He said the money was equivalent to only nine months' profit, mainly on Time Warner stock. Mr Turner is in the tradition of the great late-19th century American captains of industry like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, who amassed enormous fortunes and spent the last years of their lives redistributing most of it, in the case of Carnegie, and an appreciable part of it in the case of Rockefeller. From the outset, practical considerations combined with religious motives. As Max Weber showed, the protestant ethic was a decisive factor in the rise of capitalism. The doctrine of predestination, inherent in the Calvinist faith, implies total commitment to one's professional activity.
Personal effort is rewarded by material success, itself a sign of salvation.
The ostentatious nature of these philanthropic gestures is somewhat at odds with the Gospel. And Mr Turner intends above all to preach by example. Its generosity has been repaid a hundredfold. The companies created by the baby boomer generation are playing the same game. Their favourite areas are education, access to leading-edge technology and medical research.