Disney Heiress says that any billionaire who fails to share his wealth is “a kind of sociopath”

Abigail Disney, one of the heirs of Walt Disney’s fortune which said in 2019 that it was worth around $ 120 million, shared its feelings about the quantity of their billionaires in wealth should be willing to share.

“I believe that every billionaire who cannot live with $ 999 million is a kind of sociopath,” said Disney Tutor In an interview published in April. “Like, why? You know, more than a billion dollars earns money so fast that it is almost impossible to get rid of.”

Disney has reluctantly disclosed its net value in the past only to make an update for it to give the great fortune which was granted to her by being part of one of the major family dynasties in the United States Financial time Even described it as a “class warrior” for the voice that she was the voice of the richest.

“The need to tax rich people like me has never been so disaster Tutor. “The extreme concentration of wealth in the hands of a few oligarchs is a threat to democracy worldwide.”

Disney was also at the origin of a 2019 letter signed by the financier George Soros and the Facebook co -founder Chris Hughes calling for a “moderate wealth tax on the wealthiest tenth of the richest 1% of Americans – on us”.

The Disney heiress and filmmaker in 1991 also founded Daphne Foundation, a non -profit organization based in New York which invests funds for causes such as the fight against poverty, violence and discrimination. The organization had donated around $ 70 million in 2019.

Although Disney said that she had given about a third of her net value, it “returned to me as quickly as I gave it”, referring to the way investments can increase wealth.

“Simply sitting on your hands, you become more than a billionaire until you are a double billionaire,” said Disney Tutor. “It is a strange way of living when you have objectively more money than a person cannot spend.”

Billionaires who gave their wealth

Other ultra-realized people have given large quantities of their fortune. An excellent example is Mackenzie Scott, who donated more than $ 19 billion in his fortune of $ 34.3 billion. In September, she made one of her greatest gifts: a donation of $ 70 million to historically black colleges and universities. According to a study by the Center for Effective, the five-year-old series of donations by the ex-wife of the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, was “transformational” for non-profit organizations.

“It could take decades to really understand the effects that these donations have had on non -profit organizations and the sector as a whole,” said the report. “However, after five years of donations, the reported effects of his donations on beneficiary organizations … remain extremely positive.”

Bill and Melinda French Gates were also major philanthropists, gave more than $ 100 billion since the Gates Foundation in 2000.

“I believe that people who succeed financially are responsible for restoring the company,” wrote Bill Gates on his blog Doors. “In the 1990s, while Microsoft succeeded, I decided that I would end up giving almost all my wealth. The goal of my philanthropy is to reduce inequalities. ”

Although French Gates resigned from the Gates Foundation in 2024, she launched an open appeal to non -profit organizations linked to the improvement of women and girls to ask for subsidies through her organization, Pivotal, committing to make a donation of $ 1 billion in the next two years. The net value of French Gates is around $ 16.8 billion, according to Bloomberg.

By “using my own personal resources to put substantial investments behind women or minorities,” she told NPR in October 2024: “I point to a direction, I hope, for other philanthropists or even other governments.” Fortune Reported in May, the Gates Foundation will end in 2045.

And Warren Buffett, the sixth richest man in the world with a net value of $ 155 billion, also undertook in 2010 to give more than 99% of his wealth to philanthropy during his life or his death. In June, Buffett donated additional $ 6 billion in Berkshire Hathaway shares – with the Lion share at the Gates Foundation.

“Measured by dollars, this commitment is important. In a comparative sense, although many people give more to others every day,” wrote Buffett. “On the other hand, my family and I will give up nothing we need or that we want by making this 99%commitment.”

A version of this story originally published on Fortune.com April 7, 2024.

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