Chapter 22 19 Howie's Sadness

In 1980, Buffett published a fierce article in the Omaha "World-Herald", strongly attacking the extravagant life of the millionaires.In Buffett's view, a large amount of wealth, including his own, represents a pile of "owner checks" that ultimately serve society.He took aim at Hearst, who squandered his own checks on pompous St.Come on Simon, thus taking up "a great deal of human and material resources which would be devoted to other social purposes". Buffett is similarly critical of millionaires who leave fortunes to future generations.For example, the later DuPont "contributed almost nothing to society, but repeatedly claimed to donate a certain amount of production value".Buffett said with the eyes of everyone being equal, DuPont "may think he is very discerning and find that the poor have less and less food", but their own "food is too much to eat".

DuPont naturally couldn't find fault with the Buffett family.Warren has a cousin who drives a cab, a nephew who plays in a jazz band, and so on.Some of them own Berkshire stock, but Buffett is always businesslike and doesn't give them special favors or reveal inside information.He believes his family would be more "pure" without the nasty element of financial dependence. Most importantly, he wants his grown children to lead normal, independent lives.This forced him, at least in his eyes, to stop financial aid for the children.Worried about ruining his lovely children by "feeding" them, he denies them the slightest financial help that even moderately affluent fathers take for granted.

His attitude has puzzled many rich friends, (except for Munger, who basically agrees with Buffett's approach.) When the Graham group was discussing "how much money" is appropriate for the children, Buffett said hundreds of thousands enough.larry.Tisch objected: "Warren, you're wrong. If they weren't ruined by 12, they wouldn't be ruined." Kay, who was grieving at the time for her son taking over the Post, objected."That's what we (she and Buffett) were arguing about," Graham recalled. Buffett does care deeply about his children, and he is a kind, even lively father.He encouraged his children to imitate their stars, and he was patient when someone had a downturn—say, at work or in their marriage.But when money was involved he was tough and businesslike, as if the kids were just junior economic partners.There's a lot of wisdom in his approach. Billionaires should have limits, but Buffett, as in his profession, never compromises.When Suzy needs $20 to park at the airport, she has to bring back the receipt to her father.When Buffett gives loans to the children, they have to make an agreement, in black and white, clear and clear.That's how they got on the legal hook.

Many Berkshire shareholders gift their children substantial stock, but not Buffett.He only gives the children and their spouses $10,000 each at Christmas—just the tax-free limit. These restrictions give them the feeling of giving them millions.Buffett to Jerry when the kids were students.Orlans wrote a letter saying he wanted to delay giving money to the children until he understood "what fruit the tree bears" at the earliest.Susie, Howie, and Peter, in their teens, think their father still sees them as fledgling shoots.In principle they support their father's approach and are proud of it.

But they can't help wondering, as Howie puts it, why he "can't be happy," and sometimes seem to resent the monotony of incentives. In Buffett's eyes, the children's ways are very lively and straightforward. (None of them drank anything stronger than Coke.) They were all as eager as Buffett, but the flowers bloomed late.They didn't graduate from college, and their marriages were all early and unfortunate.Financially, children inherit their grandfather's share, This is what Warren invested in Berkshire for them.So they could have become millionaires without working a day.

Susie sold some of her stock (then less than $1,000) to buy a Porsche sedan, moved to Washington after her marriage broke up, and married Kay.Graham made the connection.The latter offered to help him find a management job at The New Republic. In 1983, Susie married again, with husband Alan.Granberg was a public interest lawyer turned congressional aide.Warren and his wife are content with Greenberg, the not-so-handsome but mild-mannered guy whom the Buffetts call "an ideal son-in-law, Alan." Suzy's Berkshire stock ran out when the Greenbergs moved to a house near DuPont, and the young couple rented out most of their home, leaving only a tiny kitchen .When Susie got pregnant she wanted a bigger kitchen so she could add a table after the baby was born and open a door to the backyard.She made a plan and estimated it would cost about $30,000.Susie knew her father would not pay for her, so she applied for a loan with favorable interest.

Warren declined. "Why not take out a bank loan like everyone else does?" he suggested. They had a long discussion.Warren explained that if he was a quarterback on the Nebraska football team, it wouldn't be fair to just pass the ball to his children, and the same goes when it comes to money.This answer is very "reasonable", but not "reasonable", as if Susie is just an ordinary person.She was very unhappy about it. When Susie was about to have her second child, she was often bedridden.Her close friend "Mrs. Graham" often brought food to join her for dinner, and she sent boiled peaches and frozen shark meat upstairs to the bedroom.Graham found that Susie only had a small black and white TV, and she suggested that she get a bigger color one. When Susie said she couldn't afford it, Mrs. Graham was taken aback - this is Buffett's daughter!

After all, Buffett himself has a big-screen color TV.Graham immediately called Buffett.This time Buffett showed mercy and bought Susie a decent TV. But Graham couldn't help feeling ashamed of him. Maybe money is the main driving force in his life, as if Buffett thinks everyone only cares about money.He probably thought Susie would value the new TV in money, as he did himself, or that such a gift would change his daughter's vivacious and optimistic disposition.But in Susie's eyes, it's just a TV. But Susie admired her father very much, and easily accepted his influence.She thought the incident in the kitchen was just part of what she knew about her father. "He's a very straight guy," she said, "just doesn't pay us."

For Howie, supporting his father was harder than fighting a war.He was also slovenly like his father, no tie, just sneakers.The only difference is that he is much fatter.He sold his Berkshire shares and started his own earth-digging company, but unfortunately the good times didn't last long and the company soon went bankrupt.So Howie went to work at See's Sugar in Los Angeles. He returned to Omaha in the early 80s and started a small family after his second marriage.He is in the real estate business.As a sideline, he rented a piece of land to grow crops. Warren knew that what Howie was really interested in was the farm.After a period of "self-torture," as one friend puts it, Warren made what he considered the most generous proposal.He was going to buy a farm and lease it to Howie in a standard business deal. (Howie has to give Buffett some of his income from running the farm and bear the taxes.)

Howie asked his mother why his father wanted to interfere. "Don't ask," said Susie, "we'll talk about it at the farm." But it's not that simple.Warren proposed a capped price based on the potential of the farm.howie ran on Hundreds of farms, but because the bid was too low, they could only be ridiculed and returned.He was desperate to buy the farm, but Warren refused to compromise.Finally in 1985 they bought a ranch for $300,000 in Tekamaha, Nebraska, just 45 minutes north of Omaha. "It's a typical Warren Buffett way of buying," Howey said. "We bought it at the lowest price in the market, and I think he was trying to teach me some negotiating skills."

Howie doesn't even have a phone on his farm, but it's his favorite sanctuary.Every spring and autumn, he and his family drive a tractor to plant corn and soybeans.But Warren wasn't going to spend those hours with him. "I can't have him come here to see how the crops are doing," Howie said plaintively. In 6 years, Buffett only went there twice.He dismisses Howie's newness."Bring in the rent, not less," he said. Although he had thought twice about buying the farm, Howie couldn't believe he wasn't doing it for financial reasons.He could read Howie's books, but not his crops—that's what Howie cared about most.In Warren's eyes, this is just a deal, and corn and soybeans are just commodities.He dismissed the farm stuff with a sarcasm: "Nobody goes to the supermarket and buys Howie. Buffett's corn." Warren did teach Howie something with the farm.He agreed to take less rent as long as Howie weighed no more than a certain amount each year. (He was very thin himself, which he believed contributed to his longevity. He also used money to motivate his daughter and wife to control their weight.) But most years, this apparent attempt to financially get Howie to control his weight failed. More helpful to Howie was Warren's mentorship, since Howie often sought his advice.After Howie got the farm, he decided to run for local elections like his Republican grandfather.But he worries people will think Warren is buying votes for him or worse — that Warren doesn’t support him at all.His father reassured him by declaring that he would make a small donation for him—and Howie was elected. Their relationship improved as Howie had a child of her own and began to achieve professional success.After his election, he was put in charge of promoting ethane for the committee.The ethane policy gave him a chance with Doyne.Andrew - Archer involved in politics.Church.Chairman, Midland Corporation - Contact.Finally Andrew hired him and became a flying manager.Warren boasted to a friend that Howie was "more capable" than he was, a way of expressing his pride in Howie.Howie said Buffett would be "sincerely happy" with the children's success, just as they would be "sincerely happy" with their father's praise. Warren's youngest son, Peter, has publicly acknowledged as much.He opened a music studio after dropping out of Stanford.Despite Buffett's strenuous opposition, he sold his Berkshire shares and bought a 24-track tape recorder for $30,000.But he soon discovered that it didn't bring him much income. Still, he and his wife slowly built a music production company in San Francisco and later moved to Milwaukee.Although he could only write jingle pieces, he criticized the dancing around the fire scene in the movie Dances with Wolves.He recorded several popular albums by New Age bands. On a cold Milwaukee morning, Peter escaped from his soundproof glass music room, where two musicians were cutting commercials and started talking about his father.He couldn't help thinking of Warren's clumsy attempts to influence him.He had invited Peter to play at this unique evening at the Alffa Club in Washington, on the condition that Peter cut off his silly ponytail.Peter didn't thank you. "He always likes to attach strings," Peter said.In recent years Warren has begun giving her children $10,000 in stock for Christmas.Peter thought it was a "signal". "There's a string attached. The money can't be spent. If you invest in it, it will increase in value. It's a test of our patience." "I sold most of my stock. I'm glad I did," added Peter, his ponytail neatly tied with a rubber band. "I didn't have to wait. It was nice." But He soon said he regretted that his father hadn't told him—or he hadn't listened carefully—that he could have borrowed money from it without selling it. Peter clearly likes to get to the bottom of things.It seemed like he was also curious about Warren's character.He is very proud of his father's achievements and morals.He recalls Warren telling him once, "Someday you're going to have to tell your daddy, go to hell!" a proof of .Did Warren tell his dad to go to hell?Peter didn't know. Peter's understanding of his father deepened after he became a successful musician.When Peter and his 15-piece band played the piano to an audience of 700 in Milwaukee, Warren was there and raved about him.He said to his son, "We all do the same thing." That was the best compliment for Peter. By the end of the 1980s, Peter, who had bought the "Father's Handbook" for his withdrawn father as a child, finally learned to communicate with his father.When Peter's marriage fell apart, Warren comforted him with a level of sympathy he'd never felt before.Once, father and son were walking on Farnan Street in the late night breeze, and Peter naturally talked about his mother.Warren said he wished Suzy had been in his Buffett world for a while longer. "We talked about how much opportunity mom has to do what she wants," Peter said.Warren fell silent suddenly, as was his habit when he was emotional.Peter recalls: "We went on until two o'clock in the night. After the conversation, I only had one feeling: My God, it turns out that Dad has so many emotions.You can tell by his expression and his reticence.I'm so touched. " Warren's relationship with the family has a new chapter, but his relationship with Susie is still nowhere.She directly explained to him more reasons for leaving.They understand each other and are candid.Their nephew Tom.Rogers said there was no need for Buffett at all to "try to make up their relationship, they were each other's shadow. Once Aunt Susie made up her mind, he would go forward like Uncle Buffett and never waver.” Warren is in constant contact with his wife.They meet often.He still loves her as before.They are in Westchester County Tom.After spending the night at Murphy's house, with Stan.Lipsey went back to Manhattan in the same limousine.They sat in the back and held hands all the way."It's going great," Susie told a mutual friend, referring to Warren's goal of staying married to her. In 1987 Warren made a big contribution to the family.He let his son-in-law Alan.Greenberg manages the Buffett Foundation.As always, the generosity came with conditions—Susie and Alan had to move to Omaha.They agreed and bought a house a few blocks from the Warrens.Suzy soon joined Warren's logistical network.When he needed a car, she went to the salesman and picked one out for him.When the annual meeting was held, Suzy helped him schedule events.She went to Omaha to serve her father. Since Warren pays her son-in-law only $49,846 a year, little Susie lives like any other woman with children in Omaha.I happened to visit her once when her son was born.Susie was bathing the baby.She has no nurse and no babysitter.Ironically, some people who want to make money often mistakenly think that Susie has the key to open the door to wealth, so Susie has to be left and right. There was a Warren who accompanied Microsoft billionaire wunderkind William.Gates visits Poshan's jewelry store.In one corner they spotted a small box marked "Buffett Reservations."Buffett asked whose it was.One of the clerks timidly admitted that Susie had bought a string of pearls in installments.Buffett paid the money as a birthday present for Susie.He began to find it ridiculous to spend money on Poshan.Another time he said as if he had discovered a new world: "Well, Sue, women really love jewelry." Warren found the house much bigger when Susie was around.Susie often left the children with the Warrens in Asked's care, which brought the Askeds closer to the Buffetts.Suzy even As far as persuading Aschid to rearrange the house, the lively pattern that is disappearing there was originally arranged by Susie's mother.Asked and Susie worked together to decorate the room more warmly, and in the kitchen there was an old-fashioned toaster collected by Asked. (Warren's wife is on better terms with her girlfriends at home. The wonderful trio always sent gifts to relatives with cards that read "Warren, Susie and Asked". ) Little Susie and her children are always around Warren, which humanizes him.He would run to the Greenbergs' house in his old tracksuit, sprawl on the floor and play with his two grandchildren.At dinner he listened inattentively to the family chatter, pursed his lips, tapped his chin, made a wisecrack, and added salt with every bite of his hamburger.He to Kay.Graham said Susie's return to Omaha changed his life.He even gave Susie a ruby ​​bracelet.Usually he doesn't even like gestures. Seeing "fruit on the tree," Warren gradually felt relieved.He made his daughter a director of the Buffett Foundation and relaxed his succession policies a bit.The children will likely get about $3 million each. (He didn't say how many.) But no matter the amount, he couldn't make Susie, Howie, and Peter live the obnoxious "super rich" lives.Apart from improving their lives, he doesn't think children have the right to spend big bucks.That way they would have too much money, which he considered the wealth of society. "I've always been fair. That's why I think it's enough to have food for the rest of my life," he said. "The money has to go back into society." But his compassion is very contradictory to the money he gives the children.He was never happy when he gave, even to charitable causes.His friend James.Bock (who left Johnson-Johnson to join the Campaign for a Drug-Free America) said Buffett had a "handicap" and that if he shelled out money, he had "less tools to make money with." For years, the Buffett Foundation has been the butt of jokes.When Buffett had $150 million in 1979, his donations totaled just $725,000, and he only gave away $38,453 that year.But after Buffett started the Berkshire philanthropic program in 1981, Suzy and he used it to fund the foundation.Buffett has steadily increased the company's giving.Of course it didn't rise as fast as Berkshire's stock price.By 1990, each shareholder could donate $6 from Berkshire's money to his favorite charity, or Buffett and Susie indirectly donated $3 million. The classic feature of this plan is that it does not require Buffett to pay for it.It's not part of his personal or Berkshire's tens or hundreds of millions.He doesn't pay a penny for the foundation.Even these indirect contributions through the Berkshire plan have nothing to do with his $4 billion fortune. Buffett's stinginess is often criticized by friends.They knew he cared about society and that he didn't spend the money on himself.Personally, they thought he was quite "generous" - a word they used often.With one exception, he gave childhood friend Bob every Christmas.Russell's mother a small sum of money. (This was caught in a banking blunder.) More typically, he's generous on non-financial matters, like handwriting thought-provoking texts to people or offering them timely advice.But even when close friends asked him for money or something useful, he always shrugged it off.When the writer Geoffrey.When Kirwan learned that NPR's successful news program, "The Weekend," was having financial trouble, he called Buffett for help.If "Weekend Arrangement" can't collect 50,000 yuan immediately, it will have to stop broadcasting.Under this kind of social pressure, most people will pay some money. But Buffett has such a strong personality that he doesn't feel at all unnatural when he says "no."He didn't pay a dime.Another friend Ann.Landers often advised him not to hold on to the money too tightly.She said she did her best to persuade Buffett to be interested in "doing something for the world." What he does is to accumulate, to make money, to make money, to accumulate.but for what?He bought an airplane and liked it very much.At Let's take an airplane as an example: look at how much fun this airplane has for you!It would be fun if you donated some of your money.He just smiled - making money, making money, are you interested? Buffett's scorn for philanthropy stems in part from an affair he had with Grinnell University in the 1970s.His friends persuaded him to join the school's board of trustees, and Buffett turned the small art school in Iowa into an economic powerhouse.Under his stewardship, Grinnell spent $13.6 million of donations to buy a Dayton television station, which he sold four years later for $48 million.But to his surprise, he discovered that the school had spent some of this windfall in a way he didn't like, that the money had been spent by the professors without being used to improve the quality of education. This turned him off from higher education, although he still provided scholarships to many students.“Warren would rather choke to death on money than write a check to the university,” Greenberg said. When his mother came to his office with the fundraisers from the University of Taraska, he wouldn’t even open the door— Although he is an avid fan of the school's football team. Buffett's view of philanthropy is somewhat like investing.He rejects "diversification", and would rather invest money in certain "high-efficiency" things to obtain the greatest social benefits.And he wants to be able to monitor his donations, because he thinks part of most donations are spent on lunch by administrators.When he once invited friends to Laguna Beach as a host, Buffett asked a well-thought-out question: "If you had to donate to one cause, which one would you choose?" He seemed to be looking for a philanthropic cause for Coca-Cola, a domestic one that would gradually reduce the need for social investment.This kind of thinking works fine for stocks, but not so well for utilities.Because programs that require money, such as medical research, can quickly benefit patients.Donors are willing to bear some losses.But others, such as fine art, which, in Buffett's words, are "good for all," may be a nonsense thing. (While it makes sense to be “good for some,” society as a whole is much duller if no one invests in museums.) In other words, measuring society’s progress is not as simple as measuring Coca-Cola’s profits.But Buffett wanted to see "concrete results." Because of these constraints, he found it difficult to find a suitable public cause.The Buffett Foundation is nominally managed by Greenberg, but in reality it is in the hands of Warren and his wife.Most of its proceeds are set aside for future donations.By 1990, the foundation's income from Berkshire and its various stocks was $3.8 million.But it only donated 2.3 million.At that time, its capital was nearly 18 million, which was really like a small Berkshire.It only donates to a small number of carefully selected causes, and its assets "continuously accumulate." Buffett has two main reasons for this.Ever since Hiroshima, he has worried about nuclear war, and disarmament is beyond the reach of ordinary citizens.Buffett admired the research of the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, George F. Garnan, who was an active advocate of nuclear disarmament while at Princeton. In 1984, Buffett learned of William, a negotiator at Harvard Law School.Yug is working on ways to prevent sudden wars.He invited Yuli to Boston's Ritz-Carlton for a New Year's dinner, and told very humanely his worries about the final war.When talking about China, he used an analogy and asked Yuli to predict the future situation.He said, for example, there are thousands of white stones on the table, of which there is only one black, if someone picks up one stone every day.So sooner or later, maybe 100 years later, he will pick up the black one.That is nuclear war. Yuli had proposed creating "some buffer centers" between Moscow and Washington, where communication lines could be opened in times of crisis by telephone and fax.But Yuli said that the United States was very hostile to the Soviet Union during the Reagan presidency. Buffett said: "You see, this is the other side of human nature. We have built a system that can destroy the whole world. world. "He then said: 'I support you, I'm going to give you $100,000. "(In the end, the foundation actually provided 200,000.) When Reagan and Gorbachev held summit talks in Geneva, they agreed to build a buffer center, which is still to this day. But until the end of the Cold War, Buffett has been unable to do anything about disarmament. The underlying rationale for all of Buffett's careers is population control.For example, 75 percent of the donation in 1990, or $1.7 million, was used for family planning, sex education, birth control, and the Abortion Rights Act.Both Susie and Buffett believe in this, but there are differences between the two.Susie because she was deeply touched by the poor living conditions of people in the third world, especially women, while Warren looked at the issue from a macroeconomic perspective.Like the demographer Malthus, he worried that overpopulation would cause many other problems, such as food, housing, and even human survival. Both of his ideals are practical.The purpose is all to reduce or prevent future unfortunate events such as wars and overpopulation.But he would not spend a dime of his vast wealth to help the poor, the sick, the illiterate, and the ghetto, nor would he donate to the local concert hall, museum, university, and hospital (only abortion and planned Except for maternity programs).Since he only cares about the macro economy and the future, Buffett's philanthropy seems to have nothing to do with the present, and even a bit unreasonable. He sees ordinary philanthropy as a "waste" of his money.Viewed another way, donations to population control can also be interpreted as an "investment", a global redemption of shares, as fewer people will claim dividends in the future.Charlie, who is also a supporter of Malthusian population theory.Munger, welcome Kath.This point was made at the Lussel banquet.The latter is Munger's and Buffett's warrior on the issue of strengthening the Bellows abortion rights bill.Many of those present who were former patients of Russell congratulated him on the many babies he delivered, and Munger raised his glass to his feet and said, "I want to drink to the babies Dr. Russell never delivered." One of the strangest aspects of Buffett's concern with population control is that he's not happy that people are getting his help.He used to ask people if they had any good ideas for public good - as if there were too few such things in the world.But often nothing.He always thought that the receiver might be worthless, that neither the benefactor nor the beneficiary of a charitable event was good.Interestingly, Buffett is equally disturbed when receiving handouts.Once he ordered a chocolate malt at Goodrich's in Omaha, only to find that the smallest bills around him were $100.Unfortunately, it was too late, and the dairy store couldn't be found.An old woman knew that Buffett didn't come to the store very often, so she kindly paid for him.Buffett insisted on paying her back the dollar and fifty cents, but he couldn't remember her name, which was so painful.Perhaps because of a disturbed conscience, he finally found the old lady and returned the money to her. One of the public welfare activities that makes Buffett most happy is that the foundation gives 10,000 US dollars in bonuses to teachers in 15 public middle schools every year.The bonuses are all named after Buffett's aunt Alice.As a teacher, she loved Buffett during his childhood with his grandfather.The award criteria for the winners is performance, because this bonus is not food relief.Buffett often points out that rich people like to throw money at colleges so that their names can be engraved on a certain building, but they simply ignore elementary schools, which have a greater impact on children.He established the award as a thank you to Omaha. But his absence from Omaha's usual charity events often draws criticism from many seniors.There is a local factory owner Robert.“Warren has a reputation for not spending money,” Dougherty said. In Omaha, you don’t see a single sign that one of the wealthiest people in the country lives here.There is no Buffett Hall in the Joslin Museum, there is no Buffett Park in the city, and there is no Buffett position in the regional university. After a few years of apparent indifference, Buffett once again pays for a foundation - Sherwood ① There are exceptions.For example, in 1982, Buffett donated $100,000 to a library in West Point, Nebraska in the name of his grandmother; More typically, in 1992, he gave a $400,000 gift to Columbia University's School of Public Health for use in Planned Parenthood medical activities. Foundation, which only provides funding for philanthropic causes in Omaha.Though it's much smaller than the Buffett Foundation, it shows that Buffett, now 60, finally understands what Omaha did to make him up, and he gets largely nothing in return. To Omaha's surprise, despite being a cheapskate, Buffett has a strong sense of community.Politically, his disdain for fundraising did not lead to imaginary conservatism, but his strong belief that government should represent society as a whole rather than serve certain sectors.Long before people attacked "special interests" in 1977, Buffett sharply criticized "the bad habit of many groups in society to use electoral power to divert rather than solve economic problems." Since then, he has often written suggestive proposals to solve economic problems, published in the Washington Post.The theme is usually "widening the pie" rather than "re-dividing the pie," (as he mocks Wall Street's "re-dividing the pie.") One of the ideas can simply avoid the pitfalls of trading without using quotas, Tariffs and red tape.Under this brilliant idea, the free market only needs to figure out how many Nissan trucks to import and how many Adidas running shoes to export, and the government can limit the total amount of imports and exports with only one decree.The premise is that society's overall trade balance has a certain weight without the need for coordination and arbitration among multiple industries - which in fact does not work very well. Although he is not opposed to the government's solution to the actual "food and clothing problem", he is cynical about the government's measures.In one of his fiercely worded articles, he used a metaphorical warning of an "island of stability".It was a hypothetical society with a stable population who only grew rice and produced baijiu in large quantities.Since it is a "compassionate island", workers will provide food for the elderly who are unable to work.Buffett said that when the number of retirees increases day by day, through simple calculations, we can conclude that the workers have to work hard and have no alcohol to ensure the large statutory quotas of their ancestors. Many of his proposals refer to the neoconservative approach of constraining people's selfish behavior rather than relying on their "human goodness."Unlike his wife, Warren disagrees with "human goodness." Susie and Larry in the 1970s.Kim became friends.He started a credit union that pretended to be offering credit to black people.Although Jin's salary is only 16,200 yuan, he drives a white Mercedes-Benz, wears a gold watch, wears zebra fur coats and leopard fur coats, and often goes to high-end evening parties.He lied to half of Omaha, including Susie.But he couldn't fool Warren.He said bluntly: "I know Kim is a liar. I think he knows I know too. I'm probably the only person in Omaha who hasn't been asked for money by him." Big prison. On another occasion, Susie asked Warren to fund Charles, a civil rights activist in Omaha.washington.Warren, skeptical as he was, lent him $24,900. Six months later, Washington missed its debt payments. Warren was disgusted by the small amount of money being scammed, so he sent Washington to the dock.It was the only time in his life that he sued someone else. Among the national politicians, Buffett is very close to several of them, such as Daniel.Parker.Moynihan, Bill.Bradley and Bob.Kelly.But unlike most CEOs, Buffett doesn't flatter them.Textile trade groups have repeatedly asked Buffett to help lobby for import protections, but he has never done so, even though his own mills would benefit from them. There is one more dramatic thing.Berkshire's deposits and loans are part of the Federal Reserve. Like other similar institutions, the Federal Reserve sees itself as tasked with securing the largest possible slice of the government pie for its members.Even after the S&L scandal (its members owed taxpayers $100 billion), it lobbied for more money. ① Six years before that scandal erupted, in a strikingly prescient prediction, Munger noted: "An agency of the US government (The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) continues to insure savings accounts in the S&L industry as it has done before, and the result is bound to be more and more S&Ls. 巴菲特和芒格不清楚说客们是否还有社会良知，但他们退出了该组织以示抗议。芒格几年来一直对S＆L的危险信号提出警告，他在报告上发表了一封信，尖锐地抨击了委员会“修饰自我服务的废话”的作法。 由于委员会长期以来已明显地误导了政府，它应就给纳税人造成的损失公开道歉，并保证不再变本加利地进行误导。 虽然巴菲特嘲笑政府对联储的袒护，但他完全不同意新保护主义者认为市场判断永远正确的观点。他不同意眼下时髦地认为自由市场是个人价值的最终判断者的论点。从事不重要工作的人，尤其是妇女从未发现巴菲特有自高自大，目中无人的行为。有一次他把自己同秘书对比时，他同意秘书“可以带孩子和参加社团活动。市场社会对她的许多才能的评价方法并不一样。 如果把我扔到阿富汗或什么地方，你就会发现我有什么才能了。 " 作为一个亿万富翁，他是十分激进的。当然他的政界朋友都是民主党人，但他的某些观点与他们相比要左得多。有一次在大都会公司的Q＆A，有人问如果他有权改变税收法，他会怎么做。“如果我真有这样的权利，我会让你大吃一惊的。”巴菲特说。他要对个人消费课以重税，并收取很高的遗产继承税。 如果我想坐飞机旅游，我是这么干的，那好，我用支票结算。但必须对我课以重税，因为我消耗了社会的人力和燃料资源等等。 他的观点如此自由，但人们不理解为什么他做得不够多。芒格虽然对公益事业也持讽刺态度，但他是个慷慨的认捐者，而且与一家医院和私立学校牵连甚深。但巴菲特拒绝参加进去。Norman.利乐有一次请他在为一条叫商业企业托拉斯组织的颁奖仪式上做个简短的介绍。巴菲特对此组织很信任，因为它表彰的是对社会有贡献的商人。他表示无论发生什么情况都一定到场，但同时明确表示不愿做演讲，因为他每个月都收到50个类似的请求。利尔感到很沮丧，他不相信似地补充说：“其实他只要走上12级台阶，到台上做个半分钟的介绍就可以了。” 巴菲特认为，每个人都想从他身上捞一把，就像带着相机的旅行者追寻有色土著一样。Kay.格雷厄姆认为他的自我保护是为了坚持自己的做法，不管是在公益事业上还是其他方面。抓着钱是保证控制权的一种办法。当他还是个孩子，为凯。格雷厄姆当报童时，他就不让母亲碰他的钱。 成年后的巴菲特对他的474948股伯克希尔的股票也是如此。bill.盖茨时常卖点他的微软股票，李。艾柯卡卖点克莱斯勒等等，但巴菲特对他的漂亮股票就连一个角都不愿撕。可笑的是，伯克希尔如此上涨，却没为他的口袋里增加一毛钱。 从社会的观点出发，他争辩道这是件好事情。他现在能给的毛票不只是自己的毛票了。它的一笔钱代表着街上的两毛五和半美元。“我想，”他说，“现在存在的严重的社会本质问题，在我死了之后仍会存在。”他计划把股 胆大。格莱欣法则（劣质贷款驱逐好的贷款）可能只对充分竞争的而不是存款被保险的机构发生效应，如果'胆大妄为取代了保守稳健'，最终定会出现由大胆信贷扩张导致的灾难引起的大范围破产。 " 票留给苏茜。不管谁先死，活着的那位都要把它遗赠给基金会。那样社会就可以从他积累的财富中得到更大的利益。这个观点无疑是正确的，但仍带有成见。到80年代末90年代初，巴菲特本来每年只要拿出1%的收入，就可为“严重问题”提供数千万美元而不影响他的财富积累。 读者也许会想，他对财富的控制欲会不会至少是部分，因为他不仅想控制自己的生活，而且想控制死亡。只有人才希望或相信在某一伟大的旅程中是不会死的。以巴菲特的“人心之不可测”的观点看，他对伯克希尔的控制，或许可以保护他一生不受恐惧的侵袭。也许与林肯一样，在这一场战斗结束之前，上帝是不会召唤他的。只要他仍在不断积累，事情就还没结束。