A bond between friends strengthened by philanthropy

Buffett and Gates have a link that runs from burgers to bridge to a shared view on addressing the causes of poverty

The friendship between Warren E. Buffett and Bill Gates has been forged over a shared passion for such homespun American treats as cherry Coke, burgers and college football. They delight as well in loftier pursuits, like playing bridge and solving complex math problems. But, more than anything, what Buffett’s $31 billion gift to the foundation that Gates runs with his wife, Melinda, shows is a common disdain for inherited wealth and a shared view that the capitalist system that has enriched them so handsomely is not capable alone of addressing the root causes of poverty.

‘‘A market system has not worked in terms of poor people,’’ Buffett said yesterday, in an interview taped earlier in the day for ‘‘The Charlie Rose Show’’ on PBS.

As for any thought he might have had in giving the bulk of his billions to his three children, Buffett was characteristically blunt. ‘‘I don’t believe in dynastic wealth,’’ he said.

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Genuine friendships within the highest tier of corporate America are rare, because of the demands of the jobs as well as the myriad forces that can turn shared interests into embarrassing conflicts.

But the bond between Buffett and Gates, the two richest people in the US and arguably the two most influential in American business in recent years, has lasted more than 15 years. It has been sustained, according to people who know them, in large part by a very high level of intelligence and a conviction that their vast wealth has given them a larger responsibility to society. ‘‘When you are as smart as Warren or Bill, I think it’s hard to find people to talk to,’’ said Donald E. Graham, the publisher of The Washington Post, who has spent time together with the two men.

He called Buffett’s gift ‘‘the most creative thing that anyone has done and the way he has done it underscores how much admiration he has for Bill.’’

What was most surprising about Buffett’s decision was not so much that he was giving his wealth away but that he was asking someone else to pursue philanthropy on his behalf.

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The two men met in 1991, when Gates, who then kept his nose close to Microsoft’s grindstone, was persuaded by his mother to attend a meeting where Buffett and Katharine Graham were present.

They both are devoted workaholics who go to their offices just about every day they are at home. In public, there is a relaxed towel-snapping aspect to their relationship—as if they are making up for all those jocular moments that passed them by during their younger, more intensely ambitious years.

LANDON THOMAS Jr