I respect her, but I would give it only to the truly destitute.
Austrian Heiress Marlene Engelhorn Is Giving Away Her $27 Million Fortune
Yahoo | 1/11/24 | Emily Burack
If you inherited $27 million dollars, what would you do? For Austrian heiress Marlene Engelhorn, 31, she’s determined to give it all away.
“I have inherited a fortune, and therefore power, without having done anything for it,” she said in a statement, per BBC. “And the state doesn’t even want taxes on it.” (In 2008, Austria got rid of its inheritance tax.)
Engelhorn is descended from Friedrich Engelhorn, a German industrialist who, in 1865, founded BASF, a chemical and pharmaceutical company. Engelhorn’s grandmother, Traudl Engelhorn-Vechiatto, was estimated to have a net worth of around $4.2 billion.
This week, Engelhorn began inviting people to take part in her initiative for the public to decide what to do with her fortune. Called the Good Council for Redistribution, Austrians can register online or by phone, with 50 people being chosen.
“If politicians don’t do their job and redistribute, then I have to redistribute my wealth myself,” she said. “Many people struggle to make ends meet with a full-time job, and pay taxes on every euro they earn from work. I see this as a failure of politics, and if politics fails, then the citizens have to deal with it themselves.”
In 2021, Engelhorn co-founded Tax Me Now, which the Washington Post describes as “a collective of wealthy people in German-speaking countries, to address extreme inequality resulting from tax policies.”
It’s unclear how much of her fortune Engelhorn will keep, though it is understood she will keep some of it.
A wise comment:
Invest the money and allow the interest to do a million in goodness every year.
Thats what I would do.
I think she should give it all to save “The Walrus”.
But, the moron gene…..
Only dorks with untreated jock itch don’t capitalize my name. Weird but true.
Luckily for Austria, her fortune isn’t so big that giving it away will mess up the economy.
I’m going to go out on a limb and presume that her fortune is not in cash, but spread around in stocks and other commodities. To give it away, she’ll have to sell the stocks. Selling a bunch of stock at once is a very good way to make stock prices drop like a rock, good-bye management bonuses, hello knee-jerk reactions to try to shore up stock price that hurt the company long term. Also, sorry grandma whose pension is dependent on mutual funds, but performance wasn’t up to expectations this year. Sorry that check isn’t keeping up with inflation. Hope you enjoy cat food.
Sure, I’m being hyperbolic, but the reason so many actions have unintended consequences is because people think good intentions will create good results, instead of more paving blocks for the road to Hell.
I have heard it said that Hookers and Blow was a wise investment, but then the counsellor sitting as the head of our circle quickly corrected him…
Checks. The woman probably already has all her material needs met by the family’s business and never worked for it herself. So for her to give away the extra and want the government to take away even more of what she has in excess and doesn’t work for makes total sense. I mean good on her for not being completely selfish. Maybe she should just go to places were good people work hard at crappy jobs and throw them a couple grand each. Like grocery store workers, the trash man, drop her plumber or mechanic a 4 digit tip.