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Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

latimes.com

171–180 of 612 posts

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#171
post #3

I will never undertand this people that live all their life working, when they clearly have the chance to retire much sooner. I will retire right away if I had 10 millions. Maybe 50 millions if I was younger than 40.

> I will never undertand this people that live all their life working, when they clearly have the chance to retire much sooner.

Some people just love what they do. In addition to people loving what they do, there are also people who don't like to do nothing: travelling, reading, sipping pina coladas in the pool in Florida, painting, playing videogames all day long etc. is not for everyone.

And there are even people who fit both: they love what they do and they have moreover absolutely no interest in retiring and "doing nothing".

EDIT: also some people are action junkies that must be working. A friend of mine is working a full-time regular job and is also a voluntary firefighter, responding to emergencies during week-ends etc. He doesn't do it for the little additional money it brings: he does it because he loves to be helpful.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#172
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he was poor, people would call him lazy for eating mcdonalds everyday...

Poor people should properly budget and cook at home to avoid staying poor If you can afford to eat McDonald's nobody cares (well it's not healthy either but that's a different matter that doesn't really have to do with being poor or not)

You don’t have time to do those things if you are poor and working 2-3 jobs. Properly budgeting and analyzing costs takes a lot of time, and unexpected expenses and cost of living increases destroy your budget a lot more than McDonald’s.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A man who built what he loves and produced so much surplus value for the rest of us to enjoy (read: profit) is _exactly_ a hero. I’m sure I could find ways critique him, but not in the context of celebrating his career.

[flagged]

I’m not convinced.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#174
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he was poor, people would call him lazy for eating mcdonalds everyday...

Poor people should properly budget and cook at home to avoid staying poor If you can afford to eat McDonald's nobody cares (well it's not healthy either but that's a different matter that doesn't really have to do with being poor or not)

"Poor people should" You should demand more of people with power before you criticize those with none

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With $150 billion dollars he could have done a lot more than "argue for" changing taxation. If he had spent that money actively fighting for a better system, maybe that'd be worth something. To sit back on your billions and say "aw shucks, this really shouldn't be possible" is not much of an effort. Edit: Some people seem to be misunderstanding me. I'm saying if he thought taxation was unequal or thought wealth inequ…

It seems buffet has taken “the giving pledge” along with Bill Gates and others. “More than 99% of my wealth will go to philanthropy during my lifetime or at death.” - https://www.givingpledge.org/pledger/warren-buffett/

Yes, that's giving it away (some after death), not specifically using it to address wealth inequality.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#176

I read somewhere that Bershire Hathaway had sort of finished it's mission. 40 years ago there were lots of large companies who were very 'inefficient' and BH would come along, invest a lot, and start demanding changes. Company performance would improve and BH would make big $$$$. Now there are few of these and it is hard to do. I don't know enough to know whether it is right or wrong. but I think that is what I read.

Berkshire had a pivot where, decades back, Munger convinced Buffett to switch from investing in bad companies at a great price to good companies at a good price. Their new strategy is still active. That said, the turnaround 'mission' you mention about still happens, but is more associated with private equity than Berkshire.

They also have a history of buying good private companies at a good price and then let the management keep cooking. This is especially relevant to family businesses that want liquidity for the heirs and good long-term (indefinite) stewardship rather than selling to some PE vulture that will destroy their legacy.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#177
post #3

I will never undertand this people that live all their life working, when they clearly have the chance to retire much sooner. I will retire right away if I had 10 millions. Maybe 50 millions if I was younger than 40.

If your number is on the order of $10 million, I suspect that no, you wouldn't, because you haven't thought hard enough about retirement and how to achieve and keep it with a satisfying lifestyle to realize that you don't need nearly so much (or at least most people, maybe you have a need for very fancy things, I won't judge). And requiring $50 million at a younger age? What's the logic in that? The younger you are the lower you can set your number, because if you end up being wrong either about the feasibility or about your mental state from not having a job, you still have time to fix things or even pivot to a new career. (You also get more years of compound interest.) I quit my BigCo job 5 years ago just before my 30th birthday with ~$500k across VFIAX and VGT, I've been "retired" since and that amount has grown considerably. I'm still quite happy not working for someone, while still being reasonably confident I could get a programming job again if a need or desire arose, and there's always the possibility of going a bit crazy and burning through it all to self-fund hiring some employees of my own to make a go at a business.

It's not hard for me to understand why people keep working even if I'm not and don't want to be that way. There are so many reasons, I'll list a few, some work just as well even for people who are working despite having "enough", whatever that means. Some people just really like having a job, or think of it as a moral duty (and themselves as doing good by fulfilling that obligation), or some get their self-worth from having a job, or some like being occupied by work when they know that without it they'd just rot. Some like the social company. Many actually like their work a lot more than they dislike it and pay above some threshold is just "nice". If you're particularly good at your job, too, there's a lot of joy in doing things you're good at, no matter what kind of job it is. Some have expensive tastes or have made expensive compromises or have fallen on expensive bad luck that all can need ongoing funding. Some want to make or support things and need capital to do so. Some just see life as a game, and money going up is their source of happiness and sign of winning. There's all sorts of minds and preferences in this world.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#178
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not doubting you, but any specific examples of him supporting monopoly? Or are you saying the general environment of high finance supports this? No doubt he had more money than he needed but if this is referring to his preference for coka-cola and apple stock / any stocks with the ability to set their own prices because of market dominance, I feel like that’s not a totally fair criticism.

Tons of evidence it’s all hiding in plan sight: https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/warren-buffett-americas-f...

The Verisign investment was a minority holding.

And this bit is tripe: “Buffett is the avatar of monopoly. This is a guy whose investments philosophy is literally that of a monopolist. I mean, he invented this sort of term, the economic ‘moat,’ that if you build a moat around your business, then it's going to be successful. I mean, this is the language of building monopoly power.”

Seeking moats isn’t monopolistic. It’s inherent to competition.

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#179
post #122

Driving 7 minutes to work and stopping at a drive-thru to pick up McDonalds breakfast every day. The man is a true American hero.

Buffet is not a good guy. Our society’s greatest problem right now is concentrated corporate power being used to destroy the ability of working people to prosper. Buffet had an active and direct role in making this happen. He supported and advocated for monopoly, and profited from it. He lived a lavish life that included opulent mansions and private jets, and used his resources to deftly drive a media narrative of hi…

Which “opulent mansions”?

Re: Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems buffet has taken “the giving pledge” along with Bill Gates and others. “More than 99% of my wealth will go to philanthropy during my lifetime or at death.” - https://www.givingpledge.org/pledger/warren-buffett/

Yes, that's giving it away (some after death), not specifically using it to address wealth inequality.

> that's giving it away (some after death), not specifically using it to address wealth inequality

Because the money isn’t being spent on your pet issue it’s being mis-spent?

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