In today’s society, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The past few years we have witnessed some of the largest acts of greed in history, with gluttonous executives stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from their companies, eventually driving those companies into the ground and ruining the lives of thousands of employees.

A hundred years ago, extremely wealthy business leaders had a reputation for giving back to society. Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, two of the richest people on the planet in the late 1800’s, both made names for themselves by giving away the bulk of their fortunes to humanitarian causes.

According to Fortune magazine, from 1889 until 1937 Rockefeller gave around $530 million ($7.1 billion in today’s dollars, after inflation) to various humanitarian causes. From 1902 until 1919 Andrew Carnegie gave away the bulk of his wealth, around $350 million ($7.2 billion) to various charities.

Today their names are synonymous with philanthropy. But are the days of such philanthropy over?

What is ironic about history is that it always repeats itself.

Today, the two richest men on the planet, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett, are doing virtually the same thing — giving their massive fortunes away. What is interesting today is that Buffett, the second richest man in the world, is giving the bulk of his fortune, around $32 billion today, to Gates.

Well, not to Gates, but through Gates’ charitable foundation. His gift will be the largest single gift in the history of time.

Everybody has heard of Bill Gates, the richest man in the world. But what about this Buffett guy? Buffett is relatively unknown outside of the business community. However to the investing community, he is somewhat of an icon. He is commonly referred to as the “Oracle of Omaha” or the “Sage of Nebraska,” a name that captures his celebrity and his humble upbringing.

The company he founded, Berkshire Hathaway, is a holding company that owns such companies as GEICO, Fruit of the Loom, Dairy Queen, Helzburg Diamonds and a large share of Coca-Cola. Shares of Berkshire trade at around $91,000 (he doesn’t believe in dividends or stock-splits). If you had invested $10,000 in Berkshire stock when Buffett took control in 1965, you would have around $50 million today.

Buffett uses a simple investment strategy of buying financially strong companies with solid brand names and holding them for long periods of time. What separates him from other investors is his patience and his ability to stand against the grain. Buffett is quoted as saying, “Unless you can watch your stock holding decline by 50 percent without becoming panic-stricken, you should not be in the stock market.” Talk about an iron stomach.

He is wise beyond his years, with hundreds of astute musings over his career, mostly about business. One of my personal favorites is, “You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right.” This sums up his personality in a nutshell.

Despite his wealth, the 75-year-old investment guru still lives in the same house he bought over 30 years ago for $31,500. He drives an old Lincoln Towncar. He drinks countless cans of Coke everyday. If you saw him on the street, you would probably mistake him for your grandfather. Yet he is widely regarded as the greatest American investor of all time.

On June 25, Buffet made headlines when he announced that he would begin giving away his massive fortune within months, rather than waiting until he died. He agreed with Carnegie, who said that, “huge fortunes that flow in large part from society should in large part be returned to society.”

The fact that the two richest men in the world are giving away their massive riches to better mankind is promising. In an age of endless greed and insatiable self-indulgence by society’s elite class, it is comforting to know that there are still people who look to give back to society for their good fortune. Perhaps the generosity of Gates and Buffett will inspire others in similar walks of life to help mankind and make this world a better place for everyone.