Ah, Warren Buffett, you never cease to amaze.
This past weekend the billionaire investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway wrote a controversial op-ed piece in The New York Times. In it he disclosed how much he paid in income taxes last year ($6,938,744, or 17.4% of his taxable income). And he explained that it just wasn’t enough (compared to regular people who often pay more than 30%). Buffett wrote that the super rich have been “coddled too long” and he proposed that households making more than $1 million should have their taxes raised immediately.
Buffett has remained steadfast on his argument. This week on Charlie Rose he admitted that making the rich pay more taxes wouldn’t solve the deficit gap, but it would be more fair. And “fairness is important.”
“I think it’s important that whatever is done restores to a degree people’s faith in the fact that their government can work,” he said.
Also this week, Buffett was joined in his rabble rousing by another well-known CEO, Howard Schultz of Starbucks. Schultz urged other CEOs to not make any campaign donations until Congress can sort out the country’s economic troubles.
While regular people (some 40,000 Twitter users have shared Buffett’s Times column) are excited about the super-rich folks’ pledges of solidarity. Few other super-rich folks seem to be on board with Buffett’s and Schultz’s call to action. The CEOs of NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX Group agreed to Schultz’s campaign contribution boycott. But there has been little evidence of a groundswell of support among others.
Buffett has had a good response to his Giving Pledge. The pledge invites wealthy individuals in the US to commit to give a majority of their wealth to philanthropy. People such as Bill and Melinda Gates, Barron Hilton, George Lucas, and Mark Zuckerberg have added their names to the Giving Pledge list.
While philanthropy is a rather pleasant thing to be attached to, it’s unclear if Buffett and Schultz can get similar support for something a little stickier like tax increases and campaign donations.