how warren buffett-like of him
whatever one thinks of capitalism and the accumulation of great fortunes, it is impressive to see how billionaires such as george soros and bill gates develop thoughtful plans to get rid of their vast personal holdings.today i heard that warren buffett is giving away about 37 billion dollars to the bill and melinda gates foundation. this does not appear to be some old rich dude writing a check for a small percentage of his assets. this appears to be the oracle of omaha dropping the bulk of his vast and bulky set of holdings on bill gates.
giving away the money is one thing, but giving away the money to another wealthy person's foundation is a very buffett-like move. most fatcats prefer to erect large buildings and institutions in their own names, grab the tax breaks and pats-on-the-back, and leave great piles of money for their heirs. but mr. buffett is a boring old midwestern value investor, who famously stayed in his cheap li'l house in omaha as his wealth skyrocketed. he's shockingly devoid of the sort of ego that trips many of us up. after studying the gates' foundation closely, he likely decided he couldn't improve on the model and believed they'd do the right thing with his money.
i can't speak for his motivations or the purity of mr. buffett's soul, but this is exactly the sort of move that made berkshire hathaway such a spectacular success. when the world went tech and called him a dinosaur, buffett held stuff like dairy queen, fruit of the loom, and coca-cola. over the life of the fund, which is about my age now, he's delivered his investors a compound annual return of over 20 percent. that's about 20 percent better than the typical loudmouth investment guru has delivered over the period.
mr. buffett has long spoken against inherited fortunes. he's been quoted as saying one should give one's kids "enough money to do anything, but not enough to do nothing." his rare ability to accumulate money and transcend ego will likely help the gates foundation make tangible progress in their international public health and education initiatives.
posted by christopher uggen @ 9:32 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
TOTAL props for giving away most of his money, but the description of his living situation is a bit cloudy ......
You wrote he:
"famously stayed in his cheap li'l house in omaha"
1) He owns a house in Laguna Beach valued at around 4 million
2. His "cheap li'l house is omaha" is valued at 500,000...making it quite expensive for omaha.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/08/17/BU138282.DTL&type=printable
Hey There,
My name is Karen Shacham and I work with CNN Pipeline in Atlanta.
I thought you might be interested to know that CNN Pipeline will be featuring Warren Buffett’s Town Hall and press conference regarding his announcement to gradually give away 85% of his Berkshire stock to five foundations. He will be speaking at an invitation only Town Hall event, as well as a press conference later in the day. Both will be LIVE on CNN Pipeline today, the Town Hall at 11AM ET and the press conference at 1:30PM ET.
CNN Pipeline is an online, commercial-free, multiple live-news feed. It showcases four simultaneous news feeds from around the world and an on-demand function that allows you to select from a variety of news stories.
Please let your members know that they can go to http://www.cnn.com and click on the CNN Pipeline link to watch it *live* and get a two week free trial.
Thanks,
Karen
Yech, blog spam?
I'd have preferred to see Buffett give the money to the federal government to offset the estate tax compromise, but that's just me being cynical.
Saw an interview once with one of his granddaughters -- he paid her way through college (art history or something) and she's now a nanny in Berkeley. She seemed to have her head on straight but she was having a little trouble sounding sincere about being okay with the lack of an inheritance...
I agree with psp that modesty for the insanely wealthy generally means what the rest of us would see as fairly extravagant.
But if one were to be truly cynical, they could point out that a better use of his money would have been to not invest in companies such as Coke, which has a horrendous human rights record. Is it still a very charitable move to give away the money you acquired from the torture and murder of people?
But again, that's just me being cynical.
well, punk, you'd know much more about $500,000 houses than me (sorry dude -- couldn't resist). still, i understand that mr. buffett bought the laguna house for $150k and the omaha house for $32k long ago. these days, sociology professors spend more for their houses. my guess is that others on the forbes wealth list have multiple mega-estates.
i know this won't be a popular position, mike, but i think bill gates will do a better job spending the money than our federal government. microsoft is sitting on a lot of cash right now, whereas the feds have a tiny deficit problem.
sara, a few years ago mr. buffett talked about leaving a "million or two" to his kids. i'll bet he ups the figure in the next few years. maybe he'll just drop a bunch of money on the nanny without warning. i'd probably tell my kids they're getting nothing just to keep 'em cranking away on building a life for themselves.
woz makes a good point too. many great philanthropists have been robber barons and ruthless monopolists, right? the ability to give away such vast sums surely reveals something ugly about the distribution of wealth. not even rockefeller or carnegie ever gave away so much in inflation-adjusted dollars. given the current concentration of wealth at the top, however, i'm hoping that such generosity will be contagious -- either as a form of conspicuous consumption or noblesse oblige.
what really impressed me about buffett's move, however, was the fact that he didn't want to build a monument to himself. he just wanted the money doled out efficiently where it could do the most good. in my opinion, this seems like a form of positive deviance. it also gives me some insight into his success. he's got most of us beat on the "brains to ego" ratio.
Uggen....
You have three cars .... nough said
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