InvestigationPhilanthropy, an American history (1/5). What do the wealthiest Americans use their dollars for? The subject is crucial in the United States, where they have long compensated, with their donations, for part of the failings of the central state.
Despite his divorce, Jeff Bezos remains the richest man in the world. And probably one of the most puny, despite its 114 billion dollars (103 billion euros), according to the 2019 ranking of the magazine Forbes. The founder of Amazon, 56, is he not one of the few who did not sign the call launched in 2010 by his Microsoft counterpart, Bill Gates, and the investor Warren Buffet, inciting the billionaires to give half of their fortune to philanthropic works? His ex-wife did, as did some 200 other ultra-wealthy people on the planet. But not Jeff Bezos himself. While welcoming the initiative of his former partner ("I am proud of her"), he didn't seem to know what to do with his billions.
Faced with pressure, in 2017, he ended up launching a call to his followers on Twitter: "Seek ideas. " In a small text, he outlined his philanthropic philosophy – "Helping people, here and now" – and cited a project in Seattle, his hometown, to support the homeless. His critics then considered the move a bit hypocritical when he opposed a local tax supposed to solve the problem that the expansion of Amazon has amplified. The New york times sneered, noting that Mr. Bezos was deliberately taking the opposite view from "classic" billionaires, eager to hear from them, to invest for the future and the good of mankind in the long term. Jeff Bezos wanted to act quickly, but was careful not to indicate the sums involved. Until now, "His philanthropy has remained a mystery", wrote the New York daily.
Request for ideas… https://t.co/j6D68mhseL
Since then, Jeff Bezos has advanced a little. In 2018, he finally entered the circle of the top 50 annual American donors, even becoming the first patron of the year thanks to a donation of $ 2 billion for the homeless and nursery schools for disadvantaged children. Nevertheless, the man remains unloved, and under accounting supervision: the site Quartz noted that after all, this $ 2 billion donation only represented 1.3% of his fortune.
"Diamonds, yachts and Rembrandts"
Mr. Bezos, it is the billionaire who breaks the American pact – already moribund – dogma according to which, once made fortune, the rich must give back to the community all or part of the money that success and God allowed him raise. Here it is erected, despite itself, as a symbol of the tumult around the billionaires. If they’ve never seemed so powerful, it’s bad weather for them right now in the United States. After having embodied the American dream for a long time, they are challenged for paying little or no tax: Amazon, Mr. Bezos' company, did not pay a cent of federal tax in 2017 and 2018, while the The country's first 400 taxpayers have a lower tax rate than their secretary and the average taxpayer, revealed French economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, based in Berkeley (California). Amazon is also accused of destroying small businesses, paying poverty wages, and was abutted in early 2019 outside the Queens district of New York by residents hostile to the gentrification of their neighborhood. Too bad for the 25,000 jobs at stake.
