The Forbes list of world’s richest

It’s that time of the year again when we amuse ourselves with the Forbes list of the world’s richest people. It’s part curiosity, part wishful fantasizing even if we don’t know off hand how many zeroes there are in a billion.

We are told that in this listing, Bill Gates took back the top position from Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim. But there are those who say that Slim is really still number one because Mexico’s lower cost of living gives him more bang for every billion in his treasure chest.

The Forbes list does not limit itself to a macro listing of the world’s dollar billionaires. We can extract from that list the top 10 Pinoy, or more accurately Chinoy dollar billionaires too. In case Kim Henares missed that list, here it goes:

Henry Sy and family-$11.4 billion (97th overall); Lucio Tan and family-$6.1 billion networth (227th); Andrew Tan-$4.7 billion (319th); Enrique Razon Jr.-$4.2 billion (354th); John Gokongwei Jr.-$3.9 billion (388th); David Consunji-$3.3 billion (483rd); George Ty and family-$2.3 billion (764th); Tony Tan Caktiong and family-$1.7 billion (1046th); Robert Coyiuto Jr.-$1.5 billion (1154th); Andrew Gotianun-$1 billion (1565th).

Wait a minute, you will probably say. How did Robert Coyiuto Jr. get in that list while the Ayalas, the Lopezes and the Aboitizes are nowhere there? Forbes may just get Coyiuto in trouble again with Kim Henares. Did Robert really sell that much insurance, Audis and Porsches to become a dollar billionaire bigger than Gotianun? Or is the National Power Grid simply that profitable?

And what happened to Manny Villar, the so-called brown taipan who used to be in the Forbes list? Villar had apparently been replaced by David Consunji. And Ricky Razon is the only tisoy in the list as the Ayalas and Aboitizes seem to have better accountants who are able to keep their billions as quiet and invisible as possible.

The next list I want to see is from Kim Henares. Indeed, I want to see a newspaper ad similar to the one that angered the doctors. I want something that compares the Forbes list with the taxes paid list. I am sure harassed small taxpayers want Kim to explain why people on the Forbes list and other prominent families seem to be paying less tax in proportion to their income than they should.

The Forbes list celebrates global economic inequality. But it’s a given that the world is not fair. The social significance of the Forbes list is it makes us think of how the extremely rich use their wealth. This is particularly relevant for us in a country with a large number of poor people.

In that light, two names in the Forbes list are significant in the way they view wealth as a means to a social end. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet enjoy the thrill of making billions of dollars in personal wealth. But both have pledged to give almost all of their wealth back to society.

What to do with overwhelming wealth is a question tackled by the website familybusiness.com. “How much is too much? Two men who are among the richest people on earth have made their philosophies on inherited wealth clear.

“Bill Gates, founder and chairman of Microsoft, has said that he’s going to leave his children a relatively minor inheritance and give the rest of his vast fortune to charity.

“Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor, has a similar philosophy. Buffett has been quoted as saying ‘the perfect inheritance is enough money so they feel they could do anything, but not so much they can do nothing.’”

I read somewhere that Gates intends to give his kids the amount of $10 million, said when he was worth just $50 billion. The latest net worth of Gates, according to Forbes, is $76 billion. Gates has said, according to one account, he intends to pay for the education of his kids, but expects them to pick a career and go to work.

We all have heard of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and how the couple not only wrote checks to support it but are actually devoting personal time working on its various projects mostly in the developing world. Imagine if all the billionaires in the Forbes list treated their wealth like the Gates couple? Instead of pain and poverty, there will be hope and plenty for all.

The Microsoft founder knows what wealth is all about. He lives the good life for sure but knows there is more to it than a decadent lifestyle. The Gates Foundation he founded is also more than a CSR or even old style philanthropy. It is entrepreneurial in its approach to alleviating the world’s most important human problems.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is rightfully focused to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty on a global basis. In America, the Foundation seeks to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology.

According to a Wikipedia article on the foundation, Bill Gates had donated $28 billion to the foundation as of May 16, 2013. Gates described his foundation as an innovation engine that takes risks and funds research, in addition to offering direct aid to the needy.

When he was asked what he knows now that he wishes he had known when he was of college age, Gates said that among others he wishes he “had been able to take a course like the world poverty course and know about vaccines and know what a magical intervention those are.”

Gates also talks of “creative capitalism” at the institutional level for businesses. Using the pharmaceutical industry as an example, Gates said: “We’re not saying that they should tilt all their activities. If we can get four percent to the best innovators working on these diseases that aren’t as remunerative, that can make a huge difference. And in many cases, that will be up from zero percent. So we’re not asking them to completely go against the economic incentives they live under. We want them to thrive and be successful…”

Unfortunately for us, there is not even one Bill Gates among our local dollar billionaires. I realize I just ruffled some feathers by saying that, but I don’t want the PR people of our Forbes billionaires to waste their time writing me to cite their CSR or philanthropic contributions. I know what that work is all about… been there. No one is even close to a Bill Gates.

In all honesty, I think CSR in this country is largely so much corporate bullshit. You can see it in the inflation of PR Awards. I gave up being a judge of the Anvil and the Quill because I get the feeling that quantity has trumped quality. These awards have become a big money making scheme of the professional PR organizations, complete with a long boring awards night.

There are exceptions of course like the corporate response to Yolanda. But even here the corporate donors cannot help milking their CSR activities for everything they can.

I have often said that true CSR is not an individual project designed to win an Anvil Award but an attitude or a philosophy of governance. Our billionaires must require their companies to integrate CSR principles in their operations and not just do enough to assuage their conscience.

For example, you can’t be a leading company and have Kim Henares running after you for tax fraud. Neither can you afford to lead a company with the reputation of shortchanging employees and/or suppliers. You can’t land on the Forbes list and claim to be a Christian while riding on the back of contractual workers who lose their jobs every six months. Christianity begins at home.

You can’t claim to be a good corporate citizen with award winning CSR projects and shortchange your customers in terms of lousy service. The country’s utility companies come to mind.

The only thing good I can see with the Forbes list is having Bill Gates on top and Warren Buffett in it too. These are two billionaires who know what making money and being rich is all about. It isn’t about them or even their children or amassing wealth for its own sake. It is about doing something good with their wealth right now when the need is greatest.

That’s the challenge to our local Forbes listers… a challenge they must take on before they meet their CEO of CEOs in the sky. 

21st century

Lawyer Sonny Pulgar sent this one.

A man was visiting his son and daughter-in-law when he asked if he could borrow a newspaper.

“This is the 21st century, old man,” the son told his father. “We don’t waste money on newspapers. Here, you can borrow my iPad.”

That friggin’ fly never knew what hit it ...

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco