Thursday, December 09, 2010

Altruistic Billionaire Or Robber Barron?

     "I know that we are all supposed to love Warren Buffett as the Sage of Omaha, businessman and all-around good guy, but I keep reading stories that make me wonder. Here's a story about Warren Buffett, the estate tax, and the life insurance industry.
     Did you know that the life insurance lobby is actively lobbying to restore the estate tax?
     Why would the life insurance industry care about that? It turns out that ten percent of life insurance industry revenue is related to the estate tax. Wealthy people take out life insurance in order to reduce estate taxes because when you die, your life insurance payout doesn't count as part of your estate.
     Did you know that Warren Buffett owns six life insurance companies? Did you know he supports the estate tax? You do now.
     Warren Buffett isn't just noted as an owner of life insurance companies and a supporter of the estate tax. He's also noted as a buyer of family businesses. As Dick Patten shows, these two business strategies support each other." [...] -from Christopher Chantrill, American Thinker (read entire article)