Bill Gates Leaving His Fortune to Charity, Not His Kids

I am glad that he will not give the money to his kids. There is no doubt that bill gates lives a lavish lifestyle but there are billionaires with less than a third of what he has that live much more lavish lifestyles than he does. Why should his kids get a free ride? He sure didn't. He is doing exactly what he should do with his fortune. Just look at the Wal Mart billionaires. They get the free ride while the workers of the company that thier famous father founded treats thier employees like second class citizens. Sam Walton never would have let Wal Mart become what it has today. Why should bill give all that power to his kids just so they can be greedy and purchase a controling stake in some company so they can go in and make more money at the expense of the honest american worker?

Sure shows how positive they are that they have raised their children to make their own way.. Congratulations to them as parents!

Gates should remember that a lot of his fortune in computers was predicated upon luck and not effort nor genius. With love and compassion there are many constructive ways to attempt security for your own offspring and what they will have to deal with being Gates' kids once he kicks them out of his so well-feathered nest.

AJ I am sure his children will not do without, I am sure they will have the best of everything as well as the best education money could buy. And what they do with what there parents try to give them, will ultimatly be up to them.

Sounds like Richard got left out of mommy and daddy's will....

AJ, The brevity of this article sucks. I believe this plan was all disclosed years ago but I believe each of the kids were to receive $50 million. It's not like they were going to be left high and dry. This is what I recall anyway... Given the price of things now, the kids should at least get double that...

I am sure their kids will always have a roof over their head, not go hungry and be well dressed and educated. The money that they are giving back has nothing to do with the money that they have earned during MS or made w/interest, stocks, bonds, etc.... read between the lines.

Bill, good grief man, your kids are your blood. if you have 58 BILLION (which i can't even imagne) i think you should leave them 100 Million each, unless you hate you kids. your charity will surley appreciate that, and be able to help people in the USA. i'm retired, i had to retire, i had a stroke, now i'm just sitting home because i have nothing but my retirement to get by on. Give me a couple million man, i'll apprecate that more than you'll believe, i'm 70 yrs old, had stomach cancer, i'm free of cancer now, but afraid it will come back. i'll accept a check ASAP, thank you so much.
Tome Burt

Well said

I think that's overdoing it a bit. It's pretty difficult to just step out of school and get a good job for most people. I hope he means that while he's alive, he'll be generous with them and see that they're making it, and then leave his money to charity. It would be beyond cruel to let them grow up as the children of the richest man in the world, and then leave them entirely on their own unless they're really able to manage well enough on their own.

But rich people are weird. They are frequently extremely penny-pinching and cheap, leave poor tips - some even clip coupons. I know, I've seen them.

While I totally agree that every capable person should do their utmost to ensure that they take care of themselves, not everyone can. And I do agree that the sight of children of the affluent to rich running around having fun and getting into expensive trouble while waiting for their trust fund to revert to their control makes me want to hurl.

However, it is not true that "anyone" can be rich if they get an education and work hard. For one thing, a lot of people just aren't very intelligent. Think about it. If 100 is the average I.Q. - and who do you know who only has an I.Q. of 100 - that means that half of the people have even less than that. The fact that you are on-line on a computer, know how to use the thing, and can write articulately is a pretty good indication that your I.Q. is well above 100, and that you've been able to take advantage of a decent education.

And there are a lot of people who survive their childhood - but badly injured, psychologically and physically. Children are battered, starved, neglected all over this country. They may be very intelligent, but if they are brought up in a family controlled by adults with mental illness, they may be unable to use their own intelligence for any benefit to themselves.

So remember there is a larger world out there. My guess, just a guess not based on any hard data, is that maybe about 1/3 of the people are pretty capable, functioning human beings who can take care of themselves. The rest fall somewhere below that, and need some kind of help. The problem is differentiating the genuinely impaired from the slackers, and that's a difficulty the world has always had. I expect most families have members close or farther, who constantly need extra help. I do think that charity should begin at home, but whereever it comes from it is needed - often desperately.

I don't believe that for one moment and for those of you that do. I have a cheap bridge to sell with plenty of land to go with it. Dickerson73 is right on target.

dude he may not leave the kids the fortune but you have to know they will have an infinite line of credit at most every bank in the world for the rest of their lives

dude, what are you on?