Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Case And Others Pledge To Give Away Billions

Frank Gruber December 9, 2010 Tweet

I wanna be a billionaire so fricking bad
Buy all of the things I never had
Uh, I wanna be on the cover of Forbes magazine
Smiling next to Oprah and the Queen

With song lyrics like those (above) in Billionaire by Travie McCoy, you may be surprised by the trend that billionaires seem to be following these days. It seems the grass is always greener as Mark Zuckerberg and sixteen other wealthy individuals have pledged to give away a majority of their riches according to a report in the WSJ. The movement was started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and is called the Giving Pledge. Zuckerberg is one of 16 billionaires who took the pledge, which now totals more than 50 donors, with such company as AOL co-founder Steve Case, investor Carl Icahn and former junk-bond king Michael Milken.

They join existing pledges made by Oracle founder Larry Ellison, film making icon George Lucas and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. It’s also worth noting that Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, who has a new startup called Asana, also signed the pledge.

This announcement is obviously a great example for everyone out there and it’s great to see these billionaires giving back to make a difference, not just in the business world.

Photo courtesy of Jason McELweenie.