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The Conspiracy Letters
Join the fray! Email us at letters@poorandstupid.com. We reserve the right to publish all letters with authors' names, unless specified as not for publication or for publication anonymously. Letters may be edited for clarity and brevity.
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
EYEWITNESS IN OMAHA I live in Omaha. Receptionists here are lucky if they make more than $10 an hour.Warren Buffett ("Warren's World" National Review Online 5/21/2003) is an icon here as well as everywhere else, but trust me, he is not generous. The big charitable families here are the Skutts (Mutual of Omaha), the Swansons (Swanson's Chicken), Lied (who is dead and made his money in South America but left a huge fortune to a charitable foundation that benefits various Nebraska cultural and charitable organizations), and a handful of others.
Buffet gives $10,000 bonuses to a couple of outstanding teachers every year. Nice, but scarcely a sweat for someone of his wealth. He lives with his girlfriend in the house he was born in and their kitchen chairs don't match. In other words, he's tighter 'n a tick, as we say around here. But a big, big Democrat/socialist -- except when it comes to his own wealth. He claims he will leave his fortune to health research.
He's actually a nice, easygoing guy, but heaven did not arrive in Omaha when Warren landed here.
Anonymous
Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 5:27 PM |
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A MODEST PROPOSAL Warren Buffett's ("Warren's World" National Review Online 5/21/2003) ascension to financial virtue deity is a version of the words echoed by the evil, millionaire, incest-loving Noah Cross in the film Chinatown: "Whores and buildings become respectable if they stay around long enough."
It's curious that you don't see wealthy billionaire elites (or conservatives, evangelical Christians, etc.) quoted on the front page, given the lead story on the nightly news or offered an op-ed in major newspapers unless of course they're championing liberal causes and spending our tax money. Just as Judicial Watch was a "right wing tool" out to bring down Clinton that was dismissed or ignored until it went after Vice President Dick Cheney. Then it became a political watchdog group and front page news and front and center on the major networks.
I'm not in any way knowledgeable on finance or accounting practices, but I find it odd that these millionaires/billionaires lecture us on how we should spend on our money and what we should surrender to the government. Buffett and many celebrities (Ben Affleck once stated he pays too little in taxes and happy to pay what he does) claim they earn too much and don't pay enough in taxes, yet, as you pointed out, I don't see them overpaying taxes or telling the IRS to keep the refund. I'm also certain that all these generous geniuses on taxes and money have teams of wise accountants to dig out every loophole and deduction they can find --- I doubt they're filling out and submitting the EZ IRS form.
And, further, if these people on the left have so much faith in the government to spend our money wisely, ask them if they would invest in the government if it was a business? How do our tax dollars do in terms of ROI, Mr. Buffett? If you're against excessive bonuses and the like, why is it that you've got no problem with Congress getting automatic pay hikes and the way all government spending increases every year? Would you, Mr. Buffett, accept the waste and fraud within Berkshire Hathaway as it is tolerated across the board in government programs and agencies? Would you, Mr. Buffett, continually feed billions into social and education programs with no oversight, no stated goals, no stated beginning, middle and end objectives and no evaluation or standards if it were your dollars alone feeding the monster?
Finally, why is it that all these people who scream for more taxes don't just give their money away to the poor, unfortunate and the needy they claim to champion? The Gates, Buffetts, Streisands, Sulzbergers, Clintons et al., billions and billions in the bank. They lecture us all about what we should do with our money and how we don't need our tax money. Why not just go out and write checks to people? Give the money away and end poverty and hungry now? Just go from city to city and say here poor people, I will feed you, clothe you, build you houses and educate you and take care of every need. That will even things out.
Further, instead of selling your million dollar homes and buying new ones, why not just give it to homeless people to live in? I often see in magazines and newspapers that some celebrity or wealthy person that champions liberal causes is selling their mansion and looking for newer, larger digs. Mr. Homeless Advocate, President Josiah Bartlett (Martin Sheen) put his home up a year or so ago and I wanted to write him and suggest he offer it up to the homeless as a shelter. Of course, I doubt he would do that. It's one thing to spend our money, it's quite another to dip into your own pocket.
But I think the Buffetts and Sheens of the world could lead the way. To practice as they preach and illuminate for us what true giving is all about.I'm certain there will be some left over for what we, the taxpayers, will judge and impose upon you as "enough" for you to live comfortably (just as the left seems to easily judge and impose upon us what is "enough," what is "rich," what is "greedy" and what is "compassionate").
Scott Balthazard
Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 5:24 PM |
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BENNETT UP, BUFFETT DOWN Thank you for "Warren's World" (National Review Online 5/21/2003). It's about time someone blasted that hypocritical, pompous self-crowned King Buffett. I clean houses for a living (yes, I'm a "cleaning lady") and I feel I understand more about how the economy really works than Buffett ever will. If I could buy and sell stocks with the same degree of legal insider trading information Buffett enjoys, I too could be fabulously wealthy. Up with Bennett, down with Buffett!
Vicki Weir
Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 5:11 PM |
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Monday, May 19, 2003
WARSH'S STING This from David Warsh has really got to sting:"But the Times' various campaigns have been startling nevertheless -- including the one waged since the last election against George W. Bush.Warsh is probably the consensus pick as the finest economics journalist of the day. In fact, Krugman seemed to think so back in his Slate days (remember the Brian Arthur controversy). Krugman wrote, replying to John Cassidy:
"And while the Times op-ed page possesses two of the most talented commentators in the business in Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman, the failure of its editors to hold them to elementary standards of courtesy and fair play has created the impression that the paper no longer cares about the place it traditionally has occupied among newspapers."
"I think that David Warsh's 1994 article in the Boston Globe says it all. If other journalists would do as much homework as he did, I wouldn't have had to write that article."Patrick R. Sullivan
Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 12:59 PM |
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