The announcements by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett that Gates will retire from Microsoft to devote himself to managing his charitable foundation, and Buffett will donate most of his money to it, certainly impressed the world, and in Asia journalists have been asking why billionaires in the region do not do the same. No doubt the western cultures have a stronger sense of noblesse oblige, reflected in civics and public conduct, charity and voluntary work, but also in a greater sense of equality between employers and employees; they have a weaker sense of the family, in that children do not usually feel obliged to support their aged parents, who in turn feel their parental obligations end once the children finish their education.

But there are also very practical reasons for not handing over businesses to children: inheritance and gift taxes are quite high in USA, and often parts of the business have to be sold in order to pay taxes due for the handing over. In contrast, by donating the assets to charitable foundations under their own managment, the owners can continue to exercise ultimate control while the routine operations are handled by hired managers, and later, hand over the foundations to their children to look after. In short, the foundations provide a better way to pass on assets to the next generation. In Asia taxes are usually lower and avoidances easier, and there is less incentive to use the foundation route.

Further the children may not be capable of running the businesses built up by their parents, and could end up messing things up and endangering the livelihood of thousands of people. Children who grew up in a privilegde environment surrounded by syncophants are in fact more difficult to teach, while ideas and experiences passed on from the previous generation are not always valuable in dealing with current problems. Now this issue also exists in Asia, but because of the generally poorer corporate governance and shareholder responsibility, owners would rather risk it than to pass control to non-family managers.

Unlike private owners, charitable foundations have to spend a minimum portion of their income on the intended charity work rather than reinvest income in strengthening their shareholdings; they cannot engage in the same asset enhancement practices that the owners can deploy. Hence, over an extended period the foundations tend to see their shareholdings in the original businesses diluted and their control weakened. This however takes many generations, and by the time the foundations are no longer in control of the original businesses, the descendents probably long lost interest.

Turning to Singapore, I have always thought that when Mr Lee Kuan Yew was about to step down as Prime Minister, he should have established a Senate (please seeand moved there instead of remaining in the cabinet; further he should have set up a big charity foundation, which could easily get a couple of billion dollars in donations from Temasek, Singtel, DBS, Capitaland, UOB, Hong Leong, etc, and regular income from MediaCorp charity shows (instead of letting NKF have it), with which to support all kinds of causes including charity, arts, research, etc. This would have established a new image for him, and given him new topics to talk about when he gets invited to various overseas forums. It would also avoid any suspicion of his still running the government and his successors not being fully in charge. In short, it would have been win-win for everyone.

盖兹和巴菲特宣布把自己大多数财产用来做善事，一方面显示了两人的公益心责任感，值得大家赞赏，一方面也反映了西方社会的某些文化经济因素，这里简单讲讲。

大家都知道美国的税很重，高收入人士不但薪金，存款利息和公司股息要交可观的收入税，在房屋，股票，甚至艺术品买进卖出时增了值要交本金增值税 (capital gains tax)，就算把财产赠送给亲族，遗留给子女，受益人也要交赠予税(gift tax)遗产税(estate duty)等等，常有受遗产先要卖掉一部分赋税的情况。

如果盖兹巴菲特一类的富翁把全部财产留给子女，要缴交的税会是个非常大的数目。所以他们都会在很早以前做好一套处理的方案，把财产捐赠给由自己或亲族管理的慈善基金，是一种避免缴税的财产转让方法。以后子女可以通过慈善基金继续控制公司，或至少保留些发言权。

但话又说回来：西方的文化的确包含了一种“想想自己欠了社会多少”的责任感，而今天中国社会有钱有势的人群中这种精神的确不足。这种责任感是否像西方人士说，同宗教思想有关，即是一种“凡人出生都有原罪，必须做好事赎罪”的思想，倒不容易说。至于怎样把适用的经济文化系统在中国建立起来，让中国的富人也多学学盖兹和巴菲特这种榜样，就更不容易说了。

另一因素是子女不一定适合事业决策，甚至因为娇生惯养不好学，连守成都做不好引起几千几万人饭碗危机，倒不如交给专业的管理人员负责日常事务。亚洲的国家税率低逃税容易，所以不那么需要通过慈善基金交棒的方法，而且商业监察制度不完整，也不大放心把企业委托外人。