More power to them:
SEATTLE — Forty wealthy families and individuals have joined Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffett in a pledge to give at least half their wealth to charity.
[. . .]
Gates and Buffett estimate their efforts could generate $600 billion dollars in charitable giving. In 2009, American philanthropies received a total of about $300 billion in donations, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Doubling the amount of private giving -- pretty cool. I was going to do a comparison, though, to show how many days of federal spending $600 billion was equivalent to, but it made my head hurt. And Gates and Buffet say they're asking billionaires not just to donate "but also to pledge to give wisely." Don't think there are too many left foolish enough to ask the federal government to make that pledge.
