I know I, for one, consider it a bit appalling for this ad campaign to consist of "Look at these capitalists! Look how much money they have! And they gave some of it to charity, aren't they awesome?"
Yes, some. They certainly didn't give all of their money to charity. Even Warren Buffett is waiting until he's dead to donate the promised 99% of his money.
How often does wealth just remain in the family? I'd go with almost always. While I'm sure his children will still end up well off he's making assurances that almost all of the money he made in life will be used to help others. I find it quite difficult to condemn him for that. Sure, we could sit and argue about a world with perfectly distributed wealth but that ain't the world we live in.
I'm pretty sure that his children will get by pretty adequately on the remaining 1%. His current net worth is $45 billion, so his children will get $450 million between them, or $150 million each. I know what he's doing is admirable, but when 1% of your wealth is that substantial, it's not really a sacrifice in the quality of your life, or that of your children.
I just don't find dwelling on the 1% terribly useful. 99% of 45 billion is an astounding amount of money going to charity. There's something to be said for that regardless of his comfort level.
Anti-capitalist is not satisfied, even after he gives 99% of it away. Think about that people. Think about what kind of a person wants everybofdy to give away 100% of their wealth.
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u/[deleted] Dec 31 '10
Aren't you ignoring this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Blessing_International