If you won the lottery or stumbled upon buried treasure, your first instinct might not be to give it all away.
But for some who have amassed huge sums of money — either through business or inheritance — getting rid of it is exactly what they want to do.
Take Marlene Engelhorn: The Austrian heiress is a descendant of Friedrich Engelhorn, the founder of BASF, one of the world’s biggest chemical companies. Last week, she announced that she’ll be giving away $27.4m of her inheritance.
Engelhorn also co-founded Tax Me Now — a group of wealthy people in German-speaking countries who are addressing the inequality caused by tax policies — in 2021.
… are becoming more common as countries grapple with how to tax billionaires fairly.
In Austria, the inheritance tax was abolished in 2008. In the US, a 2021 White House analysis found that the 400 wealthiest families paid an average of 8.2% of their income in taxes from 2010 to 2018, lower than the tax rate for most Americans.
Now, we’re hearing some pretty wild stories of riches getting dumped:
What does all of this teach us? That maybe there is some good in the world — and that we should take up gardening.