Warren Buffett on taxes

During a Q&A at the recent Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, the world's second richest man said:

The tax breaks for the wealthy that have been enacted are extraordinary. Most members of the Forbes 400 pay a lower portion of their income in taxes than the receptionist in our office does. That wasn’t true 30 years ago—and it should not be true in a rich society. In 2004, my tax rate was the lowest of anyone among the 15 or 16 people who work in our office. And that wasn’t because of any tax shelters I invested in (I don’t own any tax shelters) or any special tax advice I got. It’s crazy.

The media hasn’t conveyed the extent to which the typical individual hasn’t shared in the prosperity of the past 10 years as much as the wealthy have.

It's too bad that Warren Buffett has never showed much interest in financing any opinion journalism. It would be nice to have a patron who is both insanely rich and sane, rather than vice-versa, which is closer to the truth for a lot of the moguls who currently subsidize opinion journalism.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer