Why do Bill Gates and Warren Buffett give their children such small sums relative to their net worth?

 

Warren Buffett has been very clear on the reasons why he isn't leaving more money to his children. The passage below is from an interview in Fortune magazine in 1986, so he would likely adjust the amount of money cited below, but the spirit of his answer hasn't changed over time:

Buffett is not cutting his children out of his fortune because they are wastrels or wantons or refuse to go into the family business -- the traditional reasons rich parents withhold money. Says he: ''My kids are going to carve out their own place in this world, and they know I'm for them whatever they want to do.'' But he believes that setting up his heirs with ''a lifetime supply of food stamps just because they came out of the right womb'' can be ''harmful'' for them and is ''an antisocial act.'' To him the perfect amount to leave children is ''enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing.'' For a college graduate, Buffett reckons ''a few hundred thousand dollars'' sounds about right.