Opinion: Wealthy Latin Americans Should Give More

Despite rapidly growing wealth, Latin Americans are not giving as much as they could be and lag behind their peers in other countries, argues a columnist for The Miami Herald.

A study conducted by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch, titled the “World Worth Report 2007,” found that wealthy Latin Americans give much less compared with their counterparts in other nations. On average, they donate only about 3 percent of their financial assets, compared with Asians (12 percent), Middle Easterners (8 percent), Americans (8 percent), and Europeans (5 percent).

Meanwhile, income among the Latin American wealthy grew at a much higher rate than the rest of the world. Latin American wealth increased by 23.2 percent in 2006, compared with gains realized by wealthy people in Africa (a 14 percent increase), the Middle East (a 11.7 percent increase), and Asia (a 10.5 percent increase).

Of this charitable gap, the article’s author believes that security concerns explain why Latin American elites do not donate more. He writes, “Granted, it’s hard to blame Latin American tycoons for wanting to be as private as they can about their fortunes when they live in the world’s region with the highest kidnapping rates.”

The solution, he adds, is to create “a culture of giving that would hail those who give the most as real heroes. That would help all, including the rich.”