Buffett’s pledge goes global (Billionaires pledging money)

[Baitball Blogger]

Where billionaire investor Warren Buffett goes, a lot of people follow. When he spearheaded the Giving Pledge, asking the super-rich to donate at least 50 percent of their fortune to charity, he got an immediate response from American billionaires. Now, high-net-worth individuals in places including South Africa, Australia and Europe, are joining in.

CNBC reports that a dozen billionaires, including Great Britain's Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group; South African Patrice Motsepe, heir to a mining operation; and German software magnate Hasso Plattner, are committing to the pledge.

The Giving Pledge was founded by Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates in 2010 with the purpose of encouraging the wealthiest individuals to give back to society.

Although the publicity surrounding the Giving Pledge has deterred some potential billionaires in other countries who prefer to remain anonymous with their philanthropy, the elite group has done more to galvanize people around the idea of leaving a significant chunk to charity. In an interview with the Financial Times, Gates noted that "a lot were going to do it anyway but the pledge creates more of a movement, makes people do it earlier, collaborate and do it smarter."

http://www.bankrate.com/financing/wealth/buffetts-pledge-goes-global/

[aquart]

1. Not remotely impressed.

How very generous to provide charity when they've made damn sure there's no honest way to earn a decent living.

Only proves they have too damn much.

[hedgehog]

2. If Carnegie had paid the workers, they could have built their own damn libraries!

Not to mention this:

"On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, it might be instructive to recall that foundation’s contribution to North Carolina’s shameful past.
...

Eugenics was a pseudo-science popular in the early 20th century, championing the notion that the human race could be biologically enhanced by encouraging the “breeding” of “superior stocks” while discouraging, even forcibly preventing, the propagation of “inferior stocks.”
....
As investigative reporter Edwin Black documents in War Against the Weak, eugenics would not “have risen above ignorant rants without the backing of corporate philanthropic largess.”

Mr. Black’s exhaustive and authoritative research turned up mountains of evidence confirming the links between the eugenics movement and our first major philanthropies, including the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the Carnegie Corporation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

http://www.philanthropydaily.com/how-the-carnegie-corporation-contributed-to-ncs-shameful-past/

[aquart]

3. Which is why I also favor massive curbs on foundations.

The contents of the Koch brothers' wills have the potential to cripple this nation for centuries.

[hedgehog]

4. ^^^^^^^^THIS!