The ‘Oracle of Omaha’ goes on believing

For a man who said, “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning,”[1] I have to say I was hoping for better than Warren Buffett’s (figure 1) denial that the rich are “undeserving.” “Most of them have contributed brilliant innovations or managerial expertise to America’s well-being,” Buffett wrote. “We all live far better because of Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Sam Walton and the like.”[2]

Fig. 1. Warren Buffett. Independent, May 23, 2015, fair use.

First, and most obviously, Buffett confuses exceptions for the rule. One might notice that each of the examples he cites is now dead. As for “managerial expertise,” Steve Jobs’ Apple is associated with sweatshops with high suicide rates. Sam Walton founded Wal-Mart, which is notorious for abusive labor conditions.

Inequality, Buffett writes, “is simply a consequence of an economic engine that constantly requires more high-order talents while reducing the need for commodity-like tasks.”[3] In other words, no wealth is inherited and no ‘talent’ is nurtured through access to elite institutions of higher learning or through access to well-connected social circles who may also arrange financing. Which would be to say that all the effort the rich go to to isolate themselves and their offspring in a wealth of opportunity unavailable to ordinary citizens[4] is a waste of money and energy.

Then there’s the sterling example of—and he’s still alive—George W. Bush, who prior to his presidency was involved in a number of dubious deals, including a stadium in Arlington, Texas, where his success came largely at taxpayer expense.[5] Indeed, our most prominent image of elites today is of sheer incompetence, as they use their power to protect their own positions, often with disastrous results for the rest of us, like the financial crisis and climate change.[6]

But I guess Buffett has to keep on believing in a system that he has done extraordinarily well in.

  1. [1]Warren Buffett, quoted in Ben Stein, “In Class Warfare, Guess Which Class Is Winning,” New York Times, November 26, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html
  2. [2]Warren Buffett, quoted in Alexander Ward, “Warren Buffett thinks the poor should stop blaming inequality on the rich,” Independent, May 23, 2015, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/warren-buffett-thinks-that-the-poor-need-to-stop-blaming-inequality-on-the-rich-10271780.html
  3. [3]Warren Buffett, quoted in Alexander Ward, “Warren Buffett thinks the poor should stop blaming inequality on the rich,” Independent, May 23, 2015, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/warren-buffett-thinks-that-the-poor-need-to-stop-blaming-inequality-on-the-rich-10271780.html
  4. [4]Peter W. Cookson, Jr., and Caroline Hodges Persell, “The Vital Link: Prep Schools and Higher Education,” in Great Divides: Readings in Social Inequality in the United States, ed. Thomas M. Shapiro, 3rd ed. (New York: McGraw Hill, 2005), 380-391; G. William Domhoff, “The American Upper Class,” in Great Divides: Readings in Social Inequality in the United States, ed. Thomas M. Shapiro, 3rd ed. (New York: McGraw Hill, 2005), 156-164;  C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (1956; repr., New York: Oxford University, 2000); Ralph H. Turner, “Sponsored and Contest Mobility and the School System,” in Great Divides: Readings in Social Inequality in the United States, ed. Thomas M. Shapiro, 3rd ed. (New York: McGraw Hill, 2005), 71-76.
  5. [5]Brooks Jackson, “Bush as businessman: How the Texas governor made his millions,” CNN, May 13, 1999, http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/05/13/president.2000/jackson.bush/
  6. [6]Christopher Hayes, Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy (New York: Crown, 2012).

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