- Warren Buffett met with Barack Obama years before he became President.
- The billionaire said the rich should pay more tax, and flagged wealth inequality as a big problem.
- Buffett attributed a chunk of his success to luck and defended inheritance taxes.
Warren Buffett called for higher taxes on the rich, bemoaned wealth inequality, and credited a big part of his success to luck in a conversation with Barack Obama long before he became president.
The billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO also blasted generational wealth and complained about his unfairly low tax rate while speaking to the then-Illinois senator.
Obama recounted his meeting with the billionaire at Berkshire’s headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska in his 2006 book: “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.”
Here are Buffett’s six best quotes to Obama:
- “Though I’ve never used tax shelters or had a tax planner, after including the payroll taxes we each pay, I’ll pay a lower effective tax rate this year than my receptionist. In fact, I’m pretty sure I pay a lower rate than the average American. And if the president has his way, I’ll be paying even less.”
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“The free market’s the best mechanism ever devised to put resources to their most efficient and productive use. The government isn’t particularly good at that. But the market isn’t so good at making sure that the wealth that’s produced is being distributed fairly or wisely.
“Some of that wealth has to be plowed back into education, so that the next generation has a fair chance, and to maintain our infrastructure, and provide some sort of safety net for those who lose out in a market economy. And it just makes sense that those of us who’ve benefited most from the market should pay a bigger share.”
- “When you get rid of the estate tax, you’re basically handing over command of the country’s resources to people who didn’t earn it. It’s like choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the children of all the winners at the 2000 Games.”
- Obama asked how many billionaires agreed with Buffett about raising taxes on the rich. Buffett responded: “I’ll tell you, not very many. They have this idea that it’s ‘their money’ and they deserve to keep every penny of it. What they don’t factor in is all the public investment that lets us live the way we do.”
- “I happen to have a talent for allocating capital. But my ability to use that talent is completely dependent on the society I was born into. If I’d been born into a tribe of hunters, this talent of mine would be pretty worthless. I can’t run very fast. I’m not particularly strong. I’d probably end up as some wild animal’s dinner.”
- “I was lucky enough to be born in a time and place where society values my talent, and gave me a good education to develop that talent, and set up the laws and the financial system to let me do what I love doing — and make a lot of money doing it. The least I can do is help pay for all that.”
