As third richest person on the planet, Warren Buffett’s no stranger to making headlines. In 2006, he pledged to give away 99 percent of his money to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2008, he became, for a brief time, the world’s richest man, dethroning the illustrious Gates himself. Now, with $47 billion at his disposal, Buffett’s at it again.
In a letter to Fortune this morning, the legendary investor admitted that the source of his mind-blowing wealth wasn’t a lifetime of grueling labor or sacrifice. Instead, he attributed his larger-than-life bank account to “a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest” — along with a volatile economic system.
“My luck,” Buffett explained, “was accentuated by my living in a market system that sometimes produces distorted results, though overall it serves our country well.” (That caveat could certainly be debated, especially in the midst of a crippling recession, but his overall message is well-appreciated.)
Buffett’s exposition of America’s capitalist system flies in the face of conventional, meritocratic wisdom: “I’ve worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions,” he wrote. “In short, fate’s distribution of long straws is wildly capricious.”
In a seeming effort to pay penance for reaping the benefits of this unfair economic system, Buffett and Bill Gates recently launched “The Giving Pledge,” an unprecedented effort to encourage hundreds of other billionaires to donate at least 50 percent of their wealth to charity.
