Okay, I'm not exactly sure how serious to be about this one. Like most things we muse upon, opinions depend upon one’s own life experiences. Where you’re comin’ from.
Billionaire, Warren Buffet, has appeared on my radar screen. More to the point, his decision to simply “give away” the major portion of his estimated $42 BILLION fortune (second only to Bill Gates’– the richest man in the world).
Now what makes me scrunch up my eyebrows is Buffet’s announcement that he will not leave any significant portion of his fortune to his children. He claims he does not believe in “inherited wealth.” He claims his children have long known this and that they understand his reasoning (hey kids! I sure as hell don’t). Whatever his children may say publicly, I can just imagine what they’re saying beyond Buffet’s earshot.
So what is Mr. Buffet doing with his enormous pile of money? Last month, he committed to give away 85% – well over $30 BILLION – making this the largest single act of charitable giving in U.S. history! And where will this extraordinary amount of money be going? Not to his own family, members of which run their own charitable foundations; no, it will go to someone who really needs it – Bill Gates, the richest man in the world. Yes, Bill Gates’ Foundation will swell up with the infusion Buffet’s Billions. Why, you might wonder, would Buffet do this? We’re told that Gates and Buffet have been friends and bridge partners – they play cards! – for fifteen years or more. Oh, I’m sure Buffet’s family agrees card playing is as good a reason as any. Right?
I don't know how good a card player Bill is but he is one helluva salesman. Easy to see why he’s the richest guy in the world, no? Picture Buffet arranging his bridge hand, saying “Okay Billy, your play...”
With extended pinky, Gates lifts his Ming Dynasty tea cup, takes a sip of green tea, rubs his chin, plays his card, then casually says “Y’know, Warren, I was thinkin’... you’re not gettin’ any younger. Have you given any thought to what you’ll do with your money? I’m sure your family expects it, right? But let’s face it, they’ll just use it for personal gain. Everybody would. Except me. I have even more billions than you, so you know I don’t need your money. So when you think about it, Warr, old pal, maybe you oughta leave it to me. Face it, your kids’ll just squander it. But now me... I’ll put it to good use. Me and my Mrs... oh... honey, more English tea cookies please... me and my Mrs. will make your legacy even greater than it is now. Something to think about, isn’t it? Whaddya say ol’ pal?"
Realizing he’s been trumped, Buffet feels sweat building over his upper lip. Sensing hesitation, Gates adds, “Tell you what... do it now, while you’re still of sound mind, and I’ll put you on the Board of my Foundation. Heyyyyyy now... how’s that?”
Buffet smiles shrewdly and thinks, Ha! Got ‘im. I’d have given him the dough for nothing. But now I’ll be a Board Member. Just call me a winner!
With only $9 and 38¢ in real money on the card table, Gates just won a very cool $30 billion in less than five minutes.
Okay, before I go nuts, let’s look at the man. Buffet is known as a frugal sort of guy. At the time of this writing, he was still living in the same house in Omaha he bought in 1958 for about $31,000. He also owns a home or two in Laguna Beach, CA. He reportedly pays himself a relatively low salary compared to most other CEOs. This puts the tightwad in a lower tax bracket. But he is against tax cuts for the wealthy. He wants to raise taxes on the wealthy. Of course since his salary is so low, his income tax wouldn’t be affected much. Easy to see why he’s a very rich guy in the world.
Here’s a man who would prefer to give his fortune not to his children who presumably are good and decent people, who work equally hard at something, but to his bridge partner – who doesn’t need it because he is – HEL-LO! – the world’s richest man! Buffet was quoted as saying “I want to give my kids enough so that they could feel that they can do anything, but not so much that they can do nothing.” Hahahaha! He’s penny-pinching their inheritance for their own good. What a guy. Very zen of him. The Buffet family aside, seriously, does anybody doubt that to whatever Foundation or charity Buffet’s Billions go, they will be squandered? Does anyone doubt that most of it will wind up swindled, misdirected and misused just as large charitable donations almost always do? When middle-men through whose hands pass great sums of money, the temptation to dip is irresistible. Ah, but to Buffet this is better than letting his own children have it.
Gates wants to use his Foundation dollars to cure the world’s most terrible diseases. Yeh, like Jerry Lewis raised all those millions over decades to cure Muscular Dystrophy. Have we seen a cure? It’s always “just around the corner.” Just like the American Cancer Society has for many decades raised millions upon millions to find a cure for that scourge. Have we seen a “cure?” Of course not. Research organizations find it far more lucrative to search for a cure than to actually find one. The medical and pharmaceutical establishment finds it much more lucrative to treat a disease than to cure it. Which leads me directly to my favorite whipping boy, the UN.
How many billions have gone to this corrupt organization in the name of charity and disease prevention? Have the needy been helped in their plight? Where has all this money gone? Odds are; into the pockets of corrupt bureaucrats; into the coffers of corrupt leaders of third world nations, nations overflowing with the needy who so desperately require the help which is held out as a promise but which never quite reaches the parched lips of the hungry children.
Mr. Buffet would prefer to pour his billions into this bottomless pit; into the pockets of these same miserable deceitful wretches rather than to do what probably 99% of the rest of us would do with our fortune if we had one; pass it along to our children, one of whom might actually have a good heart.
What if the roles were reversed? What if Mr. Buffet was a man of modest means. What if his children were super wealthy? What if Mr Buffet needed financial help to comfort him in his advancing age? Does anyone think Mr. Buffet would feel the same way he feels now? You damn well better believe human nature dictates he’d think his kids were stingy bastards if they didn’t give the old man what he thinks he deserves.
Oh sure, I have heard the argument that Buffet is just being business clever. If he leaves the money to his children, there will be massive inheritance taxes levied upon them. But Mr. Buffet openly rebukes tax cuts. He believes in raising taxes on the wealthy. Doesn’t Mr. Buffet believe money which his family might pay to the taxman would be used, in some way or another, to help needy people? Like victims of natural disasters? Or does he believe only the U.S. government is corrupt? No. He’d rather his shekles went to some unknown recipients, into some unknown and unworthy but ready-and-waiting foreign pockets, no doubt.
What is Mr. Buffet saying to his own family? “Hey, I made mine, but I didn’t do it for you unworthy brats.” There’s no doubt Mr. Buffet has a knack for making his own. Since 2000, he’s been raising money for the Glide Foundation through online auctions where bidders have donated up to $620,000 for the chance to have one meal with him. Tuna melt in his Omaha home – buffet style no doubt. Probably cooked and served by his family.
Because a man is incredibly adept in the investment market, and shrewd enough to hang onto his money, doesn’t mean that he has any sense when it comes to the ultimate disposition of his fortune. He could pass the wealth to his children with stipulations. Perhaps the children are bright and the fortune could be made to double in ten years. An even greater inheritance could be left to the Buffet grandchildren and so on. How wonderful it would be for the Buffet grandchildren to know they are among the wealthiest people in the world. Why deny your own blood this rare gift? What does it say about a man who would deny his generations the kind of freedom of which the rest of us can only dream? I think it says he doesn’t trust their goodness. He has looked around and seen children of other wealthy and famous people, and he only sees the layabouts. The drunks. The druggies. The broken spirits. And has concluded all offspring of wealth are like that. But they are not.
I do not know anything about Buffet’s family, but obviously he has little faith in the children he spawned. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Mr. Buffet is an outspoken supporter of abortion and population control (as reported by Human Life International as well as by Ann Coulter and others). It seems to me if you are for population control and abortion, you place little value on life in general and perhaps on your own offspring in particular.
Unless his children are “Prodigal Sons,” or criminals, turncoats or fools (none of which I imagine is true), it belies something not so much about them but deep within the soul of the father. A quirk, which for some unknown reason makes him place his family on a lower rung of worthiness than his bridge partner. As if only the one man in the world wealthier than he, is worthy of receiving Buffet’s Billions. Mr. Buffet places concerns about “needy” strangers over his own blood.
Oh, his children certainly won’t want for anything material. But they – and I’ll bet even more so his grandchildren – will always wonder why they were deprived of a great financial opportunity, simple familial loyalty, and papa’s trust. This deep personal hurt may fester for generations.
As they say, it’s his money; Mr. Buffet can do with it as he sees fit. But successful as he is, this seems to be the behavior of a mean spirited prick.
