A 29-year-old girl gives up an inheritance of around 4 billion euros (approximately R$21 billion, at today’s exchange rate) because she doesn’t want to be too rich.
The German Marlene Engelhorn is a descendant of the founders of the company Basf, which in 2021 had a revenue of 78 billion euros. Since last year, she has been highlighted in the European media for rejecting 90% of the property to which she is entitled, according to the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia.
That’s because she is part of a movement formed by heirs of great fortunes that advocates greater redistribution of wealth and increased taxes for millionaires, the Taxmenow (“tax me now”, in English).
“As someone who has enjoyed the benefits of wealth all my life, I know how skewed our economy is and I can’t sit around waiting for someone, somewhere to do something,” she told the BBC during a protest at the World Economic Forum, in Davos in May of this year.
Marlene’s grandmother, Traudl Engelhorn, now ranks 687 in Forbes magazine’s ranking of the richest people in the world. In interviews, the young woman does not shy away from the label of “rich girl”. She recognizes that, having been born into a wealthy family, she had facilities that not everyone can have.
However, Marlene Engelhorn believes that no one should accumulate large amounts of money as long as there is evident inequality in society. “It’s not a matter of will, but of justice. I didn’t do anything to receive this legacy. This is pure luck in the birth lottery and pure coincidence,” she said.
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