Long quote
It's true that all of those people did have a lot to give away, but if you had billions of dollars, would you want to part with it? Also, if I remember correctly, Bill Gates convinced dozens of the richest people in the world to give away half of their fortunes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Pledge
Would you give away half of your money? No, of course not. Not all of the 1% are greedy money hoarders. 50% is much more than anyone would agree to be taxed... And this was 50% of their total wealth.
In all honesty, it's hard for me to think in terms of having or giving away billions -- i never had that much money, and don't personally know anyone worth more than ~45 mil. What's more, i'm not even sure that i'm a nice guy -- certainly not an ideal for others to aspire to
So the answer is a definite "maybe."I'm betting that when you say "of course not," you're simply not scaling correctly. To put things into terms plebes like us could comprehend, imagine sitting at a diner with a crate of 100 toasted English muffins next to your cup of coffee when 50 starving people walk in. Would you give up half of those hot buttery English muffins to feed 50 total strangers? I would, though i like English muffins
