Why "Rich" Is a Responsibility

There should be an interest in how the wealthy spend their money, because a great responsibility comes with that wealth.

Question: Why is there such interest in how the wealthy spend their money?Richard Branson:  I think there should be interest in how the wealthy spend their money, particularly where business people have been fortunate enough to have made a lot of wealth out of the businesses they've created or maybe inherited a lot of wealth.  I think a great responsibility comes with that wealth and yes, entrepreneurs may work hard, but I don't think they actually work any harder than, say, doctors, nurses or other people in society and yet tremendous wealth comes with it and therefore enormous responsibility comes with that wealth, responsibility to do good things, maybe create new businesses and maybe tackle some of the more seemingly intractable problems in the world and then therefore I think it's right that there is a fairly open book when it comes to entrepreneurs' lives.   Question: Do the wealthy have a responsibility to fund socially conscious programs?
Richard Branson:  I certainly think there is a big responsibility for entrepreneurs to do everything they can to tackle the problems of climate change and I think it's in the interests of entrepreneurs to spend some of their time and effort tackling climate change.  First of all, I think there is enormous business opportunities.  The energy revolution, the green energy revolution will be bigger than the internet revolution.  It will be bigger than the mobile phone revolution.  We all need energy.  We're fast running out of oil.  You know the demand for oil will exceed supply in about five years time and therefore it is imperative that we move quickly to come up with new sources of energy and the business community needs to play a leading role in this because governments have obviously let us down.
Recorded September 22, 2010 Interviewed by Victoria Brown