Our favourite charity worker Bill Gates has successfully signed up 38 billionaires to give away half of their wealth to those less fortunate in what could be the largest-scale philanthropic work ever.
Together with Warren Buffett, their “The Giving Pledge” project nabbed Larry Ellison (founder of Oracle), George Lucas, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Barry Diller from IAC (an internet media company that owns Ask.com, Bloglines, Vimeo, Match.com and others), along with many others.
While they’re not legally bound to give away at least 50 per cent of their wealth to charity, it’s more of a trust-promise – particularly now that it’s been reported all over the media. They’re not expected to give their notes to any one charity, but if every single person on the Forbes 400 richest American list signed up to The Giving Pledge, that would mean charities would be $US600 billion better off. Presumably some of those charities will be green-focused, considering Gates’s obvious passion in that field. [WSJ]
Drew
Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 8:45 AMThat’s an incredible amount of money, glad it’s going to a good cause!
Peter Santone
Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 9:29 AMAmazing. I cannot wait to hear about what the money is doing for the less fortunate :D
matt
Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 9:31 AMwhen?
now?
when they die?
if it’s when they die… one would wonder what useful things would happen with the other half…
G
Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 9:56 AM@matt – i would guess their family would inherit it… um, yeah, thats how the world usually works…
But huge hand for Bill~ say what you want about him, but he is really taking some action on these issues – and wether it for media or not, i don’t care, and i doubt the charities would either. Huge thumbs up from me!
tominator_66
Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 10:52 AMIsn’t virtually everyone less fortunate than them???
aq
Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 1:22 PMHow much did Steve Jobs give? …oh woops I forgot he doesn’t give unless its packaged nicely in addition to him making money off it (insert ‘Apple RED’ product here)
Ric
Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 9:12 PMYeah greedy SJ!!!
Wok
Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 1:46 PMBill is a champion.
*Wonders if jobs is on the list*
I bet not.
Ken Oath
Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 3:48 PMWill be an interesting experiment, redistribute the world’s wealth only to see it end up back in the same place. There’s a reason these people are rich in the first place and it’s not from sitting around feeling sorry for themselves.
uncommon sense
Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 4:43 PMWhilst this is an admirable pledge that these wealthy people are taking, we should not forget that such donations attract a substantial tax discount (many US states still have estate taxes). This will deprive the US gov. of substantial tax revenues that it needs to pay the bill for many public services. Combined with already dwindling tax revenues, increasing costs of healthcare expenditure, the war in Iraq, and servicing the interest on its already ballooning deficit; the US is in trouble. This is something that we should all be concerned about.
Steve
Monday, August 23, 2010 at 3:36 PM+!
but yes, I still like the Bill-inator.