Yahoo News: "Buffet says government is doing the right things."
Well, Paco Enterprises says Buffett is talking out of the back of his neck.
Buffett is a kind of idiot savant, not an uncommon type among the super-rich. He has a genius for making money, but is the merest clod when it comes to politics. He is a long-time supporter of the Democratic Party, and (not surprisingly) he backed Obama in the election. For as long as I can remember, he has been an advocate of higher taxes; after all, when you're squatting, like Scrooge McDuck, on a pile of gold ringed by multiple layers of tax shelters, it's pretty easy to indulge your liberal sentiments for big government - to be financed by someone else, of course. Buffett has also been a booster of population control and unilateral nuclear disarmament (Bad enough that the unwashed multiply like rabbits; Gad! Can't run the risk that they might get their hands on an atomic bomb, what?)
As Dirty Harry said, "a man's got to know his limitations."
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Warren has long refused to give his kids much in the way of money, figuring they should make their own way in the world.
ReplyDeleteIf he treats his kids that way, fair enough. However, why should he then turn around and support the government giving everyone else's money to layabouts, neer-do-wells and loafers?
If Buffet believes in higher taxes, he can write a check to the IRS. I've never heard of him doing so.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that so many very rich people advocate social experimenting?
Retread
Buffett is in this game for himself. The socialist agenda suits him just fine because it lines his pockets.
ReplyDeletePeople keep talking about the "Republican rich." What they don;t seem to realize is, those rich are dying, and their inheritors are busily proving the old Chinese saying, "in the third generation, disaster," combining a modern leftist education to produce a terrifying lack of discretion about a terrifying amount of discretionary income.
ReplyDeleteThere was a series of articles back before the last election about the new generation of 'male socialites' in NYC, who don't actually do anything to manage or grow their family fortunes but enjoy spending the proceeds.
And as PJ O'Rourke wrote about their counterparts in Beverly Hills, 'these people have no idea what money is for.'
But they're absolutely certain that the effects of their social and political dabbling will stop at the gates of their guarded communities.
I suspect they're right. Barry and his ilk may not be smart enough to avoid slaughtering such a gullible and productive cash cow, but I'm sure their handlers are.
There was a series of articles back before the last election about the new generation of 'male socialites' in NYC, who don't actually do anything to manage or grow their family fortunes but enjoy spending the proceeds.
ReplyDeleteRichard, the same pattern holds true in my little piece of Florida. The pioneers came to this totally inhospitable place and worked night and day to build a life for the children. They ended up with more than a few sheckles in their pockets but you would never known it to look at them. The next generation, my age, took those sheckles and spent them to enhance their "lifestyle." Their children, my kid's age, are a bunch of coke addled layabouts, lacking in education, morals AND MONEY.
O/T Richard, why can't I comment on your site? I promise to behave.
There was a series of articles back before the last election about the new generation of 'male socialites' in NYC, who don't actually do anything to manage or grow their family fortunes but enjoy spending the proceeds.Jackson, WY, is a popular playground for the rich and famous. There are more than a hard working locals (mostly descendants of the pre-real estate boom residents) who make a good living from the rich and the tourists.
ReplyDeleteBut then there are the "trust babies", as the locals call them. These are the younger sons and daughters of wealthy families who have little interest in the business, or even in working. The majority of them get a monthly stipend, enough to live comfortably on (even in Jackson), and maybe work odd jobs to pay for mundane things like season lift tickets.
They're easy to spot. They dress nicely, tend to be 30-45 years old, and generally in good physical condition. Hit one of the micro-breweries in town, and you'll see them partying away with various intoxicants.
But they are totally absorbed in themselves, and no one else. The local fire departments are mostly volunteer; not one of them will join. Art shows? Yep, especially if they are an artist. Marches and demonstrations? Often. Sign petitions for more and more bike paths in the county? You betcha.
But working for the community? To them, that means voting for more taxes.....which are paid mostly by land owners. Which they aren't.
I view them as a wart on society's butt. No value added, just a bunch of lazy kids, living for themselves, day to day.
But there's a deeper problem - the grand trite assumption that entrepreneurial success is wrong, that the modern world led by the US has 'gone astray'.
ReplyDeleteSo when someone wants to help 'the community' they join Greenpeace or the Trotskyite 'Socialists'.
In fact more people have been lifted out of poverty in recent decades led by the 'selfishness and greed' of Wall Street than ever before in human history - especially in Asia.
For example all Indian citizens are now entitled to pensions, unemployment and disaster relief, and every Indian schoolchild gets a free [vegetarian-ha!] hot lunch, paid out of burgeoning revenues from the exploding numbers of the middle classes. Ask your grandparents about the days of 'starving millions in India' in the 50's. Before 1990 India was a Soviet client frozen in time like Cuba.
Instead of teaching this in US schools - heck, preachers should be yelling it from the pulpits on Sunday too - (Greed is Good!), the focus is on South America and Africa - for obvious but self-defeating reasons.
"ask your grandparents"
ReplyDelete- Oops, sorry, you know what I mean.