Microsoft founder Bill Gates, New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and 38 other billionaires have signed a pledge to give away 50 percent or more of their fortunes to charity. Sounds good! We'll kill them last when the revolution comes.

Investor Warren Buffett spearheaded the "giving pledge," calling a bunch of his billionaire buddies along with Bill Gates and asking people to make a pledge to give away a majority of their wealth. Some 40 billionaires signed up, including George Lucas, Larry Ellison, Barry Diller, and Ted Turner.

The idea seems to be that if a lot of rich people act as philanthropic role models, the next generation of rich people will give away money too (not to mention poors like us won't murder them all in their sleep and elect a cow to be our god-king). Oh, and, uh, millions of people around the world will benefit from the investment of billions of dollars into philanthropic causes.

Here's a list of the billionaires:

Paul G. Allen

Laura And John Arnold

Michael R. Bloomberg

Eli And Edythe Broad

Warren Buffett

Michele Chan And Patrick Soon-shiong

Barry Diller And Diane Von Furstenberg

Ann And John Doerr

Larry Ellison

Bill And Melinda Gates

Barron Hilton

Jon And Karen Huntsman

Joan And Irwin Jacobs

George B. Kaiser

Elaine And Ken Langone

Gerry And Marguerite Lenfest

Lorry I. Lokey

George Lucas

Alfred E. Mann

Bernie And Billi Marcus

Thomas S. Monaghan

Tashia And John Morgridge

Pierre And Pam Omidyar

Bernard And Barbro Osher

Ronald O. Perelman

Peter G. Peterson

T. Boone Pickens

Julian H. Robertson, Jr.

David Rockefeller

David M. Rubenstein

Herb And Marion Sandler

Vicki And Roger Sant

Walter Scott, Jr.

Jim And Marilyn Simons

Jeff Skoll

Tom Steyer And Kat Taylor

Jim And Virginia Stowers

Ted Turner

Sanford And Joan Weill

Shelby White

Lex Luthor

[WSJ; Giving Pledge; pic via AP]