She Walks the Walk

Marlene Engelhorn (Le Monde)

Marlene Engelhorn, 32-year-old heiress, advocates taxing inherited wealth up to 90%. Because her native Austria imposes no inheritance taxes, she gave away "at least 90% of her total wealth."

Englelhorn received her millions after her grandmother’s death in 2022, but paid no inheritance tax on the money because Austria abolished such provisions in 2008. That reinforced Engelhorn's view that unearned wealth undermines democracy, a belief that had prompted her to co-found an initiative in 2021 called Tax Me Now, which pushes for tax reform.

Last year, Englelhorn went even further when she established the so-called “Good Council for Redistribution.” The initiative invited a 50-person representative sample of Austria’s population to decide on her behalf how to give away €25 million ($27 million), which represents the bulk of her inheritance and at least 90% of her total wealth. After consulting with experts, the citizen council agreed to allocate the money among 77 organizations, which tackle issues such as tax policy, climate protection, and human rights.

Engelhorn entrusted the group, she says, because "if you want democracy, you have to abolish monarchy and any structure that resembles it"—including inherited privilege.

Marlene Engelhorn advocates extreme wealth redistribution, and I've long held the view that giving away other people's money is not charity. However, I also give her a lot of credit for putting her money where her mouth is and giving away 90% or more of her wealth, which news reports say is under $30 million. While her remaining $3 million doesn't make her poor, she very likely has a long life ahead of her, and $3 million is no shield against many of life's storms.