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.

According to Fortune, it’s likely that the two mega-rich moguls “have a minimum goal of about $600 billion in commitments … based on the calculation of half of the $1.2 trillion in net worth of the 400 richest individuals compiled by Forbes magazine.” To put that number into perspective, explains Melissa Berman, president of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, $600 billion “would easily double or triple the amount of philanthropy in America.”

For his personal donations and new giving venture, not to mention his brutal, hardly-self-serving honesty, Buffett deserves a whole lot of credit. But should we let him and other beneficiaries of America’s poverty-perpetuating economic system off the hook so easily? It’s one thing to recognize your sins and attempt to remedy them via monumental donations; it’s another thing entirely to justify your sins with monumental donations. (I’m reminded of the abuse of Catholic indulgences that sparked Martin Luther’s 1517 protest against the Church.)

Putting aside his self-reflective rhetoric (and what timely, appealing rhetoric it is!), could Buffett simply be another Walmart, earmarking billions for a fight against poverty while profiting off an unjust system that creates that poverty in the first place?

Photo credit: Art Comments

"Lucky" Warren Buffett Urges Fellow Billionaires to Give 50% Away