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Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich

nytimes.com

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Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich

#11

Post by dwolfson20 »

dublinclontarf wrote: post #7
cromulent wrote: post #2

It looks like Joe Nocera got his wish from a week ago. "I keep waiting for one wealthy, well-known figure to stand up and say publicly that he or she is willing to pay more in taxes as part of the shared sacrifice necessary to gain control of the country’s deficit." http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/opinion/nocera-while-the-m...

We'll let them voluntarily pay more taxes then, or donate to charity, or start a charity or whatever. By their very nature taxes are not voluntary, they're taken by force of law. Don't pay them then go to jail. This is a stupid (but very easy) argument to make, one (of the richest)rich person says he'd be happy to pay more tax, therefor all rich people should pay more. If he really wants to make a difference he'd be…

Maybe take a look at Buffett's charitable record sometime.

Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich

#12

Post by dwolfson20 »

a5seo wrote: post #9

What's missing is an estimate of the revenue impact of doing what Buffet suggests. I've always heard that this kind of policy would add little to revenue, because there is simply far more tax money available by taxing earned income.

I'd have liked to see that, too, but one can run the numbers if one wants.

Also, isn't getting more money better than not getting more money? (NOTE: We certainly need to slow our spending, as well, but I fail to see how an increase in revenue is a bad thing.)

Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich

#14

Post by drblast »

Voluntary gifts of money can be sent to the U.S. Treasury at this address:

http://www.fms.treas.gov/faq/moretopics_gifts.html

One has to ask, if any super rich person really considered the U.S. Government a worthwhile investment, why are they donating to various charities instead of to the Treasury?

Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich

#15

Post by andrewflnr »

cromulent wrote: post #2

It looks like Joe Nocera got his wish from a week ago. "I keep waiting for one wealthy, well-known figure to stand up and say publicly that he or she is willing to pay more in taxes as part of the shared sacrifice necessary to gain control of the country’s deficit." http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/opinion/nocera-while-the-m...

I'm pretty sure this has happened lots of times. Matt Damon said something along those lines recently.

Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich

#16

Post by BrainScraps »

Reading this just makes me think of all of the lobbying dollars and campaign contributions that must have been paid by the super-rich to get these tax breaks.

Am I the only one that feels some populist rage welling up when he hears how much money is wasted on campaigning for office and influencing people in office? Aren't there more worthy uses of wealth and scarce resources?

And it just pains me that so many people think that they "have to play the game" to get things done by politicians. Non-profit organizations that use large percentages of their spend on "wining and dining" elected or appointed officials to try to make things beneficial things happen. Ugh.

Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich

#17

Post by zzeroparticle »

sliverstorm wrote: post #6

The more I hear about this guy, the more I like him. He is so frank, it seems like he'd be a very interesting person to meet.

I've always enjoyed reading Buffett's remarks in Berkshire's shareholders reports because of those very reasons. There's no BS; he just tells it the way it is, covering both successes and failures. And when he talks about the overall economy, he puts it in terms that people can readily grasp the concept without being swamped by gobbledegook.

http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/reports.html

Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich

#18

Post by kenjackson »

ecounysis wrote: post #8

I wish Buffett would run for president. He could probably get a few things done.

People always say stuff like this, but I think quite the opposite.

Buffet, and people like him (Gates, Jobs, Welch, etc...), while great businesspeople are used to being able to say something and everyone jumps. In business, everyone is working together to make the company more money. With some exceptions, you can create an incentive structure that rewards that.

Government, in the US at least, is very different. Buffet would be dealing with people, congress, who will certainly not jump when he says something. In fact they'll often make themselves completely unavailable. He'll be in a situation where people will actually do things that harm the country if they could remove Buffet from office (to get someone from their party in office). In government, you don't negotiate in good faith.

And Buffet wouldn't be able to fire anyone in congress. I suspect one of the first things Buffet would say after working with congress is, "I'd fire half of these bozos if they worked for me!" Unfortunately, these are the people who will decide what legislation lands on his desk.

I feel like gang leaders are the people who best understand what it would be like to be President.

Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich

#19

Post by andrewflnr »

dwolfson20 wrote: post #11
dublinclontarf wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll let them voluntarily pay more taxes then, or donate to charity, or start a charity or whatever. By their very nature taxes are not voluntary, they're taken by force of law. Don't pay them then go to jail. This is a stupid (but very easy) argument to make, one (of the richest)rich person says he'd be happy to pay more tax, therefor all rich people should pay more. If he really wants to make a difference he'd be…

Maybe take a look at Buffett's charitable record sometime.

Good, he practices what he preaches. The point remains, paying higher taxes is not an efficient way to help your fellow man. You'll get much better bang for your buck donating to a worthy charity. Thought of this way, it's a simple question of utility.

Re: Warren Buffett: Stop coddling the super rich

#20

Post by yummyfajitas »

If we want shared sacrifice, maybe we should ask people at the bottom to share as well. Anecdotes of Warren Buffet's office aside, in general the richest people pay the largest proportion of taxes.

We already lean quite heavily on the top 1% - the top 1% actually pays more in taxes than the bottom 90%.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/22652.html

A graph of the data in that article:

http://i.imgur.com/wa8uu.png

In terms of taxation of the top 10%, the US is the most progressive country in the OECD.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/27134.html

Maybe the tax code needs tweaking at the level of the top 400, but it's very progressive up to the level of the top 1%.

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