It's all the rage among billionaires nowadays to give away – or at least to say they're going to give away – their fortunes to some worthy cause or another over the course of their lives, thanks to people like Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffett. But not every billionaire is falling in with this craze. One case in point is Carlos Slim, who was recently asked whether he plans to give away the majority of his family fortune in a manner similar to Zuckerberg's 99% plan. His answer was a firm and resolute "no."
Of course, Slim's rationale for his abstinence from giveaway mania wasn't an entirely selfish one. Instead, it seems that Slim just has a different way of seeing how massive stores of wealth can be used to serve communities. At a recent event in Mexico City, he spoke about his opinion on the best way to solve problems like world poverty in relation to charitable organizations:
"Foundations do not solve poverty. Employment requires that companies invest, so we don't need to give away companies, we need to create companies."
Slim didn't discount the value and necessity of charity altogether, though he did decline to give a specific figure when asked how much he's donated to charity over the course of his career. He is reported to have given significant amounts to charity, though, with endowments to his various charitable foundations numbering in the multi-billions.
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So it's not the giving that he's opposed to, it seems, but he's instead advocating for better use of public resources in order to solve public problems. Also during his remarks at the same event, he spoke about how many governments of the world already have everything they need to significantly improve in arenas like poverty and education, arguing that the problem isn't a lack of capital, but saying instead "it's a problem of management and efficiency." So this holiday season, maybe Carlos Slim shouldn't be filed under "Scrooges" after all.
