Posted on 06/10/2006 5:55:48 PM PDT by blam
Invest in the poor, says world's third wealthiest man
By James Hider in Mexico City
(Filed: 11/06/2006)
The third richest man in the world has stunned his Mexican countrymen by backing the wave of Left-wing sentiment that is sweeping Latin America.
The portly and bearded Carlos Slim Helu, 66, is a widower. His wife, Soumaya, died in 2000. He has a personal fortune of more than $30 billion (£16 billion), is forging ties with the Left-leaning governments which have used the gulf between rich and poor to ride to power.
Drawing on the resources of his telecom, retail and finance interests, which include one of the largest internet service providers in the United States, Slim, as he is known, has travelled the region arguing that big business must do more to help the poor.
"What we need is investment, education, growth and jobs," he said. "What makes opportunities more equal in the world of today, more than anything else, are good nutrition, health and education."
Critics say his apparent change of heart, from cigar-loving monopolist to would-be man of the people, is another example of the acumen that has built a fortune surpassed only by those of Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, and Warren Buffett, the American investor.
Slim, his critics argue, is merely bending with the wind of change that has brought figures such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales to power. That same breeze may blow into Mexico next month if Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the Left-wing former mayor of Mexico City, triumphs in presidential elections.
But Slim's supporters attribute his concern for the 50 million Mexicans living on less than $2 a day - the World Bank definition of poverty - to a simple desire to plough back some of his riches. The combined holdings of his Grupo Carso account for more than half the value of the Mexican stock exchange.
He joined the ranks of the world's richest in 1990 when he allegedly used his close ties to the scandal-ridden government of president Carlos Salinas de Gortari to buy a controlling stake in Mexico's telephone company, Telmex, which has a virtual monopoly on fixed lines.
Often accused of over-pricing - Mexicans pay far more for their telephones than their American neighbours - Slim used the profits to move into the mobile phone sector. His American firm, Movil, is now a leader in the Latin America industry with 41 million subscribers.
In September, Slim pioneered the Chapultepec Accord, a pact signed by the heads of leading political parties - but not Mr Lopez Obrador - and 1,600 business leaders, academics and non-governmental workers.
It called for a partnership between the private and public sectors to pull the country out of economic stagnation, spur growth and invest in people. But many argue that the accord has failed sufficiently to tackle the problems it was meant to address.
"It is a totally toothless agreement," said Andres Rozental, the head of the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations and a former ambassador to London. However, he added: "I do understand that he is genuinely concerned at the polarisation in this election campaign has evolved into a rich versus poor campaign, with the poor as good and the rich as bad. And as the richest here, it is in his interest to tackle that."
Slim, who has a nose for a bargain and a family history of successfully gambling on unstable markets, was one of the first people in Mexico publicly to align himself with Mr Lopez Obrador when he become Mexico City's mayor six years ago.
He pumped millions into a project to rehabilitate the city's historical colonial centre, long the domain of the very poor, prostitutes and petty criminals. He has also built up a collection of Rodin sculptures, most of which are housed in a museum in Mexico City.
Since then, however, the two have become estranged, with the ex-mayor refusing to soften his rhetoric. Slim may find that his erstwhile partner could be gunning for him and other business leaders if he emerges victorious from next month's poll.
The fifth of six children, Slim's father was a Maronite Christian who fled Lebanon in 1902 to avoid being drafted into the Ottoman army. He settled in the Mexican capital where he bought property even as revolution troops were on the march - a gamble which paid off handsomely, establishing Slim Snr as a wealthy businessman.
"That was courage," Slim has said. "He taught me no matter how bad a crisis gets, Mexico isn't going to disappear, and that if I have confidence in the country, any sound investment will eventually pay off."
Well, actually, invest in the people who say they're going to help the poor.
You first, Slim....
Hell, he's made most of his $$ off the poor. He owns tracfone.
Mexican Hubris Ping
One more rich guy who has a use for my money.
Carlos Slim, Michael Bloomberg, William Gates Sr., the list goes on and on...
Why is it "left-wing" to want to help the poor? If you look at the tax returns of "left-wingers" vs. "right wingers," I suspect you'll see that those on the right are the ones giving more to the poor....
That's because the left wants to give your money to the poor, not theirs.
ping.
Yeah, that's how these guys got rich in the first place. Why give away your own money when you can give away someone else's.
Let him give up his money first....Likely what he means though is for everyone else to give up their money. He needs his so he can keep working to benefit all of us.
What a smuck!
Let's put this in perspective. Slim's net worth of about $30 billion dollars is not far off what Mexicans in the US send home every year.
He owns COMPUSA as well. Maybe he could lower the telephone rates and allow REAL competition to the cellular market, THIS would help the poor!!
With 20 million customers living in the USA instead of Mexico, its about time Mexican businessmen catch on that Mexico can't keep shipping their most energetic population to the US every year, while only the filthy rich and the filthy poor remain in that derelict country.
Slim, and those like him in Mexico, are what happens when there is no progressiveness and only the wealthiest can hold property securely under a tax system that totals 12% as I understand it.
The Mexican economy is much stronger than the poverty of their general population would have us think. The wealthy down there are taxed very little and this keeps the wealth growing for those that have it. Property is very hard to acquire for the mass of the population.
Fine. What is his address? I'll write him and tell him I'm poor. And I am, compared to him.
;-)
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