Americans have always given generously of their time and resources so other than grandstanding what's the purpose of the billionaires pledges to give?

This little story has been batted around by the media this past week in an effort to try to get it to grow legs, but in the end it has been relegated to the far back burner and maybe even the circular file (the garbage can) where it belongs. What is the purpose of a bunch of billionaires flaunting their wealth in front of the entire world pledging to give away some portion of their wealth during their lifetimes other than to get some publicity to stroke their billionaire sized egos.

I hope they weren't trying to get the average 'Joe' off the couch and induce him to open his check book and start giving, because he already is and has been forever. Most people, which may come as a shock to the billionaire class, give according to their means. Some give a little while some give more but strangely most do actually give. And to correct what might possibly be a misconception on the part of these 21st century billionaires that the really rich don't give enough or they are the first to come up with this idea, they only need to reference people like Andrew Carnegie who gave away his entire fortune between 1901 and 1919 when he died and based on 2007 dollars would have been worth 298 Billion dollars. Another somewhat lesser but more current billionaire Walter Annenberg donated an estimated 2 billion dollars to charities during his lifetime, in fact made the largest donation to the United Negro College Fund ever at a whopping 50 million dollars in one hit.

The point being, these people did this very quietly without any fanfare . They didn't flaunt their wealth and didn't need to be prodded to distribute their wealth to organizations and institutions that would put it to good use. My best guess is that they all saw this as a way to pay back a society that had afforded them great success for having worked hard, worked smart and having being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time with the right ideas.

History is such a good teacher.

"Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which the possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community".
Andrew Carnegie
1835 - 1919 Industrialist, Philanthropist

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