Thirty-eight US billionaires have pledged to give at least half of their total wealth to charity during their life or after their death. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates (who have previously donated very large sums of money) have made an impression on other extremely wealth individuals in the USA with their new organization The Giving Pledge.
The campaign was started in June to convince US billionaires to give away at least half of their fortunes either during their lifetimes or after their deaths.
“We’ve really just started but already we’ve had a terrific response,” Mr Buffett said in a statement.
He added: “The Giving Pledge is about asking wealthy families to have important conversations about their wealth and how it will be used.”
Those who pledge their money to “philanthropic causes and charitable organisations” must publicly state their intention through a letter of explanation.
But wouldn’t it have been nice if all these folks had always paid their emplyees good living wages, had always paid their fair share of taxes, had never employed poor people in developing countries to make goods for them, had never made excessive profits in financial or any other kinds of transaction and never made any money on dirty oil or any other activities that polluted the environment. Perhaps then they wouldn’t be quite so rich.
^ Couldn’t agree more.