Marlene Engelhorn has plans for her $27 million inheritance, but not for things she wants to buy. This 31-year-old Austrian wants to rethink the concept of inherited wealth, and part of that involves redistributing her own fortune. However, she doesn’t believe that she has the right to choose where her money goes. So, she’s selecting 50 representatives of the Austrian population to help her decide the most beneficial way to use her inheritance. She calls the proposed group Guter Rat, or Good Council.
“Why should I alone be entitled to decide how wealth is redistributed to society — wealth, that has been created by said society?” Engelhorn writes in her mission statement on the Guter Rat website. “What happens to a large fortune should also be decided collectively by a large group. Not one person alone.”
How will she select these 50 council members? CBS tells us that Marlene Engelhorn has invited 10,000 Austrians to fill out a survey. While the participants have been chosen randomly, the final group will be a purposefully diverse sampling of the nation’s population. Once the council is finalized, Guter Rat will meet in person this spring over the course of six weekends, all expenses paid.
Marlene Engelhorn has good reasons for wanting to redistribute her fortune.
Although a majority of Austrians would like to see wealth taxed, it currently isn’t. Neither is inheritance. Even in countries like the United States, where estate taxes do exist, CBS informs us that many heirs don’t end up having to actually pay them.
Marlene Engelhorn has had the problems posed by inherited wealth on her mind for some time. In 2022, she shared a video explaining some of these issues.
#Marlene_Engelhorn pic.twitter.com/YfDAXj0P2G
— Marlene Engelhorn (@MarleneEnglhorn) November 3, 2022
“I was born in to a rich family, and will one day inherit a fortune, for which I never had to work,” she said. “Millionaires should not get to decide whether or not they contribute in a just way to the societies they live in, and without which they would never have become millionaires.”
While the heiress is giving Guten Rat the power to use her inheritance as they see fit, there are some limitations. Yahoo! tells us that Marlene Engelhorn will not allow the group to fund profit corporations or anything inhumane.
When it comes to the redistribution of wealth, this young Austrian is literally putting her money where her mouth is! It’s incredible to see someone taking responsibility for their resources in such a positive way.
You can find the source of this story’s featured image here.
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