Lot to like in this Facebook post

Let the cynics have their say, that Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, is a billionaire many times over with a fantastic lifestyle. But he’s not the only billionaire around, and how many of them pledge to give away nearly all their wealth during their lifetimes?

But that’s what Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, say they’ll do, in an announcement made after the birth of their daughter, Max, last week. In a letter to their daughter, posted on Facebook, they explained that they want Max to grow up in a world better than ours.

The $45 billion fortune that Zuckerberg and Chan plan to give away could indeed make that world better for a lot of people. And two other billionaires, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, have already made a difference in donating billions to worthy causes. Gates and Buffett also indicate they’ll give most of their money away.

Part of the plan is to be called the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, with a mission to fight disease and improve education, among other goals.

America has benefited from people of vast wealth who also possessed social consciences. The two do not always go together, but they appear to have a compatible place in the Facebook founder and his wife. The world really is likely to be better as a result.

This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 8:44 PM with the headline "Lot to like in this Facebook post."