The Richest Gets Richer

Warren Buffett has given up trying to eclipse Bill Gates as the richest man in the world. He is throwing in the towel and giving almost $31 billion of his $44 billion fortune to Bill Gates. Okay, he's actually giving it to Bill Gates' charity. All in all a very cool move. As much as people decry the wealthy for having too much, I think that most of them are more like Buffet and Gates then they are like Paris Hilton. Gates has vowed to donate most of his money to charity when he dies. He will leave considerable inheritances to his children, but he isn't giving them his vast fortune. Buffet has chosen to follow a similar path.

Gates and Buffett share the philosophy that giving your children too much money is a burden, not a gift, and is not a rational thing to do with all that wealth.

Seven years ago, Buffett told ABC News' "Nightline" that being born into wealth did not entitle his children to fortune.

If only Richard Hilton subscribed to such a philosophy...