Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
If I had his kind of money, I would not give it to the clowns running this country. He pays his taxes. He does not make tax laws: the Congress does. Clearly, if Congress raised his taxes, he would pay them.
Yet he criticizes the fact that he pays less of a percentage of his earnings in taxes than his secretary. He should be advocating lower taxes for everyone and advocating charitable donations... but he is advocating higher taxes when he himself has chosen not to pay any more than what he pays today.
Yet he criticizes the fact that he pays less of a percentage of his earnings in taxes than his secretary. He should be advocating lower taxes for everyone and advocating charitable donations... but he is advocating higher taxes when he himself has chosen not to pay any more than what he pays today.
Lets break this up. He has two positions on two different types of tax:
Income tax...I don't think he wants rich paying more here, but rather doesn't like the tax burden on the poor and working class. There is a difference.
Estate tax...He believes that just because you are born to someone, it doesn't mean you should get their money when they die. Its a position that has merit, but also one that many disagree with. It's admirable that he is giving his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (a fantastic organization, btw...I highly recommend you check you their website). He knows that it will be money wisely spent. At the same time, like a good parent, he raised his kids to provide for themselves and they are all doing very well on their own.
Berkshire is basically nothing more than a giant compound interest machine that's currently tended to by a couple of old geniuses.
Munger is in his mid 80's, Buffett in his late 70's (and by every single account, getting better at what he does with each passing year). For a long, long time now, they've been making careful preparations for the day when they're gone. Safe to say, neither wants to see Berkshire simply "die". After all, there are a lot of investors who have trusted them, not to mention an extraordinary amount of employees in their subsidiaries (hundreds of thousands of people) who would suffer greatly if Berkshire started to tank.
IIRC, they are looking at a model that will allow for multiple capital managers. They have just at $100,000,000,000 in outstanding shareholders equity with a metric assload of cash holdings. That's a true monster to manage and they both know that finding the right sort of person/people is an extremely lofty task.
The day Charlie dies, Berkshire will drop a bit. The day Warren dies, it might drop a good bit. Still, I'm confident that it will still bring in 12%-15% compounded annually, which is the figure needed to obtain profound upward fiscal mobility. The almost absurd financial position Berkshire has attained very well may be the sole virtue that ensures it's continued existence and growth to perpetuity.
He's having the Gates Foundation determine it's use.
the problem with the gates foundation is that much of it goes to help ppl in foreign countries, not his own countrymen. instead, the gov't allows him to monopolize the software industry, charge outrageous prices to us and then re-distribute his ill gotten wealth to foreign countries. there should be a limit to how much that they can "write off" as deductions from their taxes.
the problem with the gates foundation is that much of it goes to help ppl in foreign countries, not his own countrymen. instead, the gov't allows him to monopolize the software industry, charge outrageous prices to us and then re-distribute his ill gotten wealth to foreign countries. there should be a limit to how much that they can "write off" as deductions from their taxes.
Allows him to monopolize the software industry? Like how?
Allows him to monopolize the software industry? Like how?
windows. he was taken to federal court several years ago to contest his monopoly. the federal court ruled "against" him- barely. i rec'd a piddly $16 voucher to use towards purchase of a software of my choice as settlement. you should read "people's guide to american history". it will tell you how the gov't favors extremely rich ppl and lets them have sweetheart deals at the taxpayers' expense.
windows. he was taken to federal court several years ago to contest his monopoly. the federal court ruled "against" him- barely. i rec'd a piddly $16 voucher to use towards purchase of a software of my choice as settlement. you should read "people's guide to american history". it will tell you how the gov't favors extremely rich ppl and lets them have sweetheart deals at the taxpayers' expense.
Windows? A monopoly? That's hilarious. I used Coherent UNIX on PCs back in 1993, Linux in 1995, and more recently OS X on x86 platforms. Even before OS X was available on x86, you could aways get System 9 for Macs and all of these options were available in competition with Windows. In fact, Linux being a free (as in GPL) offers quite an easy transition away from Windows. And as far as it being bundled with computers, that was only the case if you chose (yes chose) to purchase from one of the national computer manufacturers. If you went to your mom and pop shop, you could get a barebones sytem with no OS for the past 20 years.
The government ruled against Microsoft because of they wanted to integrate IE into the OS and force IE on the users. As much as I dislike Microsoft products, I feel it was an overreach of the government to attempt to regulate the operating system. There are other choices for all of their products, many of which are free of charge (GPL), and no one is forced to use their products.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
has been a circulating story since summer. Here's a quick blurb: 
