40 billionaires pledge to give away half of wealth

[|Zach|]

Gates, Buffett lead campaign to persuade America's wealthiest to donate their fortunes

little over a year after Bill Gates and Warren Buffett began hatching a plan over dinner to persuade America's wealthiest people to give most of their fortunes to charity, more than three-dozen individuals and families have agreed to take part, campaign organizers announced Wednesday.

In addition to Buffett and Gates — America's two wealthiest individuals, with a combined net worth of $90 billion, according to Forbes — 38 other billionaires have signed The Giving Pledge. They include New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, entertainment executive Barry Diller, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens, media mogul Ted Turner, David Rockefeller, film director George Lucas and investor Ronald Perelman.

"We're off to a terrific start," Buffett, co-founder and chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said in a conference call also attended by Bloomberg and San Francisco hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer and his wife Kat Taylor, founder of OneCalifornia Bank.

Buffett said he and Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, and Gates' wife Melinda made calls to fellow billionaires on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans — in many cases, people they had never met — to try to persuade them to join the giving pledge.

"We contacted between 70 and 80 people to get the 40. A few were unavailable. We don’t give up on them. Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future. We’ll keep on working," Buffett said.

Bloomberg, who made the bulk of his estimated $17.5 billion fortune from financial news and information services company Bloomberg L.P., said it didn't make sense to leave everything to his children and have them go through life as members of "the lucky sperm club."

"You don’t want to leave them so much money that it ruins their lives," Bloomberg said. "You want kids who can look back and say, 'Yeah my family helped me but I did something on my own.'
"
Added Steyer: "We need to support each other. I look at this as replanting your garden so that future generations will have a full bounty of crops."
The United States has roughly 400 billionaires — about 40 percent of the world's total — with a combined net worth of $1.2 trillion, according to Forbes. If they all took the pledge, that would amount to at least $600 billion for charity.

The 40 names that have pledged to date have a combined net worth surpassing $230 billion, according to Forbes. Several of them have said they plan to give away much more than 50 percent of their wealth. Buffett has promised to donate more than 99 percent of his wealth.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38556042/ns/us_news-giving/

[The Franchise]

Yeah.....we'll see where the money REALLY goes.

[Marcus_Halberstram]

We have to provide food and shelter for the homeless, and oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights, while also promoting equal rights for women. We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern and less materialism in young people.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by Marcus_Halberstram

We have to provide food and shelter for the homeless, and oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights, while also promoting equal rights for women. We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern and less materialism in young people.

**** that shit.


FREE IPHONES FOR EVERYONE!!!!!1!!!1!ONE!!

[loochy]

Originally Posted by Marcus_Halberstram

We have to provide food and shelter for the homeless, and oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights, while also promoting equal rights for women. We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern and less materialism in young people.

This is a very un-ChiefsPlanet-like opinion.

Wtf bro?

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Marcus_Halberstram

We have to provide food and shelter for the homeless, and oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights, while also promoting equal rights for women. We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern and less materialism in young people.

Don't forget 'legalize marijuana'.

Hippies love legalizing marijuana.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by Marcus_Halberstram

We have to provide food and shelter for the homeless, and oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights, while also promoting equal rights for women. We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern and less materialism in young people.

I think we should divide the homeless in half, and feed one half to another. That would solve all kinds of problems.

[jjjayb]

Originally Posted by frazod

I think we should divide the homeless in half, and feed one half to another. That would solve all kinds of problems.

[BigCatDaddy]

Was Donger's name on that list?

[BigRichard]

Originally Posted by BigCatDaddy

Was Donger's name on that list?

I didn't see Donger but there was definitely a Dane.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by BigCatDaddy

Was Donger's name on that list?

Not yet. But, I think back to grade school when the teacher did the "What do you want to be when you grow up?" question. Most answers were "brewmeister!" and such. Mine was "robber baron."

[Adept Havelock]

Originally Posted by frazod

I think we should divide the homeless in half, and feed one half to another. That would solve all kinds of problems.

Nice, every idea comes around again. Jonathan Swift would be so pleased.

http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by Adept Havelock

Nice, every idea comes around again. Jonathan Swift would be so pleased.

http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html

”I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy Colorado child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled ...”

[Saulbadguy]

Originally Posted by Marcus_Halberstram

We have to provide food and shelter for the homeless, and oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights, while also promoting equal rights for women. We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern and less materialism in young people.

Marcus. How thought provoking.

[Bearcat2005]

Originally Posted by Marcus_Halberstram

We have to provide food and shelter for the homeless, and oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights, while also promoting equal rights for women. We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern and less materialism in young people.

What about Sri Lanka?