[CrushinFelt]

I read it again even though I thought I wouldn't be able to without throwing up on my keyboard. He says so many dumb things it's really hard to believe that they came from his mouth.

[ QUOTE ]
As mentioned, that $24 billion will come from about 12,000 estates. Indeed, half of that sum will come from only about 1500 estates. The beneficiaries of each of those estates will receive millions, in many cases tens of millions or more. One point you never hear from proponents of estate tax elimination is whom they would get the $24 billion from if they didn't get it from the 12,000 large estates.

They just say, 'Free us.' They don't say who to further shackle.

Here's a suggestion: Keep the estate tax and its $24 billion, reshape it if you will, but keep the estate tax and its $24 billion. Then take a look at the bottom fifth of America. There are 23 million households in the United States with $20,000 or less of income. Many are paying payroll taxes that now total 15.3 percent. That 15.3 percent alone is more than the rate on dividends or capital gains and more than the rate on carried interest.


[/ QUOTE ]

This deserved a big w t f.

He says if the gov't doesn't receive the $24 billion, then we have to get it elsewhere (presumably because the current use for it is important), but the rich don't say where it should come from.

Then he says to give $1000 to the 23 million poorest households. This is retarded for two reasons: 1) I guess $1 billion just disappeared (maybe its a typo) and 2) This is the exact problem he just stated. He is now taking the $23 billion from wherever it was going (which was presumably too important to not fund) and is now doing something else with it. So now where is he getting the extra $23 billion that he just took from wherever it was before?!

I am not one of the heirs that is going to be taxed by this, so it's a fair question to say, "Why do you even care?" The answer to this is simple. Where do you draw the line? There will always be pressure to say "just take a little more" or "well these other people are rich enough already too". Afterall, if $1000 doesn't matter to someone inheriting $10 million, why should $2000 matter? Or $5,000, $10,000 or even $100,000?! Could any of you honestly say that if you inherited $10 million today that you would "materially" notice that $100,000 was gone? Would you react differently if someone came up to you and said "You are inheriting $9,900,000 today" versus someone who said "You are inheriting $10,000,000 today"? Probably not. And that's why something like this would set such a horrendous precident. It would put the control of an arbitrary amount of someone else's money into another person's hands without their permission.

It's outright theft that Buffett is proposing.

Edit: I'd just like to add that the other major point, which I didn't note here, was pointed out by Desert Cat. It doesn't fundamentally help to solve the main issue that Warren brought up which is decreasing the gap between the rich and poor.