Can we offer three cheers? Here we have two of the richest men in the world who are essentially channeling their vast resources to help others. I’m particularly impressed by their lack of interest in handing over their entire fortunes to their biological offspring. Money quote from the Washington Post:
"Neither [late wife] Susie nor I ever thought we should pass huge amounts of money along to our children," said Warren Buffett, who said he plans to give away his remaining stock holdings after his death but that he has "quite a bit of cash" he still plans to leave to those close to him. "Our children are great," he told Fortune. "But I would argue that when your kids have all the advantages anyway, in terms of how they grow up and the opportunities they have for education, including what they learn at home – I would say it’s neither right nor rational to be flooding them with money."
Nepotism is indeed a corrosive element in a democratic society; dynasticism is poison to democracy. I know it’s only natural to want to hand over all your wealth to your children, and I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it as such. But it is not the only moral claim; and those who elevate the biological family to supreme status in our society seem to me to be missing something important. Take care of them, of course. But keep them in their place. Along with the rather base impulse to benefit one’s own genetic material, there is also philia – the love based on choice and acceptance of another free human being – and agape – the love for all as one loves oneself. These two other forms of love and giving are clearly morally superior to "family values." They certainly were to Jesus, whose disdain for the biological, nuclear family is one of the great themes of the Gospels. He disowned his own parents as a teenager, abandoned them in adulthood, taking care of his mother only at the hour of his death and entrusting her to his closest friend, John. He never married, told his followers to abandon their spouses and children without even saying goodbye, and, if necessary to hate their mothers and fathers. Giving everything away to the poor was his injunction with respect to money. Buffett and Gates are closer to his message than the genetic dynasties others build and enrich and cherish.
The Dish 