Fortune | FORTUNE 09月05日
美国亿万富翁财富来源与慈善捐赠现状
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文章探讨了美国亿万富翁的财富来源,指出埃隆·马斯克、杰夫·贝索斯和马克·扎克伯格等科技巨头虽然财富可观,但大部分美国亿万富翁的财富主要来自银行业和金融业。文章进一步分析了亿万富翁的慈善捐赠情况,提到“捐赠誓言”的参与者中,实际履行承诺的比例较低,且许多人的财富在签署后反而大幅增长。尽管如此,仍有如比尔·盖茨和麦肯齐·斯科特等通过个人基金会或直接捐赠的方式进行大规模慈善活动,其中斯科特的“信任式慈善”模式受到关注,被认为是未来慈善发展的一种趋势。

💰 财富来源多样化:尽管埃隆·马斯克、杰夫·贝索斯和马克·扎克伯格等科技领军人物占据了美国亿万富翁财富的相当一部分,但文章指出,大部分美国亿万富翁的财富主要积累于银行业和金融业。科技和房地产领域也贡献了一部分亿万富翁,但比例相对较小,这表明财富的积累路径呈现多元化趋势,而非单一集中于科技领域。

🤝“捐赠誓言”的实际执行困境:由沃伦·巴菲特、比尔·盖茨等人发起的“捐赠誓言”旨在鼓励亿万富翁将至少一半的财富捐赠给慈善事业。然而,文章揭示了现实情况与承诺存在差距,在众多签署者中,仅有少数真正完全履行了这一承诺。更有甚者,部分签署者的财富在承诺后不降反升,这反映了在巨额财富面前,慈善承诺的兑现面临着现实的挑战和阻力。

🌟 慈善捐赠的新模式与趋势:文章提到了几种主要的慈善捐赠方式,包括个人基金会和直接捐赠。比尔·盖茨的盖茨基金会和麦肯齐·斯科特通过其Yield Giving基金会进行的大规模捐赠是重要案例。特别是麦肯齐·斯科特,她采取匿名直接向非营利组织捐赠并给予充分信任的模式,这种“信任式慈善”被认为是未来慈善发展的一种有益趋势,能够更有效地将资源分配给真正需要且能有效利用的组织,同时也可能减轻捐赠者的税务负担。

📈 财富增长与慈善贡献的对比:文章对比了亿万富翁财富的快速增长与其慈善捐赠总额的比例。过去十年,亿万富翁总共捐赠或承诺捐赠的金额仅占其总财富的一小部分(约3.25%)。这种财富增长速度与慈善贡献的相对缓慢形成了鲜明对比,引发了关于财富分配和承担社会责任的讨论,并突显了部分亿万富翁在财富积累的同时,慈善意愿和行动的不足。

💡 科技发展带来的新机遇与挑战:文章提及人工智能(AI)可能催生首批万亿富翁,并可能加剧贫富差距。这为大规模的慈善捐赠提供了潜在的机遇,但也带来了新的社会挑战。在财富日益集中的背景下,如何引导和鼓励亿万富翁进行更积极、更有效的慈善活动,以应对社会不平等和发展需求,成为一个重要议题。

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg make up around a fifth of the collective fortune of all of America’s billionaires, thanks to their early innovation in social media, fintech, and e-commerce.

Musk, the richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $374 billion per Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, is known for his lucrative ventures, including PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX. Meta CEO Zuckerberg accumulated $259 billion thanks to the success of his social platform, Facebook. And Bezos earned his billionaire status after founding Amazon from his garage in Bellevue, Washington—a retail giant now worth $2.39 trillion. 

But despite these Silicon Valley titans holding most of America’s wealth, the majority of U.S. billionaires made their fortunes in banking and finance—including Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett, Fidelity’s Abigail Johnson, and Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman

Around 110 of the 1,135 ultra-wealthy got rich in technology, and 75 made their money in real estate. 

As billionaires accumulate more wealth—AI could create the world’s first trillionaires and worsen the class divide—there’s an opportunity for ground-breaking philanthropic giving. But few are actively paying it forward, even those that pledge to do so.

Billionaires have donated or pledged around $185 billion over the past decade—just 3.25% of their wealth

In 2010, Buffett, Bill Gates, and Melinda French Gates created The Giving Pledge: a philanthropic campaign where billionaires publicly commit to give away at least 50% of their fortunes to charity in their lifetimes or wills. 

However, in reality, only nine of the 256 signers have successfully followed through on the promise over the last 15 years. 

If anything, many are only getting richer; the net worth of the original 57 U.S. signers has increased by 283% since signing, or 166% adjusted for inflation. And only about a quarter of The Giving Pledge signatories have known donations of less than $1 million in the last 10 years, according to the Altrata data

In total, billionaires have publicly donated or pledged to give around $185 billion over the past decade—only about 3.25% of the $5.7 trillion stash. According to Altrata, they’ve donated about $90 billion to educational or medical causes specifically since 2015. 

A more private way to donate: billionaire foundations

Another popular method of philanthropic spending is through personal foundations. Many billionaires including—Bill Ackman and Gates—have their own foundations where they serve as trustees. Ackman, the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, has given about $1.36 billion of his $8.31 billion fortune to his charitable organization that he runs with his wife, according to Altrata. 

Meanwhile Gates is all-in his Gates Foundation’s mission that he formed with his ex-wife Melinda. This July $51 billion was wiped from his fortune, shooting him down the billionaire list from fifth place to 12th because he gave so much away.

Mackenzie Scott, an early employee at Amazon and the ex-wife of Bezos, has given away over $19.25 billion to date across 2,450 nonprofits through her Yield Giving foundation. Her giving methodology often entails donating anonymously directly to nonprofits, trusting them to handle the funds as they see fit, with no expectations. 

Experts told Fortune the uber-rich could be inspired by her actions to contribute directly to organizations and ease the tax hit. The mega philanthropist signed The Giving Pledge in 2019. 

“I think she’s a trendsetter and sort of moral ballast to the way that Gates has been,” Bella DeVaan, associate director of the charity reform initiative at the Institute for Policy Studies, previously told Fortune. “I do see that being not just a trend, but shifting common sense toward trust-based philanthropy.”

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亿万富翁 财富来源 慈善捐赠 捐赠誓言 科技巨头 金融业 信任式慈善 麦肯齐·斯科特 比尔·盖茨 沃伦·巴菲特 Billionaires Wealth Sources Philanthropy Giving Pledge Tech Giants Finance Industry Trust-Based Philanthropy Mackenzie Scott Bill Gates Warren Buffett
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