{"id":2919,"date":"2015-05-26T12:47:29","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T10:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grupobcc.com\/?p=2919"},"modified":"2015-07-01T13:51:43","modified_gmt":"2015-07-01T11:51:43","slug":"andres-oppenheimer-latin-americas-rich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grupobcc.com\/en\/news\/andres-oppenheimer-latin-americas-rich\/","title":{"rendered":"Andres Oppenheimer, Latin America\u2019s rich should be more generous"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new report stating that Latin America\u2019s rich have gotten richer despite the region\u2019s economic downturn is likely to enrage populist leaders. But what should be more worrisome is that the region\u2019s wealthy plan to give less to charity than their counterparts elsewhere.<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

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According to the \u201cWorld Wealth Report 2010\u201d released by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch, the combined wealth of Latin America\u2019s rich \u2014 defined as people who have more than $1 million in financial investments, excluding homes and art collections \u2014 grew by 15 percent last year, just below the 19 percent world average.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But if we measure the wealth of Latin America\u2019s rich since the beginning of the 2007 world economic crisis, their financial investments grew by 8 percent, more than in any other region, the report\u2019s authors say.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 strong currencies and booming stock markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cLatin American high net worth individuals had very good growth rates,\u201d Ileana Van der Linde, one of the study\u2019s lead authors, told me. \u201cOver the past two years, their combined wealth has grown faster than that of any other region of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, Mexican telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim became the world\u2019s wealthiest billionaire in Fortune magazine\u2019s ranking this year.<\/p>\n

In numbers of people, the population of Latin America\u2019s high net worth individuals grew from 400,000 people in 2007 to 500,000 people last year, the Capgemini-Merrill Lynch report says.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

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Should we get outraged by these data? Probably not, because inaddition to benefiting from sounder investments and strong currencies in their home countries, the region\u2019s wealthy are investing more at home than before. The report says the region\u2019s rich increased their domestic investments by 2 percent last year, to 47 percent.<\/p>\n

What should be a bigger cause of concern is that region\u2019s wealthy are on average less generous than their counterparts elsewhere. An issue of the same report in 2007 said that Latin America\u2019s wealthy devoted only 3 percent of their financial assets to charity, while the rich in the United States and Asia donated 12 percent of their money, respectively.<\/p>\n

This year, the Capgemini-Merrill Lynch annual survey \u2014 based on information from international wealth management firms \u2014 did not ask respondents how much each country\u2019s wealthy donated to charity. Instead, it asked them how much they plan to give to philanthropy in 2010. Again, the numbers for Latin America were disheartening.<\/p>\n

Fifty-five percent of the rich in Asia-Pacific, 41 percent in Europe, 37 percent in North America, 35 percent in the Middle East and 33 percent in Latin America said they planned to give more to charity in 2010. The world average of anticipated giving was 41 percent, Van der Linde told me.<\/p>\n

Granted, Latin America\u2019s rich may be giving less to charity than their counterparts elsewhere because most of their countries don\u2019t offer tax incentives to write off charitable donations, like in the United States or most European countries. Also, many of Latin America\u2019s rich donate money anonymously, because they fear being targets of kidnappings for ransom.<\/p>\n

There is also a cultural factor, charitable groups\u2019 managers tell me. While giving to charity is a status symbol in the United States, the same cannot be said in most Latin American countries, they say.<\/p>\n

My opinion: I\u2019m not outraged by the fact that Latin America\u2019s rich are getting richer, because they tend to create more jobs and be more helpful in reducing poverty than the radical populist leaders that lash out against them, and scare away investments. And raising taxes on the rich is a tricky proposition in some countries with a huge underground economy, where only wealthy business people are taxed.<\/p>\n

But I do think that the Latin America\u2019s 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 Bill Gates and Warren Buffett did, and asked their peers to do earlier this month? I don\u2019t know of any.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to begin thinking about new ways to encourage the region\u2019s rich to give more<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new report stating that Latin America\u2019s rich have gotten richer despite the region\u2019s economic downturn is likely to enrage populist leaders. But what should be more worrisome is that the region\u2019s wealthy plan to give less to charity than their counterparts elsewhere.     According to the \u201cWorld Wealth Report 2010\u201d released by Capgemini… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n