NINETY-NINE percent of the salary of a minimum wage earner in Cebu is P349.47 out of P353. It is impossible to live on the remaining one percent or P3.53 a day.
It is hard to imagine how an ordinary worker could give away 99 percent of his or her money to charity and keep an amount, enough only to buy the cheapest kind of bread. Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg vowed to do just that – give 99 percent to doing good work for society, a feat impossible for others to follow.
But then Zuckerberg is not a wage earner; his Facebook salary probably peanuts compared to returns he gets from investments. What Zuckerberg promised to give to charity was not his salary, but most of his Facebook stock holdings to improving education and fighting disease. By giving away his stock holdings worth an estimated US$45 billion, Zuckerberg and his family get to keep a few billions of dollars and his salary as Facebook CEO for their daily needs. Peanuts? No way.
What Zuckerberg did was not a model for ordinary workers to follow but a standard that other billionaires could adopt.
Zuckerberg announced his pledge to give away most of his money after his wife Priscilla Chan gave birth to their first child, daughter Maxima. A Chan Zuckerberg Initiative would be created to use the stock earnings “to join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation,” Zuckerberg said. The work will focus on personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities, he added.
“We believe all lives have equal value and that includes the many more people who will live in future generations than live today. Our society has an obligation to invest now to improve the lives of all those coming into this world, not just those already here.” Zuckerberg and his wife made the pledge in a letter to their daughter.
It was not only Zuckerberg who spoke of giving away their wealth. Pope Francis called early this year for an end to the “cult of money” and said, “Money has to serve, not to rule.” He reminded the rich to help the poor and respect them, instead of taking advantage of them to advance financial powers of the minority. Young billionaires, especially those in the technology industry, have joined the movement to donate to organizations addressing social issues. Among them are Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison and InterActiveCorp Barry Diller.
Zuckerberg’s pledge is not for the daily wage earners but it sets a great model for Filipinos in the billionaires club to follow. Many ordinary workers give during Sunday mass or during the Christmas season when they get their bonus. Not 99 percent, but a percentage that allows them to share their blessings.
For Filipino business leaders in the list of top corporations, what Zuckerberg did was a call for them to do a different kind of 99 percent.