Steve Jobs' widow — worth $27.5 billion — says it's wrong for individuals to accumulate massive amounts of wealth

Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, said she doesn't intend to pass on her massive amounts of wealth to her children because it would be unfair, and it's not right for individuals to be so rich, according to the New York Times.

Jobs is the 35th-richest person in the world with a net worth of $27.5 billion.

What did she say?

"It's not right for individuals to accumulate a massive amount of wealth that's equivalent to millions and millions of other people combined," Jobs told the Times. "There's nothing fair about that. We saw that at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries with the Rockefellers and Carnegies and Mellons and Fords of the world. That kind of accumulation of wealth is dangerous for a society. It shouldn't be this way."

Despite that conviction, she justified her possession of her billions by saying she inherited it from her husband. But, she also won't pass it on to the next generation because neither she nor the late Steve Jobs believed in "legacy building" in that way. From the Times:

And yet Ms. Powell Jobs is hardly apologetic. "I inherited my wealth from my husband, who didn't care about the accumulation of wealth," she said. "I am doing this in honor of his work, and I've dedicated my life to doing the very best I can to distribute it effectively, in ways that lift up individuals and communities in a sustainable way."

"I'm not interested in legacy wealth buildings, and my children know that," she added. "Steve wasn't interested in that. If I live long enough, it ends with me."

No giving pledge

Business Insider noted that Jobs, unlike other Silicon Valley billionaires, has not signed the Giving Pledge started by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates, in which one pledges to give a majority of their wealth to philanthropy.