[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Amid the global difficulties caused by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, there have been criticisms that American billionaires are stingy when it comes to donations for overcoming the crisis. Except for Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, and Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft (MS), there were no notable donations.
The Washington Post (WP) reported on the 4th (local time) that after analyzing the wealth and donation records of the 50 richest Americans, their total net worth amounts to approximately $1.6 trillion (about 1,947 trillion KRW), but their officially known donations total only about $1 billion, which is just 0.1% of their assets. About 33% of those surveyed have not made any COVID-19 related donations to date.
WP pointed out Dorsey CEO and Bill Gates as individuals who made notable donations. CEO Dorsey donated $1 billion for COVID-19 relief efforts. Considering his net worth of $3.6 billion, this amounts to 28% of his assets.
Bill Gates was found to have spent $300 million of his approximately $103 billion net worth on efforts to combat COVID-19. Gates actively voiced support for preventing the spread of COVID-19, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has donated over $50 billion since its inception, promoted funding support that governments could not provide.
Jeff Bezos, the world's richest person with a net worth of $143 billion and CEO of Amazon, donated about $125 million, while Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, donated $58 million out of his $67 billion net worth. Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, did not make any public cash donations except lending his private jet to supply medical equipment to New York State.
WP pointed out that considering the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis has mostly not affected the wealthy, the stinginess of billionaires is even more highlighted.
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