Billionaires Pledge To Spread the Wealth

Bill Gates has succeeded in convincing some of the world’s richest men to part with their money. Part of it, anyway. In June, Gates and fellow gazillionaire Warren Buffett challenged the other members of the country’s billionaire club to give away at least half their money. At a press conference Wednesday, Gates and Buffett announced that 40 of them have done so, including Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison, movie director George Lucas, hotelier Barron Hilton, energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (who has other things on his mind right now). Some of these men have been making their eye-popping charitable contributions public for years; others are just now announcing their plans to give away as much as 95 percent of their wealth. “Why am I going public now?” wrote Ellison, who had been a quiet philanthropist. “Warren Buffett personally asked me to write this letter because he said I would be ‘setting an example’ and ‘influencing others to give.’ I hope he’s right.”

Read original story in The Wall Street Journal | Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010