Editorials

Charity challenge

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-19 07:16
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It's time the rich gave a thought to spending money meaningfully, or at least to serve a social cause. One important way of doing that is donating generously to charity, which will earn them society's respect too.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are rallying up their billionaire friends in the US to donate half their wealth to charity. The warm response the two richest Americans should encourage egg their Chinese counterparts to tread the same path.

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Compared to the philanthropic spirit among many Western plutocrats, it seems rich people in China care more about their personal life and satisfying their material needs. A study, conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in April, is ready proof of this.

China's luxury goods market reached $9.4 billion by 2009 despite the global downturn. Rich Chinese now consume 27.5 percent of the world's luxury goods, grabbing the second place from Americans. The figures testify that the US, home to the largest contingent of super-rich people, is spending less on luxury goods while the penchant of the richest Chinese for extravagance is growing.

This trend will thwart the cultivation of healthy perception of wealth and give rich Chinese a bad image in society. In fact, rich Chinese already have a bad social image because of their selfishness and profligacy. Seventy percent respondents to a national survey conducted earlier this year said rich Chinese are not fit to be role models of the younger generation.

It's time the rich gave a thought to spending money meaningfully, or at least to serve a social cause. One important way of doing that is donating generously to charity, which will earn them society's respect too.

They will fulfill part of their social responsibility by repaying a portion of the wealth they've earned from society, just like what their American friends are doing.

(China Daily 06/19/2010 page4)