The 40 Billionaires Giving Away Half of Their Wealth
Microsoft founder Bill Gates, New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and 38 other billionaires have signed a pledge to give away 50 percent or more of their fortunes to charity. Sounds good! We'll kill them last when the revolution comes.
Investor Warren Buffett spearheaded the "giving pledge," calling a bunch of his billionaire buddies along with Bill Gates and asking people to make a pledge to give away a majority of their wealth. Some 40 billionaires signed up, including George Lucas, Larry Ellison, Barry Diller, and Ted Turner.
The idea seems to be that if a lot of rich people act as philanthropic role models, the next generation of rich people will give away money too (not to mention poors like us won't murder them all in their sleep and elect a cow to be our god-king). Oh, and, uh, millions of people around the world will benefit from the investment of billions of dollars into philanthropic causes.
Here's a list of the billionaires:
- Paul G. Allen
- Laura And John Arnold
- Michael R. Bloomberg
- Eli And Edythe Broad
- Warren Buffett
- Michele Chan And Patrick Soon-shiong
- Barry Diller And Diane Von Furstenberg
- Ann And John Doerr
- Larry Ellison
- Bill And Melinda Gates
- Barron Hilton
- Jon And Karen Huntsman
- Joan And Irwin Jacobs
- George B. Kaiser
- Elaine And Ken Langone
- Gerry And Marguerite Lenfest
- Lorry I. Lokey
- George Lucas
- Alfred E. Mann
- Bernie And Billi Marcus
- Thomas S. Monaghan
- Tashia And John Morgridge
- Pierre And Pam Omidyar
- Bernard And Barbro Osher
- Ronald O. Perelman
- Peter G. Peterson
- T. Boone Pickens
- Julian H. Robertson, Jr.
- David Rockefeller
- David M. Rubenstein
- Herb And Marion Sandler
- Vicki And Roger Sant
- Walter Scott, Jr.
- Jim And Marilyn Simons
- Jeff Skoll
- Tom Steyer And Kat Taylor
- Jim And Virginia Stowers
- Ted Turner
- Sanford And Joan Weill
- Shelby White
- Lex Luthor
