World's Major Billionaires Discuss What Works for Charities

According to an ABC News report, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Ted Turner and other billionaires, collectively estimated to own more than 125 billion dollars in wealth, gathered to discuss what works best in charitable efforts. This is wonderful. People with this much wealth and influence are trying to solve the same problems and adddress the same issues that health educators and members of other helping professions devote their careers to solve and address.

As a professional health educator, I often thought how wonderful it would be if I had enormous resources with which to try to tackle key health problems. Gates, Winfrey, and other billionaires have such enormous resources. It is terrific that they are sharing their knowledge about how best to use these resources to ameliorate human suffering. Members of the G-8 meet to discuss ways to solve world problems with political resources. It is wonderful that people who have had the knowledge, abilities, and opportunities to amass huge fortunes are doing a similar thing in a nonpolitical approach.