Andres Oppenheimer
A new report stating that
According to the "World Wealth Report 2010" released by
But if we measure the wealth of
SAFER INVESTMENTS
This is because while the U.S. and European rich lost a big chunk or their fortunes in the 2008 stock market crash, Latin Americans benefited from having safer investments, and from seeing their incomes rise because of their countries' strong currencies and booming stock markets.
"Latin American high net worth individuals had very good growth rates,"
Not surprisingly, Mexican telecommunications tycoon
In numbers of people, the population of
Should we get outraged by these data? Probably not, because in addition to benefiting from sounder investments and strong currencies in their home countries, the region's wealthy are investing more at home than before. The report says the region's rich increased their domestic investments by 2 percent last year, to 47 percent.
What should be a bigger cause of concern is that region's wealthy are on average less generous than their counterparts elsewhere. An issue of the same report in 2007 said that
This year, the Capgemini-Merrill Lynch annual survey -- based on information from international wealth management firms -- did not ask respondents how much each country's wealthy donated to charity. Instead, it asked them how much they plan to give to philanthropy in 2010. Again, the numbers for
Fifty-five percent of the rich in
FEWER MOTIVATIONS
Granted,
There is also a cultural factor, charitable groups' managers tell me. While giving to charity is a status symbol in
My opinion: I'm not outraged by the fact that
But I do think that the region's rich could be more generous. Has any of them pledged to donate at least half of their net worth to charity now or at their death, as U.S. billionaires
It's time to begin thinking about new ways to encourage the region's rich to give more.
Available at Amazon.com:
At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes
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(C) 2010 Andres Oppenheimer