All should read carefully the third from last paragraph. Then ask yourself whether we need to cut taxes more for the rich in this country.
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Buffett Takes Swipe at Rich Kids
By BETH J. HARPAZ
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- When billionaire Warren Buffett hears his friends complain about poor people dependent on government handouts, he starts complaining about rich kids dependent on their parents' trust funds.
''I hear friends talk about the debilitating effects of food stamps and the self-perpetuating nature of welfare and how terrible that is,'' Buffett said Wednesday at Columbia University.
''These same people are leaving tons of money to their kids, whose main achievement in life had been to emerge from the right womb. And when they emerge from that womb, instead of a welfare officer, they have a trust fund officer. Instead of food stamps, they get dividends and interest.''
He acknowledged that his own kids ''started out way ahead in the race of life.'' But ''I don't believe in accentuating that by passing along the chips that would enable them to command the resources of society without contributing to society. I believe in leaving them enough so they can do anything -- but not enough so they can do nothing.''
Buffett, who heads the Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway investment company and was recently estimated by Forbes magazine to have a personal worth of $28 billion, has three children. His daughter, Susan, who once worked at U.S. News & World Report but is now living in Omaha raising her own children, was in the audience as he spoke.
Buffett, a Democratic Party supporter, appeared at Columbia alongside New York Senate candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and gave her his personal endorsement.
He also said that he considers himself ''very undertaxed. I hear this Republican message that we're rich as hell and we're not going to take it any more. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I'm paying taxes at a lower rate than my secretary ... and frankly I think that's crazy.''
Asked for his predictions on the stock market, Buffett said: ''I've never made any money by predicting the stock market. I don't spend any time thinking about it. I really look at individual businesses. ... I try to figure out what the business is worth.''
He added: ''The real fortunes in this country have been made by people who have been right about the business they invested in, and not right about the timing of the stock market.'' |
