One of the latest real estate stories to nauseate many across the world featured the wealthiest man on earth dropping a cool $165 million on a mansion in Los Angeles.
According to reports, Jeff Bezos, with his net worth of around $130 billion, paid $165 million to buy a Beverly Hills mansion earlier this month. A source who spoke to CNN Business also revealed that Bezos paid another $90 million to buy a plot of land near the mansion from the estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
This purchase is nothing compared to the $23 million that Bezos spent in 2016 when he bought the biggest home in Washington D.C. The Amazon CEO also spent $80 million on three apartments in NYC last summer.
So while Bezos has been shopping for real estate, it seems his ex-wife Mackenzie Bezos realized that all the money she received in their divorce settlement may have better use one day going to charity instead.
Mackenzie announced in a letter in 2019 that she had signed the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give half of her $35 billion in assets, or at least $17 billion, to charity over her lifetime or in her will. It is of no surprise that many are questioning why her ex-husband hasn’t signed the pledge, despite him having more money than anyone on the planet.
Founded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, the Giving Pledge is a campaign to encourage extremely wealthy people to contribute a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. The pledge was founded in 2010 which has given Jeff Bezos plenty of time to consider signing it.
It should be noted that while the Bezoses were together, they declined to sign it each year. As soon as the divorce led to MacKenzie having her own personal fortune, she immediately signed the pledge. This makes you wonder if it was Jeff who kept them from signing it each year.
Why isn’t the richest man in the world more philanthropic? One argument could be that because his wealth is tied to Amazon’s stock, shares would tank if he decided to sell his 12% stake. Another idea is that Bezos has many more dreams he wants to fulfill that require substantial money. Or he could just be very greedy and needs to learn how to give back a little more. Only time will tell if he ever decides to sign the pledge.
Bezos did however recently make a $10 billion pledge to launch Bezos Earth Fund, which will combat climate change.
Source:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jeff-bezos-10-billion-climate-change-200822069.html
