Craigslist Founder to Billionaires: Follow My Lead

Billionaires grumbling about the Giving Pledge might want to look in the mirror, argues Craigslist founder Craig Newmark in a New York Times opinion piece that serves to defend the philanthropy project. Newmark, who describes himself as an "accidentally wealthy" programmer, says he never set out to get rich, kept his site bare-bones and mostly free, and now believes he simply has "too much money for anyone to have." A former billionaire, he's already given away more than $450 million and formally joined the Giving Pledge last year, committing to part with most of his fortune in life or at death.

What puzzles him is the crop of tech moguls now attacking the pledge as naïve or ideologically skewed. Donors can support any causes they want, he notes; his own interests include veterans, independent journalism, anti-scam efforts, even pigeon protection—in short, "people who are trying to make life better for all of us humans." For Newmark, wealth isn't proof of superior wisdom, just evidence of luck—and he thinks other billionaires should stop sneering at those who give and start doing more of it themselves. "It's always been my attitude that others could benefit from what I didn't need. Rich people never seem all that happy, either," he writes. Read the full piece here.