I am often appalled by the likes of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates saying that taxes should be raised. Just because they are uber-wealthy and aren't really impacted, they think they can tell everyone else what their tax rates should be. Here is Warren Buffet:"But I think that people at the high end -- people like myself -- should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it."
Gates admitted that he voted for the Washington state ballot measure that would have implemented an income tax and was sorry it lost.
But dig this, Buffet and Gates are among 16 billionaires that have pledged to give their billions to charity. That's right, higher taxes for you and I, estate taxes for those whose family business is the means of support for their heirs, but when it comes down to choosing where their money goes, these billionaires aren't about to let Uncle Sam make that decision. From the WSJ:
The Giving Pledge is an effort organized by software mogul Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett to persuade the world's rich to boost their giving. . . .Sadly, I don't think they see the hypocrisy of their position.
The Giving Pledge was born in part from a dislike by Mr. Buffett for dynastic wealth. Mr. Buffett over the years has schooled Mr. Gates on philanthropy, giving him a copy of "The Gospel of Wealth," in which steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie argued that fortunes were often wasted by heirs and thus should be put to charitable use.
Starting last year, Mr. Gates, his wife Melinda Gates, Mr. Buffett and other wealthy individuals hosted a series of dinners for billionaires to discuss setting up the pledge. That led to an announcement in June of the pledge and its earliest signers.
P.S. I apologize for the lack of graphics or video the last few posts. I am getting limited time on Mrs. Daddy's computer as the behemoth BDaddy iMac is in the shop, again. I have never had so much trouble with a computer, even the one I once built myself. The ROI on my Apple Care investment is better than any stock I ever picked.
Further hypocrisy: Despite their preachiness, I guarantee you the children of both these fools will still be sitting on a pile of cash.
ReplyDeleteEven if they were to completely de-fund their childrens' inheritance, the children have already had access to the connections and name recognition provided by their fathers all to be squandered at a later date, I'm sure.
If these two assholes were true to their word, then, they would've kept their children locked up and completely isolated from the processes and resulting good tidings of their hard work, innovation and savvy.
But of course, that would've been just plain stupid.