- Disney heiress Abigail Disney Calls on a tax on the richest people in the United States, saying that it is crazy for billionaires to keep their wealth. Disney is also a major philanthropic that has donated tens of millions of dollars over the years. She is part of a group of ultra-rich people who have committed to giving their great fortune.
While many of the richest people in the world make an effort to share their fortune, some do not do it – at least to the extent that more generous peers want them to do it.
Abigail Disney, one of the heirs of Walt Disney’s fortune which said In 2019, it was about $ 120 million, recently shared its feelings about the quantity of their billionaires in wealth should be willing to share.
“I am convinced that every billionaire who cannot live with $ 999 million is a kind of sociopath”, Disney said The guardian In an interview published Monday. “Like, why? You know, more than a billion dollars earns money so fast that it is almost impossible to get rid of.”
Disney has reluctantly disclosed its net value in the past only to make an update for it to give the great fortune which was given to her by being part of one of the major family dynasties in the United States Financial time even calls him A “class warrior” of the way she was vocal on the fact that the richest should be taxed.
“The need to tax rich people like me has never been so disastrous,” wrote Disney in 2024 spur Entitled “World leaders have a chance to take up taxes for rich people like me. I beg them to take it ”published by The goalkeeper. “The extreme concentration of wealth in the hands of a few oligarchs is a threat to democracy worldwide.”
Disney was also behind a 2019 letter Signed by the financier George Soros and the co -founder of Facebook Chris Hughes calling for a “tax on the moderate wealth on the fortune of the tenth of the tightest 1% of the Americans – on us”.
The Disney heiress and director In 1991 also founded the Daphne FoundationA non -profit organization based in New York which invests funds for causes such as the fight against poverty, violence and discrimination. The organization had given About $ 70 million in 2019.
Although Disney has said It had given about a third of its net value, it “returned to me as quickly as I gave it”, referring to the way investments can increase wealth.
“Simply sitting on your hands, you become more than a billionaire until you are a double billionaire,” said Disney The goalkeeper. “It is a strange way of living when you have objectively more money than a person cannot spend.”
Billionaires who gave their wealth
Other ultra-rich people have given large amounts of their fortune. An excellent example is Mackenzie Scott, who donated more than $ 19 billion in his fortune of $ 34.3 billion. The five-year-old series of donations by the ex-wife of the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, was “transformational” for non-profit organizations, according to a study by the center of effective philanthropy.
“It could take decades to really understand the effects that these donations have had on non -profit organizations and the sector as a whole,” said the report. “However, after five years of donations, the reported effects of his donations on beneficiary organizations … remain extremely positive.”
Bill and Melinda French Gates were also major philanthropists, after donating more than $ 77 billion since the Gates Foundation Foundation in 2000.
“I believe that people who succeed financially are responsible for restoring the company”, Bill Gates wrote On his blog Doors. “In the 1990s, while Microsoft succeeded, I decided that I would end up giving almost all my wealth. The goal of my philanthropy is to reduce inequalities. ”
Although French doors resigned From the Gates Foundation in 2024, she appealed open to non -profit organizations related to the improvement of women and girls to ask for subsidies through her organization, PivotGetting to donate $ 1 billion over the next two years. French doors’ net value is about $ 14 billion, according to Bloomberg.
By “using my own personal resources to put substantial investments behind women or minorities”, it said NPR In October 2024. “I point to one direction, I hope, for other philanthropists or even other governments.”
And Warren Buffett, the sixth richest man in the world with a Net value of $ 155 billionAlso prompted In 2010 to give more than 99% of its wealth to philanthropy during his life or his death.
“Measured by dollars, this commitment is important. In a comparative sense, although many people give more to others every day,” wrote Buffett. “On the other hand, my family and I will give up nothing we need or that we want by making this 99%commitment.”
This story was initially presented on Fortune.com
