First, he could easily raise his personal taxes by taking a salary from BH, not dividend and capital gains income. That’s his call. Then he’d be paying the same rate as his secretary.

Second, is that a “good” thing that he’s “for” taxing the rich? The “rich,” if you define them as the top 5% of all earners in the US already pay over 60% of all taxes! So, aren’t they paying enough? Over 40% of all earners pay no taxes at all. Shouldn’t they have some “skin in the game”?

Third, yes, WB donated the lions share to Gates’s foundation. We don’t need an estate tax for him to do that. He could do it in the complete absence of an estate tax. If he’s saying he wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t for tax avoidance purposes, does that diminish his gift? Surely, in the eyes of some, it would. But, more importantly, why make it difficult for others with businesses just because one billionaire wants an estate tax. I can’t tell you the hoops successful business owners have to go through to provide for payment of the estate tax so it doesn’t wipe out the business or cause it to be sold.

No, WB is a great investor. That’s for sure. He’s not a social planner and he’s not doing your readers any favors by shooting off his mouth about something he has little understanding. He’s advocating social policy that is anathema to the hard working entrepreneurs that would be ecstatic to have earned half a billion dollars, let alone WB’s multiples of billions.

Now, let’s make some money ourselves so we really have to worry about those problems!

He’s also for taxing the rich and wants his personal taxes raised; he has donated his ENTIRE stake in Berkshire Hathaway to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and, can only lose the bulk of the remainder of his (much smaller, remaining) fortune if estate taxes are preserved. Hmmmm …..

Even so, don’t get me started on Warren Buffett. He’s now a Big Government billionaire, against low income tax rates, was for “taxing the hell out of people,” and the preservation of the estate tax—not exactly a front and center agenda for the newly enterprising. Too boot, his stock hasn’t exactly held up these last few months.

What are you doing to survive, if you are right, and profit, if you are wrong? Besides crying and praying … ?

I’ll be reading with interest on how, as the months unfold, you, AJ, suggest that any of us might make $7 million in 7 years (or even 10 years) when the US banks, insurance companies, auto companies, and health care industry are all nationalized or, if not nationalized, regulated so heavily they might as well be.

As more private capital becomes subject to the whim and discretion of political favor, I’m thinking the readers of this and similar blogs, as good as the advice may have been at one time, hardly stand a chance. The very unspoken premise of your advice—a free market—is dissolving before our eyes.

Even so, a few suggestions that come to mind: party stores, gas stations, restaurants, bars and taverns, holiday baskets, scrap metal, “junk,” and any other goods or services that can be potentially sold at high volume for cash. Not all that attractive for me, an attorney.

Yet, I’m reading with interest and acting with enthusiasm because the reality is, we don’t have any other choice. God help us all.