Independent Perspective News

Following the example set by Bill Gates, the richest man in the world -he's founded Microsoft and owes a fortune some 520 times larger than the 100 million dollars his kids will eventually inherit-, more and more rich people are becoming concerned with the fact that their children may catch the so-called "opulence disease", which basically consists of making feet lose touch with the earth. According to what Harvard researcher Charles Collier wrote in his book "Family patrimony", out of the 3,2 millon multimillonaires living in the States, about 600.000 have decided to give an important part of their wallets' content to charity so they don't contaminate their descendants with the negative consequences of omnipotence. Hollywood stars Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones have recently joined the club with the 150.000 dollars they gave their baby son Dylan as a baptism present for him to do charitable works. And he won't be enjoying any more "until we see how he deals with that responsibility".

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis and director Christopher Guest, also, have already declared their intention to give their adopted children "enough money to pay the bills at a restorant, but not to buy it and fire the waiters". Specialists expect more misbehavior among the new rich than among the heirs of traditional fortunes.