He lives in a modest home in Omaha and will probably give more money to charity than anyone in history when all is said and done. Do you really think his political views are driven by his own personal gain?
I think Buffet likes to be comfortable. I don't think he has a need to show off.
But that doesn't detract from the fact that he sees it as a game to be played and a competition. It could be for really expensive beans for all he cares.
> He lives in a modest home in Omaha and will probably give more money to charity than anyone in history when all is said and done. Do you really think his political views are driven by his own personal gain?
Yes, because he's human and every human's political views are driven by their personal gain.
Your mistake is in thinking that money is the only personal gain. It's not. It isn't even one of the most effective motivators.
And, in Buffet's case, there's the difference between "money made" and "money spent". At some point, the latter becomes uninteresting but that tells us nothing about the former.
And, interestingly enough, Buffet's "advice for the country" always seems to be aligned with his financial stake. (He never advocates increasing the taxes that he pays and he often advocates increasing taxes in ways that benefit him - the estate tax being a prime example.)
On the contrary he has called for increasing the capital gains tax precisely because he himself (and obviously others like him) pay such low effective marginal tax rates. He even took the time to calculate that he paid an effective 17% while his receptionist paid 30%, to criticize the effects of Bush-era capital gains tax cuts.
I don't know how much more clear it can be that this is not financial self-interest.
> On the contrary he has called for increasing the capital gains tax precisely because he himself (and obviously others like him) pay such low effective marginal tax rates.
You're assuming that he's going to pay significant capital gains. He's not because he lives so cheap that he doesn't sell all that much. In other words, the capital gains rate is largely irrelevant to him.
While he lives cheap, he does like to win and increase the value of Berkshire. The capital gains tax rate does have an effect on the folks selling companies to Berkshire....
Buffet also advocates increasing the estate tax, which is a two-fer. Berkshire makes a lot of money selling insurance to help people with the estate tax. Berkshire also picks up companies because the inheritors can't pay said tax.
Meanwhile, he's arranged things so the bulk of his estate will never be taxed.
