Rakesh Wadhwa

Kathmandu

Sometimes, it appears that the rich are ashamed of their wealth. Frequently, to assuage the guilt they feel, the wealthy start doling out charity. Perhaps, as my grandmother did, they too are trying to improve their chances of going to heaven.

Bill Gates is the world’s biggest philanthropist. He has given or has pledged for charity $22.9 billion, which is over half of his wealth and is more than ever gifted by any individual. The money is earmarked by his foundation for health and education purposes in countries across the globe. Bill Gates is not alone in the list of billionaires who are giving away their money. He is just the richest of them all.

Some of the others who are contributing big time to their favourite causes are: Gorden Moore, founder of Intel, with donations and pledges of over $7 billion towards conservation and education, this amount is 144 per cent of his current net worth; Gorge Soros is contributing $2.43 billion for free and open societies, this equals 68 per cent of his net worth; Eli Broad, founder of Sun America is giving away $1.46 billion for education, arts and science, the amount is estimated to be 39 per cent of what he owns; James Stowers founder of American Century is giving $1.35 billion for bio-medical research, this gift equaling 271 per cent of his present net worth.

And there are many more who give. There has always been a strong tendency among the rich to give, give and give. The trend does seem to have accelerated after Ted Turner, CNN’s founder, made his famous pledge to donate a billion dollars over a period of 10 years to the UN for worthy causes worldwide.

Ted Turner said that he wanted to shame the rich into parting with their wealth. He called Warren Buffet, the world’s most successful investor, and the second richest man in the world after Gates, a scrooge. “Is he going to take his wealth with him” asked Turner. When told that Buffet has earmarked his billions for charity after his death, he railed on “Why doesn’t he give away his money while he is alive, why wait until death”.

The other day Gautam Rana, creator of ‘Babar Mahal Revisited’ was complaining about how his family makes him

feel guilty and even ashamed of his wealth. He personally regards his

wealth as something to be proud of, something to flaunt.

I am not against charity. If it is your own money, earned on the free markets, it is yours to give. However, do the rich have to feel ashamed of being rich?

No. Not at all. Bill Gates and Ted Turner became wealthy by supplying the world with satisfaction. When people around the world buy ‘windows’ (not the pirated copies), Gate’s wealth increases. Every time you pick up his software, you make him richer. Yet, none of us buy to make him rich, we buy because the utility of ‘windows’ to us is far more than what we pay for it, otherwise we would not be buying it. Thus, we gain, and if Gates too gains in the process, good luck to him. Frankly most people couldn’t care less about who else benefited as long as they did too.

Ted Turner was the first to identify a thirst among us for round-the-clock news and pioneered the 24 hour news channel at a time when no one thought it would be a viable business model. Turner gambled, he was right, the gamble paid off handsomely, and he became a billionaire. No one was forced to watch CNN and if we watched and made him rich, well we did it for our own pleasure. Everyone gained, no one lost.

Gates and Turner have done nothing to be ashamed of. Both of them deserve far greater respect for what they built - Microsoft and CNN - than they will ever deserve for their charity.

Giving away money is easy - anyone can do it - building up something which creates as much value and as much satisfaction in this world as these two gentlemen have done is far more difficult. I salute their creativity, initiative, and entrepreneurial ability in establishing their businesses and regard their charity as merely incidental and nowhere near in value to humanity as the companies they founded.

(The writer can be contacted at: everest@mos.com.np)