Warren Buffett says tax the rich

In this article written by Warren E. Buffett:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html
he says:

Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors.

He's advocating more tax on the rich but I'm worried that he's going to apply it as tax on investment, and in this case futures trading, gains. That will surely max day trading the ES less profitable.

What do you think?

Trading the ES is barely profitable anyways for the majority of traders... I think for all of the 95% who lose, 5% win everything those 95% lose... sad, but true :(

Let Warren be a Leader and send a $5 billion dollar check into the IRS and challenge the others. Or let him send that money to the New Home Building Industry that needs it so much.

dont forget Warrens in bed with GE or GE is in bed with Warren
Warren has real big stake in GE and Warren and GE are the poster child for that piece of crap

Warren kicks upstairs to Obama

BTW, if Buffer wants to tax the rich, why doesn't he donate $5 bn??? I'd live to see that :)

I don't have an opinion on Buffet, but with the highest debt in history, the wealthiest 1% are paying less tax than anytime in history, oil companies get subsidies, hedge fund managers are taxed at 15%. A person working a job that makes 50-70k a year is taxed at twice the rate or more than millionaires & billionaires. Is that fair? I believe their needs to be some changes, or the rich will get richer & the poor will get poorer. The rich don't spend, they invest. Think about it, the middle class spends & our economy is 70% consumer driven.

I did read that Buffet is going to leave his billions to charity, not his children. A noble gesture, unless you call him dad lol

The US Tax System Described With Beer Analogy

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.”Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share? They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).

The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 ( 22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

“I only got a dollar out of the $20,”declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,” but he got $10!”

“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!”

“That’s true!!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!”

“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!”

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

Great story NickP. The four poor men that paid nothing caused the others to pay more for their beer. We have a similiar problem in our tax system, 30% of the Fortune 500 companies pay no taxes at all, causing others to pay more.