It is almost stock Americana to read an article about how Buffet and Gates are "great philanthropists" and "giving back" what they've earned and are now trying to persuade other super rich to give away half of theirs. Fortune had one of these recently and got a huge backlash from people like me. Most charitable institutions in the United States destroy wealth. Just go to a major University if you want to see gross, obscene waste in action. Under any reasonable scenario the returns to capital and society are far higher in private, competitive businesses. Virtually all innovation and productivity comes from there. If one wanted to make one's society better you would focus your resources on private productivity.
I can understand Bill Gates not getting this point, he's a boffin that lightning and hard work made, not a Capitalist. However Mr. Buffet is a capitalist yet he treats the system that he has gotten rich off as a game in which he is the cleverest boy rather than the sustenance of billions.
Our society is built on private wealth creation. To shift hundreds of billions of investment capital out of the productive sector and to the cliche munchers is to steal from the future. That the two richest, most successful men in America don't recognize or at the very minimum feel the need to buy approval from the wealth eaters speaks volumes about how corporatist and rigged our society has become.
No comments:
Post a Comment