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Buffett says government should do more to combat poverty
Associated Press ^ | Oct 3, 2017 4:20 PM EDT | Josh Funk

Posted on 10/03/2017 9:00:20 PM PDT by Olog-hai

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To: Olog-hai

Hey George, people end up in poverty because they try to live off govt. give outs, stupid.


21 posted on 10/03/2017 10:43:41 PM PDT by Bullish (Whatever it takes to MAGA)
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To: Bullish

oops, I should have said Warren, not George.


22 posted on 10/03/2017 10:47:08 PM PDT by Bullish (Whatever it takes to MAGA)
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To: Olog-hai

There is never any explanation for what is going to switch the motivation away from free money and free resources to the overall responsibilities of having to secure those items for one’s self. Unfortunately the die is cast and a couple of generations have grown up dependent upon government services and government funding and I don’t think that they are going to be able to give it up except in very small numbers.


23 posted on 10/03/2017 11:03:30 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (Apoplectic is where we want them!)
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To: Olog-hai

Buffett and Gates who are in the top 5 wealthiest people in the world, sheltered their wealth from taxes in the Gates foundation. He sure loves to tell everyone how they should pay more taxes. What a hypocrite.


24 posted on 10/03/2017 11:22:11 PM PDT by Gen-X-Dad
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To: Olog-hai

Yep. I thought their goal was to kill as many humans as possible?


25 posted on 10/03/2017 11:41:08 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (Screw The NFL!!!!!! My family fought for the flag!)
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To: Olog-hai

Buffett is trolling. He knows better. Government doesn’t “combat poverty”. If anything, it exacerbates it. The only known thing that “combats poverty” is a healthy supply and demand, free market economy with a motivated populace with an actual work ethic. He knows all of this, but once again, he’s trolling for whatever sick reason.


26 posted on 10/04/2017 12:45:59 AM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: Olog-hai
The headline is a bit misleading. If you read the article, Buffett's comments are a bit scattershot, but he mentions the failure of big housing projects, the need for better schools, mixed income/mixed race neighborhoods, and the opportunity to redevelop bad areas. (We do a lot of this already; it generally fails when government tries it but succeeds when the tool is gentrification.) Buffett doesn't offer a lot of specific programmatic ideas, and the devil is in the details. But he's right that mixed income neighborhoods are important and that big low-income projects are a disaster. That's been apparent for decades and Warren is a bit late to the party.

I'm tired of the constant use of Warren Buffett to advocate for higher estate taxes. Buffett put his own money into foundations. He's giving most of it away, which is a well-trodden path for people at his level, but he also set each of his children up with multi-billion dollar foundations. The kids are expected to do useful things with the money, and in fairness, they do seem to be responsible professional philanthropists. The advantages of big private philanthropy are that (1) people are spending their own money and (2) they are free to try novel things. They may not succeed, but they often expand the envelope.

The problem is, the left takes Buffett's offhand remarks about estate taxation and use it as a weapon against people who are far, far below Buffett's asset level. I'd be happy if someone pinned Warren down with specifics and proposed an estate tax rule that used a "Buffett threshold." Let everyone pass along two or three billion dollars to each of one's children, give unlimited amounts to favorite charities, and only then impose a hefty estate tax on what was left. I'm pretty sure that would protect small businesses, family farms, and upper middle class people with big houses that have appreciated in value, hefty 401(k) balances, and other successful investments. Such a "Buffett rule" would be a see and call moment for the left, which actually doesn't much care about the billionaires. The left wants to destroy the upper middle class, which they resent and envy far more than they do the truly wealthy.

People resent most other people whose success makes them feel bad about themselves. That's usually not the person whose abilities, skills, and level of success are orders of magnitude greater than one's own. It's the person who started out as a near-peer and worked harder, worked smarter, made better life choices, and saved more aggressively. At the political level, resentment is mainly the crabs in the basket pulling down the crabs that almost escape. The left is content with billionaires, especially because so many of the really wealthy are liberals. It's the successful professional or small business owner that they hate, because that's the person who showed up the faculty lounge leftists and the sign carrying street agitators with very ordinary middle class jobs and a sense of personal failure.

27 posted on 10/04/2017 3:26:55 AM PDT by sphinx
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To: Olog-hai

Well, President Trump is pushing to bring manufacturing back to this country. That should help.


28 posted on 10/04/2017 4:00:52 AM PDT by TwelveOfTwenty (Prayers for our country and President Trump)
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To: Olog-hai

You first Warren.


29 posted on 10/04/2017 4:49:52 AM PDT by sauropod (I am His and He is Mine)
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To: Olog-hai

Warren Buffet should do more to solve poverty. Take about $50-100 billion out of his stash and give it to the poor.


30 posted on 10/04/2017 4:55:08 AM PDT by MuttTheHoople (Yes, Liberals, I question your patriotism)
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To: Olog-hai

Buffett has a ton of money. By himself he could set up dozens of foundations, scholarship funds, rewards programs for marriage and two parent families. He could thus raise people out of poverty by the thousands or tens of thousands.

If he applied himself, he could be far more effective than any number of government programs. So why doesn’t he? Doesn’t want to use his own money? He’s too busy to hire results oriented people to do it?

How about he is a stinking hypocrite?


31 posted on 10/04/2017 4:58:58 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Hitlers Mein Kampf, translated into Arabic, is "My Jihad")
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To: rlmorel

Zacly!!!!!!!!!

How MANY decades with this shakedown of US taxpayers have come and gone, with all of us being screwed over so the Gov can say they have a ‘war on poverty’ program?

How many people (whole families) got/still get, wall-to-wall, perpetual assistance from tax revenue?

HOW MANY of these recipients are and have ALWAYS BEEN able- bodied people who WILL NOT work?

If you are an ‘underprivileged’ person and you DON’T have a better education, better car, better home, better insurance, better job, etc. than I do, then YOU have been asleep for 40 years or else you are dumb as dirt!


32 posted on 10/04/2017 5:17:47 AM PDT by SMARTY ("Nearly all men can stand adversity...to test a man's character, give him power." A. Lincoln)
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To: Olog-hai

Warren, please help reduce poverty. Give 99% of your wealth to the Lazy Americans...then have all of the liberals on the Forbes 400 of the richest Americans to give 99% of their wealth, then we can talk, ok.


33 posted on 10/04/2017 5:25:04 AM PDT by Deplorable American1776 (Proud to be a DeplorableAmerican with a Deplorable Family...even the dog is DEPLORABLE :-))
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To: Olog-hai

Government lead millions to poverty by eliminating the family. Maybe the government should stay out of places it doesn’t belong.


34 posted on 10/04/2017 5:29:25 AM PDT by KosmicKitty (Waiting for inspiration)
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To: SMARTY

Dang. I just spent 15 minutes typing a reply, and an an erroneous keystroke wiped it out. Breakfast is done, so I have to retype tonight...

But, in summary...I agree!


35 posted on 10/04/2017 5:51:45 AM PDT by rlmorel (Liberals: American Liberty is the egg that requires breaking to make their Utopian omelette.)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
If he applied himself, he could be far more effective than any number of government programs. So why doesn’t he? Doesn’t want to use his own money? He’s too busy to hire results oriented people to do it?

He's been giving away billions every year. Like Bill Gates, he seems to focus on liberal causes: The Sherwood Foundation® promotes equity through social justice initiatives enhancing the quality of life in Nebraska.

36 posted on 10/04/2017 6:15:13 AM PDT by alrea
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To: Olog-hai

Liberals are soooo compassionate... with other people’s money. They get to say saintly things and pose for holy pictures while they commit other people’s resources. Sheesh.

Buffet is, what?, close to 90? How about you give away your vast wealth, not just a few million here or there, but give it all away to “fight poverty”. You can keep 10 million to live out the rest of your remaining days, okay?

I am so sick and tired of these billionaires virtue signaling while they sit on more money than many foreign governments. Your 80-something! Give it ALL away and then you might have the right to start telling everybody else that they need to pony up more!


37 posted on 10/04/2017 6:22:19 AM PDT by Obadiah
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To: the_daug

Buffett is talking about the EITC combatting poverty. Yeah, right. I have a cousin that gets a huge check back every year because of EITC. A week later it’s gone. Usually on furniture. And a week after that she’s looking for someone to help pay her PG&E bill.
Wouldn’t matter how much money she had she would be broke.


38 posted on 10/04/2017 6:27:38 AM PDT by sheana
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To: Olog-hai

The only way the government can end poverty is to dismantle the welfare apparatus that enables it.

That will never happen, so poverty is here to stay.


39 posted on 10/04/2017 6:38:20 AM PDT by Skooz (Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us)
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To: Olog-hai

The American Dream succeeds for people who want to work for it. People who want to sit on their duffs and wait for the dream to come to them are disappointed. Failing to get an education, failing to apply oneself, failing to perform will not get you any kind of dream. The government isn’t going to change that.


40 posted on 10/04/2017 6:42:52 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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