It seems I’m not the only one unimpressed with Bill Gates’ robber barons for a better tomorrow initiative. Der Spiegel gauges the reaction of various German millionaires, interviewing Hamburg-based shipping magnate and multimillionaire Peter Krämer, who echoes my criticism:
Krämer: I find the US initiative highly problematic. You can write donations off in your taxes to a large degree in the USA. So the rich make a choice: Would I rather donate or pay taxes? The donors are taking the place of the state. That’s unacceptable.
SPIEGEL: But doesn’t the money that is donated serve the common good?
Krämer: It is all just a bad transfer of power from the state to billionaires. So it’s not the state that determines what is good for the people, but rather the rich want to decide. That’s a development that I find really bad. What legitimacy do these people have to decide where massive sums of money will flow?
SPIEGEL: It is their money at the end of the day.
Krämer: In this case, 40 superwealthy people want to decide what their money will be used for. That runs counter to the democratically legitimate state. In the end the billionaires are indulging in hobbies that might be in the common good, but are very personal.
Even if done without ulterior motives, philantropism on such a massive scale is troublesome when it’s a small elite deciding which cause is worthy enough to support. It remains just another way in which somebody like Buffet or Gates can exercise their power. Far better for society as a whole if it was made impossible to garner such huge wealth in the first place. A large part of the fortunes of these billionaires is after all build on the very backs of the people they are now wanting to help.