I want to be a billionaire; patron envy

I believe anyone who is fortunate enough to achieve financial success has a moral obligation to use that money for the greater good.

Ted Turner as quoted in
The Billionaires' Club
Christian Science Monitor, Volume 102, Issue 52, Page 30.

Money as object inspires lots and lots of fear: I don't have enough; I can't get enough; I will never have enough. I can't make enough to cover our health needs. I don't have enough to pay the mortgage. I can't feed and shelter my children; I have no money!

Money fears create a population of insomniacs. Insomniacs, like those suffering sleep apnea, lose the ability to connect ideas; to remember whether they ate lunch; to stay within the lines of traffic.

Having no money in a materialistic world where money talks creates a powerless people prepared to topple governments, bully the weak, and belittle what they cannot understand.

I have studied the rise of Hitler. I have witnessed crowd mentality first hand.

I go to bed worried and wake in the middle of a nightmare; hot tea scalds the gentle hands of my beloved.

My mother often used the phrase, "They say..."

By They she meant people with money who were simply better than the rest of us: more intelligent, more beautiful, and favored by God.

They say it's better to hang the toilet roll with its paper coming over the top, not from the back.

If They were the ruler by which we ran our lives, I believed being rich meant God had blessed this caste of people for being good, honest, kind and, especially generous.

After all, Jesus' wisdom teachings are still as relevant today. He said, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Neil Douglas Klotz blogs, "We love the neighbor within as we become more fully human, exploring the full potential of our power and love. This naturally expresses itself in a more vivid and enlivened daily life."

When I moved into the home of a wealthy family to chauffeur their kids to and from private school, I began to mingle with the Upper class. I was stunned by their indifference to the plight of those less blessed. I had assumed I would discover how to become a better person.

Instead I learned,

Accumulating money for its own sake was the mantra of many.

If you've already eaten a big meal, eating more food doesn't make you happier; it gives you a stomach ache. So there's this sense that more is not always better. Some of our happiness is tied into making other people happy.

Michal Ann Strahilevitz
The Science of Giving: Experimental Approaches to the Study of Charity

Yesterday's Christian Science Monitor lay on the table this morning. Pouring myself a cup of coffee, I studied its cover headline:

A PLEDGE TO GIVE
A BOLD BID by 40 of America's wealthiest individuals would transfer at least half their wealth to charity...

I found myself tweaking my naive sense that the wealthy were blessed by God.

Perhaps the wealthy were blessed by God for a reason. Perhaps rather than being materialistic and greedy, they could be leaders on the giving pathway.

We tend to appreciate those who reiterate what we ourselves believe to be true and good about the universe.

My state has a lottery. Once, back when my husband and I were starting out and struggling to pay our bills (nothing there has changed), we bought twenty lottery tickets. Our extravagance was so mind boggling, we knew beyond a doubt that we would win.

Over dinner, we discussed what we would do with our multimillion dollar prize. Both of us agreed we would first pay off all our debt. We hated owing other people money. It felt as if we were not in control of our destiny. This meeting of the minds felt great; we beamed at each other like fellow conspirators.

Our mutual affection plummeted after that. I wanted to donate the majority of what was left to charity. I thought it would be a blast to give a huge sum to people in need. This approach inspired deep regret within my husband. Who was this idiot he had married? He intended to invest it. There was no compromise.

We argued the entire meal over how we were going to spend money we hadn't even won. It caused a huge rift. And of course, in the end, we didn't even earn back our original investment.

As I said, we admire those who agree with our own value system. My new heroes are those in the Billionaire Club who have signed the Giving Pledge.

What follows are a few names and what they have said or done. The complete list can be found by clicking the link down on the right column.

Warren Buffett   More than 99% of my wealth will go to philanthropy during my lifetime or at death. Measured by dollars, this commitment is large. In a comparative sense, though, many individuals give more to others every day.

Millions of people who regularly contribute to churches, schools, and other organizations thereby relinquish the use of funds that would otherwise benefit their own families. The dollars these people drop into a collection plate or give to United Way mean forgone movies, dinners out, or other personal pleasures. In contrast, my family and I will give up nothing we need or want by fulfilling this 99% pledge.

Moreover, this pledge does not leave me contributing the most precious asset, which is time . Many people, including -- I'm proud to say -- my three children, give extensively of their own time and talents to help others. Gifts of this kind often prove far more valuable than money. A struggling child, befriended and nurtured by a caring mentor, receives a gift whose value far exceeds what can be bestowed by a check. My sister, Doris, extends significant person-to-person help daily. I've done little of this.

Bill and Melinda Gates  The philanthropic organization set up by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Tuesday pledged 500 million dollars to help give the world's poorest access to financial services.

Melinda Gates announced the five-year pledge at the first ever Global Savings Forum in Seattle, which has drawn 200 global leaders in development, banking, technology and government, and a member of the Dutch royal family, Princess Maxima, for talks on the role of savings in the developing world.

Six grants totaling 40 million dollars, which are part of the 500-million-dollar package, were announced Tuesday at the forum hosted by the Gates Foundation.

Several of the projects are aimed at finding ways to help the poor save money, using systems like branch-less banking and mobile phones.

Laura and Jack Arnold  We look upon our financial position with a mix of disbelief and humility, never having dreamed that we would be in this situation. Our backgrounds are similar to that of many Americans. We each had a solid middle-class upbringing with an emphasis on values, work ethic and social responsibility. We each attended public secondary school and worked our way through private universities. And, of course, we dreamed of one day being “rich,” in the way that all young people fantasize about having everything they want. To our great surprise, we now fit that very elementary label. We have more than ample resources to be good providers for our family and mentors to our children, and we have a lifestyle that is comfortable and then some.

We are deeply indebted to our community and our country for the many opportunities granted to us, and for a social and economic environment in which we could make the most of those opportunities. We consider it our responsibility to ensure the same opportunities for others. We view our wealth in this light – not as an end in itself, but as an instrument to effect positive and transformative change. To this end, we have contributed a significant portion of our wealth to the Laura and John Arnold Foundation and will continue to do so during our lifetime. Upon our death, the vast majority of our assets will be left to the Foundation.

At the Foundation, we focus on areas where (1) philanthropic investments can lead to solutions that are self-sustaining in the long-term, (2) we can leverage a relatively small investment to create a large impact on total societal benefit and (3) the market does not presently yield optimal results, due to inefficiencies, lack of adequate information or other reasons. These guiding principles have led us to invest in a number of areas including education reform, health care, social services and social justice.

Herb and Marion Sandler  As former CEOs of a highly successful financial institution, we were rewarded monetarily beyond our wildest imagination, at the same time experiencing the emotional high associated with building a great company from scratch and winning in the competitive race. At the same time, we found equal gratification in working with employees and customers.

For example, an important part of our staff was composed of single working mothers. We provided training and counseling to these women, so that they could rise through the ranks and become managers with greatly enhanced earning power. On the lending side of our business, we found that there was no greater gratification than enabling a family to own their own home, especially when they thought it was an impossible dream. These are a few examples of the sense of fulfillment we experienced in "giving back" and which, among other things, led to our decision to devote our energy and money to making a difference in people's lives. Believe it or not, the psychic income - the highs if you will - associated with giving money away thoughtfully and effectively has been even more gratifying than running a successful business.

T. Boone PickensI’ve long stated that I enjoy making money, and I enjoy giving it away. I like making money more, but giving it away is a close second. To date, I’ve given away nearly $800 million to a wide-range of charitable organizations, and I look forward to the day I hit the $1 billion mark. I’m not a big fan of inherited wealth. It generally does more harm than good. I want to thank my friends Bill and Warren for their leadership – I am pleased to join them.