29 November 2006
Warren Buffet, on taxes
Buffet did a survey of his employees:
¶ 10:41 PM 
Mr. Buffett compiled a data sheet of the men and women who work in his office. He had each of them make a fraction; the numerator was how much they paid in federal income tax and in payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, and the denominator was their taxable income. The people in his office were mostly secretaries and clerks, though not all.Certainly a solid individual:It turned out that Mr. Buffett, with immense income from dividends and capital gains, paid far, far less as a fraction of his income than the secretaries or the clerks or anyone else in his office. Further, in conversation it came up that Mr. Buffett doesn’t use any tax planning at all. He just pays as the Internal Revenue Code requires. “How can this be fair?” he asked of how little he pays relative to his employees. “How can this be right?”
¶ 10:41 PM
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Cicero:
this post is authored by one who may be among the oldest of your readers, and you can tell by this note. I have seen references by you not only to Buffett, but also to the huge and growing wealth gap between Americans. Recently, someone wrote an article on that growing gap and cited Buffett's charitable contributions as evidence of the "problem". The author was concerned that someone like Buffett could accumulate so much wealth while others go homeless, and did not seem to give Buffett any credit for his altruism.
Your post on his thoughts on taxes supports that he thinks like a real good citizen, concerned for the welfare of many.
I do not have much of a point, but want to mention a few personal thoughts . I have been extermely fortunate in life , with a great family and good health. I have been extremely lucky in a career that has paid me much more than I am worth in a great society, and am a living example that "life is not fair",perhaps balancing out your friend who was a near volunteer in TFA. I make a lot of money, more than i can spend and much more than I need. I give some to charities and a lot to the US Treasury, paying over 40% of my total income( not only taxable, but all of my income because I pay in several states). And the net paid in a single year is a big number, probably more than my father earned in his lifetime.
I am ok with that ...because my generation is eating up much of the future, not only environmentally, but in social security, tax breaks for the rich, white elephants for many congressman, and unaffordable defined benefit plans to many civil employees. Your generation will rarely or never see true pension plans, and social security will not be what we think it is today. You can hardly afford housing and many of you carry debt from college( which I and almost all of my friends did not) , but we have trained you to be good consumers and you have generated huge debt by buying perishable goods, most of which have already perished.
If it makes your readers feel any better, I will tell them I have concern and some guilt about what we are leaving your generation. of course I forgot to mention that I never served my country, as I had a student deferment because my parents saved for me to go to college while my disadvantaged contempararies served, died or were wounded in Viet Nam.
So I will continue to look for good causes to which I can contribute, write big checks to the Treasury . If you and your readers have any good ideas, such as how I and my other overpaid exec friends can donate my future social security checks to those men and women who have had parts of their lives ripped away by the on going atrocities in the Middle east, please let me know.
this post is authored by one who may be among the oldest of your readers, and you can tell by this note. I have seen references by you not only to Buffett, but also to the huge and growing wealth gap between Americans. Recently, someone wrote an article on that growing gap and cited Buffett's charitable contributions as evidence of the "problem". The author was concerned that someone like Buffett could accumulate so much wealth while others go homeless, and did not seem to give Buffett any credit for his altruism.
Your post on his thoughts on taxes supports that he thinks like a real good citizen, concerned for the welfare of many.
I do not have much of a point, but want to mention a few personal thoughts . I have been extermely fortunate in life , with a great family and good health. I have been extremely lucky in a career that has paid me much more than I am worth in a great society, and am a living example that "life is not fair",perhaps balancing out your friend who was a near volunteer in TFA. I make a lot of money, more than i can spend and much more than I need. I give some to charities and a lot to the US Treasury, paying over 40% of my total income( not only taxable, but all of my income because I pay in several states). And the net paid in a single year is a big number, probably more than my father earned in his lifetime.
I am ok with that ...because my generation is eating up much of the future, not only environmentally, but in social security, tax breaks for the rich, white elephants for many congressman, and unaffordable defined benefit plans to many civil employees. Your generation will rarely or never see true pension plans, and social security will not be what we think it is today. You can hardly afford housing and many of you carry debt from college( which I and almost all of my friends did not) , but we have trained you to be good consumers and you have generated huge debt by buying perishable goods, most of which have already perished.
If it makes your readers feel any better, I will tell them I have concern and some guilt about what we are leaving your generation. of course I forgot to mention that I never served my country, as I had a student deferment because my parents saved for me to go to college while my disadvantaged contempararies served, died or were wounded in Viet Nam.
So I will continue to look for good causes to which I can contribute, write big checks to the Treasury . If you and your readers have any good ideas, such as how I and my other overpaid exec friends can donate my future social security checks to those men and women who have had parts of their lives ripped away by the on going atrocities in the Middle east, please let me know.
# posted by 
: Monday, December 04, 2006 7:44:00 AM
: Monday, December 04, 2006 7:44:00 AM
Wow, now that's a hell of a comment! It's good to see that there are still people who appreciate what they have.
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# posted by : Wednesday, December 06, 2006 11:09:00 AM
: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 11:09:00 AM<< Home
