Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, with about $60 billion in assets each, are America's richest men. With all that money, what can they force us to do? Can they take our house to make room so that another person can build an auto dealership or a casino parking lot? Can they force us to pay money into the government-run retirement Ponzi scheme called Social Security? Can Buffett and Gates force us to bus our children to schools out of our neighborhood in the name of diversity? Unless they are granted power by politicians, rich people have little power to force us to do anything.Well said.
A GS-9, or a lowly municipal clerk, has far more life-and-death power over us. It's they to whom we must turn to for permission to build a house, ply a trade, open a restaurant and a myriad of other activities. It's government people, not rich people, who have the power to coerce and make our lives miserable. Coercive power goes a long way toward explaining political corruption.
~Walter Williams column "Rich People vs. Politicians"
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Thursday, January 8, 2009
Think about it
People decry the evils of Bill Gates in daily conversation...but should they?
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2 comments:
I would agree with the author, except for the unequal access that people like Gates and Buffett have to the people in policy-making positions. Their vote doesn't count any more than mine does, but their access is far greater. When policy makers spend more time worrying about what Buffett thinks about policy matters than what I think, that's a problem for me. His worldview is quite different from mine.
Take his position on inheritance taxes. As a man of unlimited means, he was able to give his children every advantage. They have benefitted from his connections and influence, even if he didn't hand them anything on a silver platter. My parents had much more limited means. They worked hard for every cent they earned, and it was their desire to pass something on to their children and grandchildren. They paid taxes all their lives, and didn't feel that a government that so often squandered their tax dollars should get access to the rest of it after their deaths. Besides, they would like to give their granchildren some advantages they weren't able to give their own children in their young working lives. Who are Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to say that my parents were wrong to want that? So they couldn't afford to put braces on my teeth when I was a youngster? It bothered them, and they'd like to make sure that their grandchildren get them if they need them. What's wrong with that? It's their money.
I do believe in a meritocracy, but that should include allowing families to prosper on their merit. After all, a fool and his money are soon parted. No inheritance will profit someone who doesn't exercise wisdom in handling it. That, too, has merit.
Men like Buffett and Gates don't see people as individuals, but as pawns to be moved around on a chessboard. Take their stance on the trucking industry. They've both bought railroads, and pushed rail in the halls of power as a more efficient means of moving goods than trucking. Of course, they recognize that truckers will be ruined financially by policy decisions that cripple the industry and benefit railroads. Their attitude is "that's tough." They'll need to get training in some other field. It's easier said than done for a man trying to support a family. Their comments on this topic reminded me very much of Phil Gramm's now widely decried "nation of whiners" comment.
I admire some things about Gates and Buffett, but I'm not drinking the kook-aid. Much of what they do is not as magnanimous as it appears on the surface. These men are not saints. We should stop pretending that they are. It's because lawmakers listen when men like Gates and Buffett speak, and turn a deaf ear when people like you and I speak, that we have many of the problems we have today.
And upon reading the rest of the piece, it seems the author is pretty much saying the same thing I am. Our elected officials are listening to the wrong people. .
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