In all humility, my troubles do not compare to those of Marlene Engelhorn, 30, of Vienna. When the news broke about Engelhorn’s grief and distress, the terrible news touched everyone.
Her anguish began when she inherited, well, it’s not exactly clear, was it hundreds of millions? Was it billions? Just one of her progenitors’ companies was sold in 1997 for $11 billion. Whatever her share of the inheritance was, when it landed in lap, her self-esteem plummeted. Her feelings of hypocrisy skyrocketed.
Never before had she felt like a criminal, but now, how could she not?
How could she rob all those countless and nameless victims, those unfortunates who benefited from her progenitors’ companies?
How could she disrespect all those whose lives were improved over the last 150 years, since the time her progenitors’ companies were founded?
How could she take all that was rightly theirs?
But.
She was locked in.
She could not escape. The money was hers, no one else’s.
Oh the Pity.
She was imprisoned.
“I am the product of an unequal society,” she said in a speech at a Millionaires for Humanity event, according to The New York Times. “Because otherwise, I couldn’t be born into multimillionaires. Just born.
Nothing else.”
Oh the Pain.
Imagine the agony, holding on to all this money her entire adult life so far.
Even worse, she cannot even give it away, morally speaking. She cannot become a philanthropist. Cannot set up a foundation. Cannot identify a priority, such as hunger, cancer research, childhood education — anything. She cannot do it because . . . because it would not be right! Because she shoehorns all the philanthropists into the unequal, illiberal, corrosive, self-serving, down- right poisonous power structure that created the systemic inequalities to begin with. Obvious, no?
Why should philanthropists decide which good causes their own money should go to? It’s dead wrong.
Downright selfish.
Philanthropists are part of the problem, not part of the solution. Who knew? Thanks to Marlene Engelhorn, now we all know.
Troubles. Troubles. And more troubles for Marlene Engelhorn. It would be bad enough if the companies of Engelhorn’s progenitors had been evil — had stoked an opioid crisis, for example. Or had exploited their employees as slave laborers. Or had extorted suppliers and cheated customers. Yes, that would have been bad enough. But can you imagine? These companies are not even accused of anything immoral, unethical or criminal. These companies were just creative and successful, cast into the power structure. Nothing else.
Pure good business.
Oh the Pain.
Still worse. These companies actually helped humanity, producing, for example, medical diagnostic equipment. So their legacy for poor Marlene, an inheritor of their wealth, is a particularly brutal one. It shouldn’t be her money! But it is! How can she possibly bear it?
Maybe, just maybe, please pray, there is a silver lining in all this.
Just maybe, Marlene Engelhorn has come up with a solution. She will find relief from living with her money or becoming, ugh, a philanthropist. I must admit, her solution sounds brilliant for its simplicity. It comes down to two words: Tax it!
That’s it. Let the government take her money!
Now, please do not deepen Marlene’s pain; do not suggest that she herself donate her money to the government. No, that would not be right, oh no. Because that would not solve the systemic problem of all the wealthy heirs and egotistical philanthropists out there. It is true, anybody can give away hundreds of millions, right? But most people just won’t do it. If Marlene were to donate her money to the government, she would not be a role model. No one would follow her example. All the other heirs and philanthropists just don’t rise to her level of idealism. So, tax it! Take away their uber inherited wealth and their selfish philanthropic contributions.
This is both the ethical solution (and a global one at that) and the relief from gutwrenching pain, all at once.
Give Marlene credit. When she says tax it, she doesn’t mean to tax at the edges. No. She means: Take it away. Cut down that inequality. Get rid of those ego-driven foundations. Down with the arrogate-to-myself the power to run my own philanthropic foundation funded by my own money. Kill tzedakah! Instead, tax the wealth and tax away all the inheritances. Tax justice! That’s what it is, says Marlene, tax justice.
Brilliant not only for its simplicity but for its moral clarity.
And brilliant psychologically, too. “I would like tax justice to take this impossible decision off my hands,” moans Marlene.
And I thought I had troubles. Actually, I do, because I cannot think of anything nearly so simple to cure mine as Marlene has devised to cure hers. But hey, you have to have empathy for other people’s pain.
When their millions highlight their personal unworthiness and rob them of their own philanthropic agency, while they hold onto their money, the pain is just too much to bear.
