucas, CNN founder Ted Turner, Virgin Group's Richard Branson, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk. They've all "made the pledge".

Sadly this idea has yet to catch on among Thailand's super-rich families, despite many being even wealthier than some of those committed to Giving Pledge. Certainly some wealthy Thais donate money to charity, but the practice is far from universal and motivations are often questionable. The desire for publicity often outweighs generosity, for example.

The idea of "giving back to society" needs to be taken up and promoted among wealthy Thais. They should be aware of how their fortune derived from the country and its people. Of course those who operate honestly gain their wealth through risk, hard work and diligence, but their profits are also built on the labour and patronage of their less-well-off compatriots.

There is an inherent selfishness in the concept that wealth should be kept within families, passed on from one generation to another. Greed is bound to be amplified when people feel they need to amass wealth not just for themselves but also for their children and grandchildren.

Such selfish disregard for the wider society finds its most extreme expression in the rampant corruption that has made many of our bureaucrats, businesspeople and politicians wealthy at the expense of taxpayers. Perhaps if more wealthy Thais were to set an example by teaching their offspring that hard work is the route to wealth, we could begin tackling the root causes of major societal problems like corruption.


-- The Nation 2014-04-17

Inheritance tax anyone?

What about the Shin clan who absolutely love their country and country men and women, isn't their aim to do good for all ( of their own family ) ?

Land Tax would be a better way to tackle the problem.

What about the Shin clan who absolutely love their country and country men and women, isn't their aim to do good for all ( of their own family ) ?

The Shin clan do indeed love Thailand so much for what she can do for them but not for what they can do for her.

They made it, they can do what they want with it. Don't see anything wrong at all with providing financial safety for x amount of generations to come, only wish I had a huge win-fall coming my way!

There is an inherent selfishness in the concept that wealth should be kept within families, passed on from one generation to another.

Indeed - so that the children can grow up and run over policemen with their Ferraris and get away with it.

There is a Thai word for philanthropy, but to my wifes' knowledge, she can not remember any rich family ever donating or leaving large sums to a cause.

Similarly the Chinese, they also never donate.

Greed and more greed......and there's never enough!

Give it to some useless charity that pays there CEO some stupid salary, no thanks.

There is a Thai word for philanthropy, but to my wifes' knowledge, she can not remember any rich family ever donating or leaving large sums to a cause.

Similarly the Chinese, they also never donate.

Greed and more greed......and there's never enough!

Wow. I do love your ignorance! How you can in one sentence generalize the whole Chinese population. To open your biased eyes, see the link to Forbes 2013 Chinese philanthropists.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2013/04/23/2013-forbes-china-philanthropy-list-full-list/

I read that Thais are the most generous tippers in Asia so perhaps that is whee the billions are going?

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Land Tax would be a better way to tackle the problem.

Land tax is an essential need in Thailand, but first you have to cure the corruption and skim problem.

They made it, they can do what they want with it. Don't see anything wrong at all with providing financial safety for x amount of generations to come, only wish I had a huge win-fall coming my way!

Say that to Ferrari drivers, aged 26, who don't care about much, as they inherited everything.

Considering that those so called super rich, the ones who have built business empires, have provided employment for many on the way to making their fortunes it could be said that they have already contributed to the wealth of others and in most cases to the country as well.

Sure it would be good if the really wealthy ones would give to good causes and quite possibly some do without making a show of it like those mentioned in the article.

Some of course never will, however many of the rich are still contributing via the aforementioned employment and indeed their efforts are what keeps this country going in spite of ineffective and incompetent Government.

They made it, they can do what they want with it. Don't see anything wrong at all with providing financial safety for x amount of generations to come, only wish I had a huge win-fall coming my way!

Say that to Ferrari drivers, aged 26, who don't care about much, as they inherited everything.

And the other hundreds of thousands who inherit money and don't run people over? Stupid is what stupid does, regardless of cash (although it can make it easier to get away with it here).

I personally know 3 people who have run over and killed people here and got away with it by paying under 1 million baht. None are from rich families and none have inherited anything as far as I know.

It sure would be interesting to see how much wealthy Thais and even others give back in donations to their society...

My guess is it would be hard to gather b/c there is no reporting method in place. Since so few pay taxes really can't use income tax reports to disclose...

CB

I suppose that Bill Gates' kids already are into charity, waiting for some funds to be released!!

I love it when other people tell you what to do with your money !!

If they refuse to give they are not wealthy, but the poorest bastards ever.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

What about the Shin clan who absolutely love their country and country men and women, isn't their aim to do good for all ( of their own family ) ?

Wow, that didn't take long, 2 post to turn this into a "Shin clan" bashing, I wonder do you know that any of the "Shin clan" do or do not donate to any cause? and for that matter do you? As for myself I do such as world wild life fund, world vision, green peace,

This is partly a religion issue, and the difference between East and West resulting from this. Philanthropy as we know it began during the heyday of Purgatory Theology, when rich people left their whole life savings to Churches, Poorhouses, Hospitals and food-for-poor schemes. The rich person was paying to have his time in Purgatory cut, a small amount of money would get you 40 days reduced, some very rich people paid for 40,000 years less time in Purgatory. If you believe in Purgatory or not, the social consequences of this were very positive, people tried to live good lives and if they didn't manage that they would upon death leave a fortune to the poor and hungry in society. This was because in Purgatory (a sort of Hell_Lite) you weren't spending eternity in the Cellar as it were, but you were still suffering for a good long time. Greedy selfish money-men were forced to drink molten gold in Purgatory, liars had their tongues nailed to the floor, murderers were hewn upon the block. These are real incentives to live a good honourable life, or at the very least to give all your money to poor people when you died.

A bunch of super rich thais living off the backs of the super poor thais.

Expecting them to give charity is hoping for too much. Just getting them to pay taxes once in a while and stop actively looting the treasury would be a good start

What about the Shin clan who absolutely love their country and country men and women, isn't their aim to do good for all ( of their own family ) ?

Wow, that didn't take long, 2 post to turn this into a "Shin clan" bashing, I wonder do you know that any of the "Shin clan" do or do not donate to any cause? and for that matter do you? As for myself I do such as world wild life fund, world vision, green peace,

I take it you are going to put me right on how much the Shins donate to charity and I don't mean the pure media events and publicity handouts but quietly in the background as is often the mark of a true philanthropist.

"There is an inherent selfishness in the concept that wealth should be kept within families"

Tell that to the Rothschilds:)

What about the Shin clan who absolutely love their country and country men and women, isn't their aim to do good for all ( of their own family ) ?

The Shin clan do indeed love Thailand so much for what she can do for them but not for what they can do for her.

shouldn't this read

Shins love Thailand for what it can do for the Shin's bank accounts and not what the Shins could do for Thailand.

which is for all Shins to leave Thailand and stop thieving it's money

What about the Shin clan who absolutely love their country and country men and women, isn't their aim to do good for all ( of their own family ) ?

Wow, that didn't take long, 2 post to turn this into a "Shin clan" bashing, I wonder do you know that any of the "Shin clan" do or do not donate to any cause? and for that matter do you? As for myself I do such as world wild life fund, world vision, green peace,

And of the 3 you donate to, how much of what you donate actually goes to the "cause" and how much is used to pay "admin" costs for some "activist" on a USD 250k/yr "salary"

This is the best Thai news headline in quite some time.

What about the Shin clan who absolutely love their country and country men and women, isn't their aim to do good for all ( of their own family ) ?

Wow, that didn't take long, 2 post to turn this into a "Shin clan" bashing, I wonder do you know that any of the "Shin clan" do or do not donate to any cause? and for that matter do you? As for myself I do such as world wild life fund, world vision, green peace,

And of the 3 you donate to, how much of what you donate actually goes to the "cause" and how much is used to pay "admin" costs for some "activist" on a USD 250k/yr "salary"

The expose of the ' administration ' costs of many charities is a massive turnoff for donors.

There is a Thai word for philanthropy, but to my wifes' knowledge, she can not remember any rich family ever donating or leaving large sums to a cause.

Similarly the Chinese, they also never donate.

Greed and more greed......and there's never enough!

Wow. I do love your ignorance! How you can in one sentence generalize the whole Chinese population. To open your biased eyes, see the link to Forbes 2013 Chinese philanthropists.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2013/04/23/2013-forbes-china-philanthropy-list-full-list/

I couldn't get that link to work, but did find this article:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/china/2010/10/04/turning-down-gates-buffett-philanthropy-in-china-requires-for-profit-social-enterprises/

A few days ago we witnessed two momentous occasions: 1) Bill Gatesand Warren Buffett took their much anticipated trip to China to encourage philanthropy among China’s super rich, and 2) Many of these Chinese super rich turned down their invitations to meet with Gates & Buffett, because of their unwillingness to give away part of their wealth and participate in philanthropy.