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Europe has less of a philanthropic tradition than the United States. For example, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have both pledged to give away the vast majority

Europe has less of a philanthropic tradition than the United States. For example, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have both pledged to give away the vast majority of their fortunes. Jeff Bezos is now making plans for his philanthropy. This happens in Europe too, but is less common. I was looking to see if there were any specific plans for Mr. Kamprad’s wealth, but unfortunately did not see anything.

coldtea 9y ago
Europe doesn't believe as much in handouts from the rich, or in depending on arbitrary goodwill. We believe more in structuring society, government, welfare, healthcare, funding, etc, such that they're not needed.
- kzrdude 9y ago
  The sprit of the time in the US seems to be poisoned by the fantasies of get rich schemes still (including founder dreams of making a company to "get rich" instead of making a company to make a living).
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- jopsen 9y ago
  Yeah, American has trickle down economics :)
- nathanasmith 9y ago
  You condescending assholes waste no opportunity to toot your horn. Your statement is as vacuous as it is wrong. First of all, there are quite a few European nations with double digit percentages of the population living under what is considered the poverty line in the US. Secondly, your rich don't give because they are more interested preserving a family name and giving the money to their descendants.
antirez 9y ago
It's less common to accumulate very big fortunes because in general there is much more redistribution of wealth and much higher taxes (so also as you accumulate you share a big amount with society). See for instance tipping in the US vs no tips but places paying a more fair amount of money to waiters in Europe. A different model.
- WisNorCan 9y ago
  The third richest man in the world, Armancio Ortega, is from Spain. The tenth richest man in the world, Bernard Arnault, is from France. Ingvar Kamprad was at one point the eighth. And there are many others. Lack of philanthropic giving in Europe is not due to a lack of wealth, but due to a desire for dynasty.
  - antirez 9y ago
    As I said as you accumulate wealth in Europe it's very likely that you gave a very large share of it back to the government just in the process of accumulating it. That is one thing but for sure there is also a matter of cultural POV because here is counter intuitive that is single persons that should try to fix things like poverty but more things like universal health care, decent schools for free and so forth.
    - Slartie 9y ago
      > As I said as you accumulate wealth in Europe it's very likely that you gave a very large share of it back to the government just in the process of accumulating it. This may be true for small- to mid-sized fortunes, but not for the really large ones. Ikea in particular is a counter-example for this. They operate a super-tight network of companies, funds and trusts in multiple countries apart from Sweden like the Netherlands and some off-shore tax paradises and perform any possible trick, including the usual fake self-licensing tactics, to reduce their tax burden to next-to-nothing. The difference to Amazon and Co. is mostly that Ikea is privately-owned, thus you can't simply invest some money in them to at least reap some of the profits of these tactics for yourself. The profits all pile up in private vaults of the owner, which is basically the Kamprad family (with exact ownership stakes being unknown of course, another difference from the publicity requirements that public companies are required to meet).
dyyni 9y ago
The Economist wrote about Kamprad's foundation and IKEA's structure a decade ago: http://www.economist.com/node/6919139 http://www.economist.com/node/6919139 >Much has been written about IKEA's remarkably effective retail formula. The Economist has investigated the group's no less astonishing finances. >What emerges is an outfit that ingeniously exploits the quirks of different jurisdictions to create a charity, dedicated to a somewhat banal cause, that is not only the world's richest foundation, but is at the moment also one of its least generous. The overall set-up of IKEA minimises tax and disclosure, handsomely rewards the founding Kamprad family and makes IKEA immune to a takeover. And if that seems too good to be true, it is: these arrangements are extremely hard to undo. The benefits from all this ingenuity come at the price of a huge constraint on the successors to Ingvar Kamprad, the store's founder (pictured above), to do with IKEA as they see fit.

coldtea 9y ago

Europe doesn't believe as much in handouts from the rich, or in depending on arbitrary goodwill. We believe more in structuring society, government, welfare, healthcare, funding, etc, such that they're not needed.

kzrdude 9y ago
The sprit of the time in the US seems to be poisoned by the fantasies of get rich schemes still (including founder dreams of making a company to "get rich" instead of making a company to make a living).
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
jopsen 9y ago
Yeah, American has trickle down economics :)
nathanasmith 9y ago
You condescending assholes waste no opportunity to toot your horn. Your statement is as vacuous as it is wrong. First of all, there are quite a few European nations with double digit percentages of the population living under what is considered the poverty line in the US. Secondly, your rich don't give because they are more interested preserving a family name and giving the money to their descendants.

antirez 9y ago

It's less common to accumulate very big fortunes because in general there is much more redistribution of wealth and much higher taxes (so also as you accumulate you share a big amount with society). See for instance tipping in the US vs no tips but places paying a more fair amount of money to waiters in Europe. A different model.

WisNorCan 9y ago
The third richest man in the world, Armancio Ortega, is from Spain. The tenth richest man in the world, Bernard Arnault, is from France. Ingvar Kamprad was at one point the eighth. And there are many others. Lack of philanthropic giving in Europe is not due to a lack of wealth, but due to a desire for dynasty.
- antirez 9y ago
  As I said as you accumulate wealth in Europe it's very likely that you gave a very large share of it back to the government just in the process of accumulating it. That is one thing but for sure there is also a matter of cultural POV because here is counter intuitive that is single persons that should try to fix things like poverty but more things like universal health care, decent schools for free and so forth.
  - Slartie 9y ago
    > As I said as you accumulate wealth in Europe it's very likely that you gave a very large share of it back to the government just in the process of accumulating it. This may be true for small- to mid-sized fortunes, but not for the really large ones. Ikea in particular is a counter-example for this. They operate a super-tight network of companies, funds and trusts in multiple countries apart from Sweden like the Netherlands and some off-shore tax paradises and perform any possible trick, including the usual fake self-licensing tactics, to reduce their tax burden to next-to-nothing. The difference to Amazon and Co. is mostly that Ikea is privately-owned, thus you can't simply invest some money in them to at least reap some of the profits of these tactics for yourself. The profits all pile up in private vaults of the owner, which is basically the Kamprad family (with exact ownership stakes being unknown of course, another difference from the publicity requirements that public companies are required to meet).

dyyni 9y ago

The Economist wrote about Kamprad's foundation and IKEA's structure a decade ago: http://www.economist.com/node/6919139 http://www.economist.com/node/6919139 >Much has been written about IKEA's remarkably effective retail formula. The Economist has investigated the group's no less astonishing finances. >What emerges is an outfit that ingeniously exploits the quirks of different jurisdictions to create a charity, dedicated to a somewhat banal cause, that is not only the world's richest foundation, but is at the moment also one of its least generous. The overall set-up of IKEA minimises tax and disclosure, handsomely rewards the founding Kamprad family and makes IKEA immune to a takeover. And if that seems too good to be true, it is: these arrangements are extremely hard to undo. The benefits from all this ingenuity come at the price of a huge constraint on the successors to Ingvar Kamprad, the store's founder (pictured above), to do with IKEA as they see fit.