Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Finance, the economy & Economics Warren Buffet must be dying

because it seems he's trying some last minute maneuvering in order to avoid eternity in hell.

Watch.

Hey, Warren! I got a few years left, so I'd appreciate it if you would keep your mouth shut.

Buffett has been saying this for a few years now; it's not a new position for him by any means. "Last minute" would seem to me to be an exaggeration.

You would agree if I removed those 2 words? Amendment accepted.

Cute, Fermi.

I'm not the type to condemn people to hell just for having money, and I don't know/haven't heard enough about Warren Buffett to be certain that's where he's going.

You might have connections I don't, of course.

Warren is free to do whatever he wants with his money. He's old. He's never gonna run out.

What he is advocating for is putting a lot of other people at risk.
And that, in my opinion, is the height of arrogance. He got very rich under the rules he now proposes to change. I believe he is either trying to make it more difficult for anybody to surpass his accomplishments in the future, or pulling the same kind of stunt that Andrew Carnegie did near the end of his life. Legacy insurance.

Fermi, your liberal roots are showing. Warren Buffett made a fortune, perfectly legally. If others lost, isn't that their problem?

A good conservative should be thinking he'd be raised on angels' wings. Besides, we could always devise a new tax bracket that includes Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, and everybody else would be safe as houses...

I watched this particular interview on the news the other night. From it I gathered that Mr. Buffett did a survey of the employees that work in his office and found that of all his employees, he was the one benefiting from the lowest tax rate (17%), whereas his employees, including the office receptionist were paying around 32%. He was merely pointing out that some of the people who make the biggest salaries (hedge fund managers was one example) were paying some of the lowest tax rates and he thought this should change. Call me naive, but I just got the impression he was stating the obvious; not trying to rub it in anyone's face.

Re-read my post, Julia. I accused Mr. Buffet of proposing rule changes that would make it difficult for others to do the same as he did in the same tax environment as he had. I'm not saying that the tax laws can't be changed, I'm just saying that it's very easy for him to advocate for that - since he is set for life. Maybe he thinks he needs to hedge the after-life is all I'm saying.

Maybe he found that somewhere buried deep inside there was a smidgen of conscience afterall.

I hope he gets to heaven, but I don't think that depends on him putting me in the poorhouse.