

Tax the Rich, Buffet says - markbao
http://www.forbes.com/personalfinance/2008/05/01/buffett-vahan-janjigian-pf-ii-in_ty_0430soapbox_inl.html

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muerdeme
I think the biggest thing that troubles me about our tax system is how much
time is wasted trying to figure out how much we owe. Individuals and
corporations alike have incentives to devote resources solely to minimizing
their tax burden. I'd argue that a simplified tax scheme would cause a non-
trivial increase in productivity that would be a boon to both the government
and the people.

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mynameishere
There are many 100s of 1000s of accountants, lawyers, and lobbyiests who all
depend upon the bizarre tax codes for their jobs. In addition, many companies
depend upon their various loopholes... They represent both wasted labor and
vested interest.

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gills
sounds like an opportunity for an efficient startup...

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etal
I think that startup is called Ireland.

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davidw
This is probably the kind of content that isn't that good for a site like
this: it's politics.

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garbowza
I think economics is great content for a community of smart commenters.

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davidw
I think economics is fascinating too. The problem is that there would
certainly be big disagreements, combined with less actual expertise in the
subject. That creates something of a toxic mix. So why not stick to discussing
what we know best? That would be in keeping with the principle of comparative
advantage:-)

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jamiequint
I've wanted a news.yc style site for economics for a while now, but don't
really have the time right now to make it and foster it to critical mass.
anyone else interested?

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rms
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=180177>

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patrickg-zill
I don't know if Buffet is a hypocrite; however his insurance business does
stand to gain a huge amount of business should inheritance taxes increase in
one form or another. Reason is that insurance companies sell lucrative
insurance contracts on old founders who are near death, so that when they die
the insurance payoff covers the tax penalties. The insurance contracts are
written off by the company while the person is alive and then the payoff pays
the death taxes.

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byrneseyeview
I had no idea that Berkshire was so involved in the life insurance industry,
rather than reinsurance! He's very modest about it in their annual reports,
apparently.

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patrickg-zill
A quick look at Wikipedia's entry on Berkshire Hathaway would have revealed
that BH owns Geico, General Re (reinsurance) and yes, some life insurance
companies as well.

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byrneseyeview
That's true. Perhaps the part of my comment referring to Berkshire's presence
in the reinsurance industry was a subtle clue that I was aware that they had a
presence in the reinsurance industry. It would be helpful to explain why
Berkshire's CEO would sacrifice his excellent reputation as a fair guy -- a
reputation absolutely necessary to Berkshire's strategy of deploying capital
cheaply by being the buyer of first resort -- in order to enhance the
performance of "some [nameless? nonexistent?] life insurance companies" rather
than his flagship holdings like Geico, General Re, MidAmerica, Marmon, etc.?
It's a crazy theory. I think the death tax is a poor idea, but this Buffett
fellow seems legit.

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Prrometheus
Why give more money to the largest and most inefficient institution in the
world - the US Government?

And yes this is politics, not hacker news. I may not be able to restrain
myself from market anarchist rants every time this comes up, which would tend
to reduce the quality of the site.

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anamax
This is the same Buffet who argues against abolishing the inheritance tax even
though he's arranged things so that almost all of his money will go untaxed.
Also, the inheritance tax helps him buy companies cheap. (It forces the
children to sell.)

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gwc
I think it's a stretch to call Buffet anything but consistent on his stance
about inheritance tax.

[http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1986/...](http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1986/09/29/68098/index.htm)

Key (and famous) quote: "[the perfect amount to leave children is] enough
money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that
they could do nothing."

Notice the date - 1986.

