Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's pledge to give to charity 99 per cent of the Facebook shares – currently worth $46 billion (Dh169bn) – held by him and his wife is part of a modern trend towards very public acts of philanthropy by the super wealthy. The couple join more than 130 fellow billionaires who are part of the Giving Pledge, an organisation initiated by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates with the intention of giving away the bulk of their fortunes to good causes.
There can be no doubt that the huge sums of money being pledged by this group can make a real difference to problems that might otherwise have seemed too big and too intractable. One example of this is Mr Gates’ focus on eradicating polio – a cause which has received substantial support from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
Even with the extraordinary scale of the pledge by Mr Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, it is not like they are going to have to take part time jobs to make ends meet. Although Mr Zuckerberg’s salary is just $1 a year, the 1 per cent of Facebook shares they will retain will still be worth around $500 million and they have diversified some of their wealth away from Facebook stock.
This trend of the super rich giving away most of their fortunes reflects the nature of this level of wealth. Above a certain amount of money, it is not possible for more homes, cars or holidays to make any discernible difference. With growing economic disparity in the US and other wealthy countries making the rich richer, it shows some of the beneficiaries of this process can give something back.
We are, of course, not short of super wealthy people here in the UAE but the trend locally tends to be for such acts of philanthropy to be done quietly or even anonymously. One could also argue that the person who gives Dh1,000 to charity when that is all he or she has is giving more generously than a billionaire. Similarly, the owner of a tiny restaurant who gives free meals to the hungry is just as worthy. The message from all this is simple: give what you can.