This afternoon I found an article that does a good job (better than I could) of explaining what I meant about how Warren Buffett is no saint. Yes his donation is staggering, and out-does Rockefeller/etc even when scaled for inflation, but he's also screwed more rich guys than Paris Hilton.
But let's be honest: Warren Buffett is not making the sacrifice, say, that one does who devotes his or her life to work in the slums of Calcutta, or becomes an aid worker in Liberia as a colleague in the prime of his life recently did where I work... Those are the people who should be celebrated rather than ignored by a culture that holds wealth and fame above compassion and duty. Buffett simply is a businessman and investor -- perhaps the best at both. Neither is an entirely noble profession, having, as both do, greed at the core. But few professions are completely free of the deadly sins.