Page 19 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

Muhammad Yunus: Can wealth concentration be stopped?

a social business fund of your own, or to a trust dedicated to solving human
problems through social businesses. You may think about leaving all your
companies in the hands of a trust. That way your wealth will perpetuate and grow as
Bosch's and Tata's grew, and contribute fundamentally in changing the country, as
well as the world.
I remind everyone that making money is happiness, but making other people
happy is super happiness. Don't miss the super happiness. It is better to act now, than
later, so that you can see things happening and enjoy the super happiness resulting
from it, rather than waiting for things to happen when you are no longer around.
Invite your children to run social business funded by your trust or social business
funds. You will be surprised to see how much they are enjoying doing that. Instead
of just being successful second generation entrepreneurs they may become global
celebrities by creating and successfully replicating social businesses globally. They
will enjoy being leaders of the new global generation.
Anybody above a certain level of wealth may make a will to give away his or
her wealth to social business trusts or funds. Their children may remain involved in
these trusts or funds; so that they don't feel they are left out of the control of their
parents wealth. You'll be amazed how you and your family can impact on the whole
world.
If you wish to take any one of these initiatives, we at Yunus Centre would be
happy to offer our services to make it happen. Don‟t hesitate to contact us. In
addition, to experiment with social business you can create a joint venture with your
friends, or your international business partners, and see how it feels. It could be as
small as you want. Size is no issue. The purpose is the issue. Bangladesh has been a
pioneer in bringing down poverty by half. World has applauded it. We can be the
leader in reversing the process of wealth inequality too. Instead of allowing
inequality toincrease each year, faster than previous year, we can make it decline
each year, as the economy grows. Then we can call for a global Paris conference
(may be Dhaka conference) to bring all the nations of the world to tell the story how
we made it happen, who did what in the process. The conference will end by inviting
the UN to convene a conference to let every nation declare a deadline when it will
stop the increase in wealth gap and reverse the process. It would be similar to the
global commitment to stop the increase in global temperature and hold it under 1.5
degrees Celsius.

Conclusion
Wealth-concentration is a global threat. It has already entered the danger zone
this year with 99% of wealth going to 1% of people. Not only it is getting worse
globally, it is getting worse within nations, and between nations. Wealth gap

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