...so, maybe you haven't heard the news today. But that's understandable, given the many different news outlets who have many different news stories.
But this news is big. Today the 2nd richest person in the world, Warren Buffett, announced he was giving 80% of his fortune to the charity of the richest person in the world, Bill Gates. The $30.7 billion gift is the largest on record in a long walk.
Now, when you hear this news, you will likely hear the spinmeisters on the Right rail about the elitism and how the rich look after their own.
But, what you won't hear (unless you dig a little deeper) is that Mr. Buffett, along with Mr. Gates, opposes the Republicans' attempt to repeal the estate tax, even though the pair would be the biggest benificiaries of such a repeal.
"It's a very equitable tax," Buffett said. "It's in keeping with the idea of equality of opportunity in this country, not giving incredible head starts to certain people who were very selective about the womb from which they emerged."
Buffett, the second richest man in the world, after Bill Gates, spoke less than three weeks after the U.S. Senate fell three votes short of advancing a bill backed by President George W. Bush that would permanently repeal estate taxes.
Democratic opponents have argued that a full repeal would cost the U.S. Treasury about $1 trillion over the next decade, and principally benefit the ultra-rich. Permanently repealing estate taxes is a long-sought Republican goal.
Yeah, yeah, I know what people are already saying about this charity deal:
Buffett was one of the leaders of those opposed to repealing the estate tax. By donating his fortune to his friend's charity, however, Buffett may have found a clever way to avoid the estate tax for a large part of his own fortune. We're not experts in estate planning, but we're told by those who should be that this donation will likely put a large part of Buffett's fortune out of the reach of the government.
So if you are merely a millionaire who wants your heirs to benefit from your capital accumulation, you'll get hit with a hefty tax (unless you manage to die in 2010). But if you are a billionaire with billionaire buddies who run multi-billion dollar charities, you won't lose control of your fortune to the government. Proving, once again, that the very rich are different from the merely rich.
Of course. Because, as everybody knows, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's sole goal is to make Bill Gates richer. It couldn't use its money to, say, rebuild libraries in Louisiana and Mississipi, or put an internet-ready computer in every library in the United States. No, all that money just goes straight into Bill's pocket.
But who are these "merely rich" people that this Wall Street blog is talking about? Probably the Walton family, the lead proponents of the estate tax repeal. But then, to their credit Christy, Jim, Rob, Alice, and Helen have fallen from the ranks of the very rich (6-10 on Forbes' richest people in the world in 2004) to the merely rich (17-21 in 2006), so they of course know hardship.
But why do the Waltons, with a net worth of $15 billion each, want to repeal the tax, while Buffett ($42 billion pre-donation) and Gates ($50 billion) fight to keep it?
The same reason our esteemed President and his Congress gave record-breaking tax relief to the oil companies who were making the largest profits in recorded history.
The same reason those same bodies approved a Medicare reform bill that put billions in the pockets of pharmaceutical companies while leaving the elderly and chronically sick to largely fend for themselves.
The same reason the neocons are rabidly opposed to an increase in the minimum wage while pocketing automatic yearly wage increases.
The same reason why, just today, our esteemed President sent a bill to Congress that would open up free trade to a Middle East country that employs slave labor.
The answer, of course, is greed, the most overlooked of the seven deadly sins. This greed has corrupted the right (and quite a few on the left as well) into a war that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives on the speculation that the oil, and thus the money, would flow freely. This greed has screwed workers, families, minorities, and entire cities, leaving them defenseless when monetary, social, and natural disaster strikes. This greed makes hypocrites out of people who will flip flop at the drop of the dime. And this greed is ultimately one of the most anti-American trains of thought going, thanks to tax cuts without the requisite decrease (and in fact, an increase in government spending.
Someone once said "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good." However, it is good only in the same way alcohol, cigarettes, fast driving, and food are: in moderation. Each ounce of greed must be balanced with an ounce of compassion, an ounce of philanthropy, an ounce of charity. Otherwise, what might become Warren Buffett and Bill Gates might devolve into what the Walton family has become: Desperately using all costs to keep their inherited fortunes at the expense of those who will never have to pay a dime when they get their relatives' estates, if they get any at all.