Warren Buffett: Another Liberal who Presumes to Speak for All

As I'm sure you've heard by now, billionaire Warren Buffett is running his mouth and saying that the rich, like him, should pay more in taxes.  Combine that with President Obama's "millionaires and billionaires" rhetoric, which ignores the fact that many "millionaires" make less than $250,000 per year because they are business owners that are sole proprietorships, and all we have is talking points from a uber-wealthy liberal and Democrats who want to spend more.

Here's the bottom line:  Warren Buffett is welcome to do whatever he'd like to do with his money.  It's his property.  If Mr. Buffett feels he isn't taxed enough, the address to send extra money to is:

Department of the Treasury

1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20220

Feel free to send in whatever money you think will put you up to being taxed enough by your own standards.  Anyone else who feels that they aren't taxed enough are welcome to donate what they feel is their own "fair share." 

The point that gets ignored by liberals is one of personal property.  I've said it countless times:  It's not the government's money, and it's not the population's money.  Warren Buffett is rudely presuming to tell all people what they should do with their money in the form of taxes.  Neither the government nor the people are inherently entitled to someone else's property (money is property, folks) in any way, regardless of how much of said property they own.

Taxes are an unfortunate necessity.  Nobody will argue that.  There ought to be, however, responsibility with that necessity.  There are certain things government naturally ought to do.  It is reasonable to tax the population to pay for said services.  The military is one of the primary reasons governments are formed.  Military is provision for a common defense.  Ditto for police departments.  Services like fire departments and ambulances are best handled by government.  Road repairs are in teh same boat.  Public schools fall under this category.  However, with the exception of the military, the best way to handle all these things is local government.  (1)

What Buffett is doing is stating what he is willing to do with his property then stating that all other wealthy individuals should also submit to increased taxation based on his own choice.  Furthermore, wealthy individuals are often very generous with their money, they just want to direct where that generosity is sent. 

I've said before and I'll say it again, government is not the best organization to care for those in genuine need.  There were people who were unemployed and in need of assistance before the New Deal put in place the government safety nets that we have now.  Yet we didn't have widespread starvation in America.  Why?  Because private charities, churches, and individuals cared for the needy.  Even in the Great Depression there wasn't widespread starvation.  Those breadlines that are always depicted in historical representations of the Depression were run not by government but by private charities like churches. 

Bottom line, Warren Buffett is making a political statement.  He's a liberal.  He's promoting liberalism and using his own station in life to do it.  Once again, if Mr. Buffett feels he is undertaxed, he is welcome to send whatever he feels his "fair share" is to:

Department of the Treasury

1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20220

Or, if he'd like his "fair share" to be useful, he can donate more money to charity.  He can otherwise feel free  to leave other people's property alone and not volunteer it for them in the name of his own politics.  I have no right to demand other middle class Americans give the same to charity as I give just because I choose to budget it.  It's my money (my property), and I choose to use said property to give to my church.  That is my choice.  I have no right to demand all people do the same.

Also, as I've said many times before, a "millionaire" is not the same thing as a billionaire by a large margin.  The owner of a small pizza place which employs four people who owns his own home is often a "millionaire" because he's a sole proprietorship.  That guy might make $50,000 in salary, but his income is listed as over $250,000 because of the total revenues coming into the business, and his net worth is over $1,000,000 because of the value of said business.

In short, Mr. Buffett, feel free to do with your money whatever you'd like.  If you want to send more money to the government, one final time, the address is:

Department of the Treasury

1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20220

Do the rest of the world a favor, however, and stop speaking for every person in your income range.  Please speak for yourself and shut up otherwise.  Put YOUR money where your mouth is, send more money to the address above so that you personally are paying YOUR "fair share" as you personally consider your "fair share" to be.  You have the freedom as an American to send more money to the government. Speak for your self and only yourself, otherwise, kindly shut up.

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(1) Note: Local government is superior because I can knock on the doors of my local government office with easy. A short drive across town is all that's required to visit local government. It would take me an hour of my day total to drive there, knock on the door, speak to someone, and drive home. Driving to Albany would take me four hours to drive there, plus actually finding the person I need to speak to, waiting, finally speaking to them, then driving four hours home. Driving to Washington takes 7 hours. I couldn't do it in one day without skipping sleep. Local government is far more accountable.