Buffet Joins the Good-Guy Billionaire Club

From BusinessWeek Online

[Warren] Buffett, the world's second-richest man, announced Sunday that he will soon begin giving about $1.5 billion a year to the Gates Foundation, essentially doubling the pot of money the world's largest philanthropy doles out each year.

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That's amazingly generous. What's amazing to me is how egoless it seems. Warren Buffet will be spending billions on charity, and he won't even have a foundation named after him.

So the list of billionaires that I admire:

• Warren Buffet


• Bill Gates (grudgingly), for his work on behalf of world health


• George Soros, for his (so far, fruitless) efforts to fight back against the American right-wing


• J.K. Rowling, because of Harry Potter, and because it's cool that someone can become a billionaire just by writing kids books.

Speaking of billionaires, here's a mind-blowing fact: 5 of the top ten richest people in the world (in 2002) were siblings, the Waltons, heirs to the WalMart fortune.

And I remember thinking that the Waltons were such a humble family. Good night, John Boy.