After Jeff Bezos, which left his wife $ 36 billion in 2019, too Bill Gates announced the divorce from his wife Melinda: the two will have to divide up 146 billion dollars and decide the fate of their foundation, which has assets of 50 billion dollars (just under the GDP of Croatia).
The couple had not entered into any pact, so either they will come to an agreement, and crowds of lawyers are already at work, or a judge will decide.
In the United States, and in many countries of Anglo-Saxon law, in fact, upon divorce, spouses must divide everything they have in two; it is a prediction that enhances the importance, even from an economic point of view, of marriage; it is assumed, in fact, that if the husband or wife have been successful in life, the merit is also of the other who has assisted and supported him over the years.
With us, however, the picture is profoundly different: the patrimony is not divided, unless the spouses have chosen the communion of goods which, moreover, works little and badly in Italy; a maximum monthly contribution (taxed) can be recognized to the weak spouse; although the Supreme Court, from 2018, says that the allowance must be parameterized to the family contribution provided by those who request it, just read the judgments of the courts to understand that it is recognized in rare cases – a forty year old, even after 20 years of marriage has well few chances to have it – and for very low amounts, even if whoever should pay it is very rich; Veronica Lario knows something about it.
Italy, where one day and the other as well, everyone talks about the importance of the “natural” family, has thus become, among the most developed countries, the one where marriage, in reality, is worth less and where the contribution given to the construction of assets, whether millionaire or not, it matters little or nothing. The so-called welfare principle still applies, which is harmful to the dignity of women and punitive to men.
Bill Gates, – as well as Jeff Bezos and many other Russian or Chinese tycoons living in London – should have transferred his family to Italy: he would have saved millions and millions of euros.
* Alessandro Simeone is a lawyer who is a member of the Scientific Committee of Il Familiarista
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