Tracy,

I am sure he did gave his money as tax shelter, and believe me when I say that I do not have BG foundation in high esteem, actually ... nevermind. My point is that how would that be different if he keeps giving money to any organization or person, it can always be used as a tax shelter, or I am missing something?

Oh, unless he was saying Buffett should write checks and then not claim the tax benefits, but then how much effect would that have? Assuming he gives 60bn that would only be 60K for 1M people once in their lifetime, hardly a dent or at best a very short solution (of course I will gladly be one of those lucky million! actually, I would be better off if he gaves me the money, I know what to do with it better than him <g>)

IOW, I think Harvey's post is just smokes and mirrors used instead of giving a good reason why the super rich should not pay more taxes.


>I know you are not responding to me, but I'm not convinced that he didn't in fact give his 37 billion to a 'tax shelter.' My point was that the 37 billion split up could do a lot of good to more charities rather than just Bill Gate's foundation. His foundation does good work, but it is low on the totem pole of charties in my opinion. Not only that, Warren Buffett is a trustee of the foundation...
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>>You were just told that he gave 37 freaking billions in charity to BG foundation (not his so all your other unrelated points are not even relevant) yet you insist that he should give some money to charities?
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>>>>He gave 37billion to Bill Gates charitable foundation. He stated in an interview that he waited 50 years to find the right foundation to give to. What I don't understand is why the wait? There are plenty of worthy causes that don't have a high administrative overhead.
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>>>Ever wonder why all the uber rich have foundations? It shields their money from taxes. The foundation only has to spend 10% per year, which is much lower than the tax rate. The foundations can also provide stuff to those who work for the foundation, and usually family members are running the show. Now, I'm not saying these foundations don't do good work. I'm sure they do, but this whole bruhaha from Warren Buffett is bogus. If he wants to help people, all he has to do is write some checks and put some people in charge of doling out the money. He's not really that interested.