Like a Virgin

I am quite fascinated by this guy. His name is Richard Branson and he is a British gajillionaire.

In some ways he is every parent's nightmare in that he dropped out of school and immediately did well. So much for "get an education or you'll end up digging ditches!" He starts companies with amazing ease and regularity and they nearly all turn out to be a good idea.

It's not the getting rich thing that fascinates me. It is that he has decided to turn some of his manic creative energy and a fair amount of his wealth to addressing global climate change. The profits from his Virgin airlines and other transportation interests will go to develop clean fuels to reduce some of that nasty carbon threatening to choke the planet. His goal is to give away $3 billion over the next ten years.

I like this new breed of philanthropist. Guys (it seems to be mostly rich men) such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and Branson appear to have tired somewhat of simply amassing wealth and are attempting to be as creative in directing it for good purposes. Branson says that he now spends about half of his time on social issues. His foundation recently built a clinic in Africa for AIDS patients and he promises to do more.

Jesus warned us about wealth because the love of money messes us up and distorts our priorities. But he also encouraged the generous redistribution of wealth. You can't give it away if you don't have it. I doubt Branson will be using a food bank anytime soon, but I like his new trajectory.