Bum-soo Kim wishes to become a model of the 5 trillion property donation `Korean version of Bill Gates` [사설]

Kakao founder Kim Beom-soo, chairman of the board of directors, is giving a fresh shock by revealing that he will donate half of his personal property. Chairman Kim said on the 8th, “I made a pledge to donate more than half of my assets to solve social problems during my life in the future.”

The estimated donation amount is more than 5 trillion won, which is unprecedented for domestic personal donations. Chairman Kim’s’big decision’, a businessman from the’dirt spoon’, who lived in a single room with eight members, is giving a great resonance to our society. Bill Gates, the king of donation in the United States, is praised as “Bill Gates in Korea,” referring to the founder of Microsoft, while the interpretation of “Bum Soo-sik Kim’s profit sharing” has come out.

In Korea, large donations were made mainly by the heads of large corporations, but compared to foreign countries, where individual donations by parents are traditional, they are still insufficient. Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett and Bill Gates opened a new horizon of donation in 2010 by establishing The Giving Pledge, an organization that pledges to donate more than half of their property. More than 200 people, including information technology (IT) company leaders Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, are joining.

In Korea, where donations have not been activated, the’half-property donation’ by Chairman Kim can be an opportunity to spark the wind of’Noblesse Oblige’. The use of donation is undecided, but it is expected to help solve social problems such as the gap between the rich and the poor and education. Chairman Kim was so interested in social issues that he left a phrase in his Kakao Talk profile message called’A Better World,’ which was taken from the poem of American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson,’What Is Success?’ He has said, “If companies have good will, they can better solve social problems.” It attracts more attention, as it will return to an innovative method of selecting donation projects by gathering experts rather than following the existing donation convention of donating money to charities. Steel King Andrew Carnegie, who gave back 90% of his fortune, said, “It is a shame to die rich.” I hope that Chairman Kim’s huge donations will have a good effect on businessmen and that donations will wave in our society.
[ⓒ 매일경제 & mk.co.kr, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]