Gates may have given away nearly $30 billion, but that still leaves him sitting at the top of the Forbes list of the richest Americans, with $53 billion. His 66,000-square-foot high-tech lakeside estate near Seattle is reportedly worth more than $100 million. Property taxes are about $1 million. Among his possessions is the Leicester Codex, the only handwritten book by Leonardo da Vinci still in private hands, for which he paid $30.8 million in 1994. Has Bill Gates done enough? More pointedly, you might ask: if he really believes that all lives have equal value, what is he doing living in such an expensive house and owning a Leonardo Codex? Are there no more lives that could be saved by living more modestly and adding the money thus saved to the amount he has already given?

This quote, taken from a New York Times piece by Peter Singer in 2006, appeared two days ago in a piece at Gawker about the moral wrong of owning a huge house. The old piece by Singer is well worth reading; it’s far more intersting than the Gawker piece [surprise, surprise!]. But the above quote, which I’m sure will strike some people as obviously right and other people as patently ridiculous, is fascinating enough for me to put it here and inquire the following of RC readers:

Isn’t it sufficient that someone like Gates gives away so many billions of dollars? Should we harp on the large house and the extravagant possessions? And, when we do harp on those things, aren’t we making it more difficult for people to act charitably, insofar as we seem to be suggesting that nothing short of giving away the vast majority of one’s fortune is the only moral play to make?

I really don’t know the answer to this question. I’m sympathetic to Singer’s argument about the great good that would be done if the extremely wealthy donated a larger percentage of their fortunes. But I’m also sympathetic to the notion that one isn’t necessarily acting immorally by living in a mansion — especially if one is consistently charitable.

Having said that, then, I’m curious to know your thoughts: How much is enough?