I now have an amazing amount of respect for Mr. Buffett. It's so refreshing to see someone who has money, but realizes it's not everything.

Agreed Aemaeth.

it would be even more refreshing should he decide to give some my way

From Wikipedia:

"I don't have a problem with guilt about money. The way I see it is that my money represents an enormous number of claim checks on society. It's like I have these little pieces of paper that I can turn into consumption. If I wanted to, I could hire 10,000 people to do nothing but paint my picture every day for the rest of my life. And the GNP would go up. But the utility of the product would be zilch, and I would be keeping those 10,000 people from doing AIDS research, or teaching, or nursing. I don't do that though. I don't use very many of those claim checks. There's nothing material I want very much. And I'm going to give virtually all of those claim checks to charity when my wife and I die."

It may not be going in my pocket, but I'm glad to see that some billionaires have their priorities in order. He has already donated approx. 30 billion (yeah, billion) dollars in shares to the Bill and Melina Gates foundation. An admirable man.

I'm willing to bet he's the only richest man ever to have a "Philanthropy" section on his Wikipedia page.

It's worth noting that in 2006, he donated 80+% of his wealth, over $30 billion, to charity.

>> ^omnistegan:
I'm willing to bet he's the only richest man ever to have a "Philanthropy" section on his Wikipedia page.

Not necessarily. Doing some research for my website, I found out the philanthropy is the norm among the world's gazilionaires.

Large donations have been made recently by:
* Bill Gates of Microsoft to The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
* Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway to The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
* Carlos Slim Helu of Latin American telecoms to health programs in Mexico
* Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google to Google.org

Then he should give some of that Parrothead cash from Margaritaville to buy more cheeseburgers in paradise.

I'm confident that that will be the dumbest joke you'll read all day.

If you own a company, you can write off a lot of stuff, which counts against your income, and you end up paying less taxes.

If you are a W-2 payroll earner, they take out a huge chunk of taxes before your expenses, and there's not really a lot you can do about it.

Moral of the story is, if you have a good income working for yourself, incorporate and cut down on your taxes.

There's no tax shelters per se (Brokaw was being a little bit deceptive there), it's just how it is.

>> ^Aemaeth:
I now have an amazing amount of respect for Mr. Buffett. It's so refreshing to see someone who has money, but realizes it's not everything.


I hope he doesn't get shot, he has always been a great guy, but he hasn't been so vocal.

Sure money isn't everything, but thats not what 'they' want, 'they' want slavery.


HAHA, the growing "POPULARITY" of obesity AHAHAHAHA.

>> ^AceOfKidneys:

I hope he doesn't get shot, he has always been a great guy, but he hasn't been so vocal.

Actually, since he's donating his wealth to charity, his death will be reason to celebrate for many less fortunate - though I agree, he probably has even greater potential to affect change while alive.

He's either lying or full of sh-t. No attorney or tax shelters? Stupid.

If he avoided paying more taxes to the wasteful federal mafia he'd have more $$$ to give away.

The top 1% pay more than a third of all income taxes: 34.27%

The top 1% is paying nearly ten times the federal income taxes than the bottom 50%. Maybe his secretary is a millionaire.

Buffett: "I just follow what the US congress tells me to do." That about sums it up. He is making a great point here.
It wouldn't surprise me if his secretary was a millionaire, however, understand that the reason he pays so few taxes is because he doesn't spend his earnings. He is notorious for that. He drives a beater Buick or something. You can earn money-just don't spend it (in the US anyhow).
And if you own a business make sure it doesn't make any money. Then you can be like him in a way.

Wrong, Zor.
Sales tax is 6%-9% everywhere in the USA, and was not a part of any of these calculations. Income tax on someone making $100,000/year is in the 30%-40% range depending on a kilometer long list of possible deductions. However, dividends and capital gains are not considered a part of that income, and those are taxed at 15%. Very rich people derive almost all of their income from dividends and capital gains. This is why Buffett's effective tax rate was very close to 15%.

In the future, all income should be lumped in to one category, and the amount of tax you pay should be like (income - $40,000) * 0.375. It's perfectly linear, so that earning more money always results in more take-home money. Plus, it guarantees everyone a minimum income of $15,000/yr which is about what I make as a grad student (and that's about what you'd make working 40hr/wk at minimum wage).