University Suckers

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Warren Buffett Is Bad For Business

"OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Billionaire Warren Buffett said Monday that the U.S. economy is essentially in a recession even if it hasn't met the technical definition of one yet."

Buffett said in an interview with cable network CNBC the reports he gets from the retail businesses his holding company owns show a significant slowdown in purchases."[bold added]

A recession, according to the technical definition, is "two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the nation's gross domestic product." Buffett, if anyone, should know the definition of the term. Why label the economy as something it has yet to become? Why skew the definition? Buffett's statements are taken with too much weight as it is; imagine if they always possessed incorrect information like this.

It's not like his record as a businessman is ideal either:
Tom: You've talked about in your own office, for example, you pay a much lower tax rate with all of your wealth than, say, a receptionist does.

Warren: That's exactly right, Tom, and I think the only way to do it is with specifics. In our office 15 people cooperated in a survey, out of 18, I didn't make anybody do it. And my total taxes paid, payroll taxes plus income tax, mine came to 17.7 percent. The average for the office was 32.9 percent. There wasn't anybody in the office, from the receptionist on, who paid a lower tax rate. And I have no tax planning, I don't have an accountant, I don't have tax shelters. I just follow what the U.S. Congress tells me to do.[bold added]

Perhaps if Congress instructed Buffett to break into other people's houses and steal their savings from under their mattresses he would. He probably doesn't view breaking and entering and taxation in relation to one another. Maybe he needs the government to seize the majority of his income to open his eyes. I bet his tune would change then.

Businessmen are wealthy for a reason, usually because they earned their wealth. The concept of actually earning various things in the world may be foreign to some, but it is possible. And businessmen are the proof of such a claim. Warren Buffet continues to become a burden upon the very people that he is suppose to typify: American businessmen. You know; the individuals responsible for the increase in the standard of living, new technologies, enough food to feed every household in America, not to mention an innumerable amount other accomplishments. But instead of praising such individuals, others bleat of "exploitation", "greediness", and "manipulation". When will this madness stop?

Who would have thought the richest man in the world would be one of them?