I find this whole thread rather disturbing and somewhat voyeuristic (for lack of a better word)
Of course it wasn’t. I challenge anyone to find any post where I take the position of usurping others money for whatever purpose.
I was simply opening up a discussion about charity and super wealthy people. No one seems to have a problem discussing super poor people and how they spend their time and money.
Again, in a Catholic forum, I find that quite odd.
Actually, you did more than this.
You made claims about the super-wealthy that are typically false:
Let’s face it, people with this kind of money don’t get it through income that is taxable via federal income tax. Their wealth, and increases in such, are obtained through ownership (land, companies).
Wealth obtained through ownership is certainly taxable via federal income tax.
You seem to be making assumptions the super wealthy do not give to charitable causes:
I suppose it’s nice to hear that someone donated 10 million to such and such a cause, but if the person is worth 2 billion dollars 10 million is possibly a very small percentage of what their overall increase in wealth was on that given year.
or this
If someone is worth 500 million, increases their wealth by 50 million that year, but only takes an ‘income’ subject to ‘income tax’ of 250,000 in the year, is this person doing their duty by donating 25-50K to their church?
You seem to be rather stingy yourself:
The reason I ask is that most of us, should we own houses, etc would (I think) typically not consider a 10% increse in the assessment of the value of the house as ‘income’.
I am sorry, but captical gains is always consider income for many of us non super wealthy. Both for taxes and for determining charitable giving. It might not be for you, but it is for many of us who care about sharing our blessings with others.
Finally you ask for information that is none of your damn business:
Does anyone know if there is a way to determine if any of the extremely wealthy are in fact Catholic and if what they do with their money is made available to the public? I’m curious to know what % of the super wealthy of the world give to the church or to other charities in proportion to what Catholics are told to give to their Church based on their incomes.
But in an effort to satisfy you, I will give you a real life anedoct. I am blessed enough to have been good friends with 3 different individuals who you would qualify as “elite super wealthy”. I say blessed because all three of them are some of the best people I have ever known in my life. They are honest to a fault. They treat employees very fairly. And they are very generous. For example, one of them, who is worth at least 100 million dollars, committed to give over 20% of his money to a third world country in order to build an engineering and science research center (in the hope they could keep talent at home and build their economy) years before he had access to liquid funds even approaching the amount he pledged. Another one of them made a large donation to a large Catholic project, but refused the Bishops direct request to put his name on the project because he wanted to be anonymous. I could give you other anedoctal stories.
I am also fortunate enough to know several other people who would not qualify as your “elite super rich” but are quite well off, none-the-less. These people also tend to fall along the generous side of the spectrum.
My general experience: the generosity of someone has absolutly nothing to do with their net worth. I know people who are poor who are exceeding stingy and who are poor and are exceeding generous. I can say the same about middle class and the same about rich people.
Encourage generosity, but mind your own business and don’t be jealous.
