“President Barack Obama met billionaire philanthropists and businessmen Warren Buffett and Bill Gates on Tuesday for a conversation that touched on how to expand the economy, the White House said,” Reuters reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Asking a thief and a famed investor (who ought to know better, but may be more than a touch batty nowadays) for economic expansion advice? What advice did Gates offer, “Copy Apple and illegally abuse the resultant monopoly, it worked like gangbusters for me?”
Reuters reports, “Gates’ wife Melinda was also at the meeting, which focused on an initiative to encourage the wealthiest Americans to give the majority of their wealth to charity.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Oh, for Jobs’ sake. Note to Melinda the former MS Bob manager and the rest of the esteemed panel: No economy has ever been driven by having the “wealthiest give the majority of their wealth to charity.” It’s patently unsustainable.
That said, if Gates and Buffett want to give all of their vast wealth to the U.S government to pay down the national debt, by all means have at it! Let’s see… that’s $45 billion for Buffett and – wow! – $54 billion for Gates, so that’s $99 billion to subtract from $13.853 t-t-t-trillion *gack!* or, in other words, Bill Gates’ and Warren Buffett’s entire fortunes combined are a meaningless drop an ocean of U.S. debt plus there’s the added bonus that two more potential job producers will be broke and therefore no longer able to produce jobs. Wonderful. Great idea, Melind! Sheer genius.
Holy crap, MDN! Troll much?!? How tangentially can you post something on this site? Can’t wait to read the crap that’s going to fall out of this one…
Politics doesn’t belong on this site.
Please
Doomed I tells ya, Doomed
Better to charities than the government. At least charities seem to know the meaning of a dollar these days.
Obama meets with Ballmer to discuss how to expand his waistline.
Unbelievable hit piece, MDN. You’re becoming worse than Dvorak.
MDN’s in dire straights and is obviously needing hits, no matter how they get them.
Ugh.
Buster,
More appropriate analogy:
“Obama meets with Ballmer to discuss how to slim his waistline.”
See he’d be getting advice (and likely the exact wrong advice) from the wrong person.
Did you by any chance vote for Obama?
regardless, they should never have to pay speeding tickets or taxes ever again.
This shows that Obama has no clue. Buffet and Gates, who want to give money away…….thats a solution there. Instead of investing it and starting new businesses…..
When are we just going to call this recession a depression?
Covert to Mac!!
Oops, typo..
“convert to Mac”
The Obamanable is always good for a chuckle… it’s really sad though.
Predictably floundering neophyte with a huge chip on his shoulder who’s under the influence of failed politcal/economic theory while saddled with an unwarranted ego the size of the solar system is elected U.S. President.
What could go wrong?
I gots to agree- the fact that Jobs was not part of this congregation is a glaring and obvious black mark against any progress ever happening with this administration.
So if Bill Gates and Melinda are in DC meeting with the Big Disappointment, who is at home in Redmond keeping Apple products out of house?
What is wrong with Al Gore? Does he not know anyone at the Federal Government any more? Why is he on the board if he can’t get someone from Apple in these “How to” meetings at the White House.
Steve Jobs could suggest putting something positive that people want to be a part of after the President says, “Just one more thing.” People still run for cover when president Barack Obama says that.
If Bill Gates wasn’t already filthy rich, no one would give him the time of day. He’s the Deputy Fife of the tech world.
Here’s a start. Stop sending jobs overseas…
Nice take. Too many lib babies on this page, licking Michael Moores tailpipe as he sends money to the Australian snitch turdface rapist.
Well, whenever Apple or SPJ makes any kind of progressive-leaning statement or action, the troglodytes come out and rant about how Apple should stay out of politics for fear of offending half of their customer base (actually half of half their customer base, given that 50% of their business is generated abroad).
Well, if you don’t want Apple involved in the discussion and development of public policy (which is what politics is), don’t be surprised when others take up the slack.
Many of you should be happy: no member of the Apple hierarchy was at the meeting supporting the search for solutions to the issues facing the US economy, so they can’t be accused of supporting a president that many of you believe to be disqualified to hold the office.
So don’t whine.
@Wade Smith
No, Obama met with Steve a month or so ago… alone. This meeting was show balance and to verify that if they said the opposite of Jobs, then he’d definitely follow Job’s advice.
Nice take MDN (and troglodyte followers).
So much hate (HATE!!!) on the right… you should all be ashamed; you are not human, you are corporate lickspittles and murderous bastards. Go kill something, it will ease your tensions.
One, there’s no limit on how much you’d like to pay in Federal taxes. If you think you should pay more, just write the check. The US Treasury will cash it.
Two, the government could raise the Estate Tax, so that when you die, you can give it to the biggest charity case there is, the US government. There’s no need for Melinda to waste money on running her charity which should be redundant.
It seems to me that people like Gates got so stinking rich by overcharging for their products. Americans go into debt to purchase products that really could be much less expensive and the people at the top get rich, both the merchants for overcharging, and the banks for charging interest and fees for the debt.
Maybe they should give back billions to help middle class Americans pay off their debt.
Gates and Buffet are symbols of what’s wrong with this system. It seems to me that Americans could have the same high quality of life without the over burdensome debt, the only difference is that people like Gates and Buffet wouldn’t be quite as rich.
My overly simplistic opinion regarding a overly complex problem.
I love how the common people defend the wealthy’s right to keep and do whatever they want with their money, until they decide to give it to charity, then suddenly it’s some sort of crime.
@SirROM – thanks. Didn’t know that.
in other news the Lions were interviewed to better discover how to win the Superbowl.
This just goes to show how clueless everyone is. Stuck in the past. give it another year or two they will learn… they will all learn a hard lesson.
Start by bringing it all back home – manufacturing, troops, etc.
Perfect PR strategy! Get these ageing, fading super-rich to come in for a photo opportunity to pretend you’re doing something real. One’s a thief, the other’s an investor – neither skills particularly relevant to running an economy.
Of course, doing something effective like talking to Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman would actually achieve something, but then Obama would have to admit he’s totally clueless on the economy, and that would never do…
Obama is captive to his third rate advisers, who cocoon him effectively from anything they don’t want him to hear.
It’s very simple: the US GDP falters when the investor/corporate leader/business owner sits on cash. What we have today is the accumulation of decades of outsourcing, offshoring, and outright money laundering which has enriched the few but destroyed industrial output and put millions out of work. The money-changers would be wise to heed Henry Ford’s advice: if the worker isn’t paid enough to buy the product, then there is no market for the product. Corporate leaders have worked so hard to employ the China to use slave/child labor for production, it has left the former middle class in America with credit debt and no realistic options for future prosperity.
So why again do we go to the money changers for advice on how to be self-sufficient?
MDN, your anti-MS bias is blinding you. Giving to charity is good, no matter how much negative light you want to shine on this event.
Amazing amount of mindless drivel being posed again. Well done, MDN – you got a ton of hits and support from the truly brainless.
MDN, I know how you feel about Microsoft and enjoy every bit of your rabid insistence on the way they still everyone else’s stuff, but your first idea isn’t that bad. The US government should do exactly what made Microsoft successful. Copy everything Apple does at a governmental level and create great stuff. The problems we have are never going to be solved by money and we all know that regardless of our political leanings, neither party knows crap about how to resolve the problems created by both. Why not innovate, get rid of dead wood, be creative, look beyond what we already know, figure out how to make things happen, lower inventory, create a coherent ecosystem of products that feed off of and into one another, make stuff that’s aesthetically pleasing, lead with decisiveness, don’t give a rat’s ass about being popular, make a healthy profit, defy convention, let everyone else scramble for the lowest profit, while you skim the high end. Most of all make government cool.
The irony is that neither Buffet nor Gates have paid much in income taxes as most of their wealth was in unredeemed stock. Transferred directly to charity, that wealth remains untaxed.
But for those who do bequeath their wealth to charity, where is the justification for taxing – whether at 35% or 55% – what is already after-tax wealth? What justifies this “one more bite” except that the government wants/needs your money?
Obama: “What should I do?”
Gates: ” Buy 80 million copies of Office”
Buffet: ” Give me all the money to invest”.
Reuters reports, “Gates’ wife Melinda was also at the meeting, which focused on an initiative to encourage the wealthiest Americans to give the majority of their wealth to charity.”
LOL ya~ going communism sure would help…… NOT!
I voted for Obama, but he certainly hasn’t turned out to be the Savior I thought he was going to be. Reagan did a far better job of picking the Country back up. We need another Ronnie.
@Mark : I agree with you, we need to keep business here. I also think we should stop immigration since we can’t employe what we’ve got already here.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/12/warren_buffett_robber_baron.html
@First 2010, then 2012
Being Canadian it would have been tough to have voted for Obama…but I probably would have.
I hope he picks up his game. Our current Liberal head (but in opposition), Michael Ignatieff is a lame duck, especially against Stephen Harper who single-handedly is ruining everything that was ever positive about being Canadian.
Get rid of unions and the jobs will come back to the US.
You liberals are out of your minds. Stay the hell out of our pocketbooks, hair, and better yet country. Please leave. WE hate you!
Obama SUCKS!
I suggest you guys read “Philantrocapitalism” by Matthew Bishop & Michael Green. http://www.philanthrocapitalism.net/
@frothing at the mouth:
“So much hate (HATE!!!) on the right… you should all be ashamed; you are not human, you are corporate lickspittles and murderous bastards. Go kill something, it will ease your tensions.”
So much for all the hate (HATE!!!) being on the Right…
Liberal, Conservative, Democrat, Republican, etc…
Hate is hate, regardless of the label you choose to use. Personally, I’m none of the above. My beliefs are my own. I do tend to be more liberal in so much that I prefer to keep an open mind and judge for myself on what I believe to be right or wrong, or better or worse. But I do try to understand and at least respect the opinions of others as well.
I’ve got my own life to live, I’d rather not waste that time wondering why there are so many idiots in the world! ;-p
Back on topic… Why not ask the two richest Americans and probably largest investors where they see opportunities in fixing/expanding the economy? Most of their wealth is on paper, so of course they’re interested in seeing investments grow.
@ first 2010, then 2012
and all the other troglodytes:
Here’s a great column suggesting one reason why corporatist libertarian viewpoints are so over-represented on the Web… (hint: hiring paid trolls is cheap… and cheaper for rich corporatist rightwing libertarians who stand to gain big $$$ from spreading libertarian propaganda, than for Joe Sixpack or even rich liberals operating against their financial self-interest)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/dec/13/astroturf-libertarians-internet-democracy
Not saying any of the troglodytes on MDN are paid trolls… but in general when you find an anonymous forum flooded by pro-corporate, anti-tax, anti-regulation viewpoints, it doesn’t take an IQ over 80 to see all the money such comments are worth to the banksters, fossil fuel criminals and their paid PR minions.
Obama has seen the dark side of society by meeting the american working poors. Now, to have a better idea of the other dark side of the american way of life, he HAS TO KNOW how people like Gates made to fake so many people.
Obama is quite courageous… It’s hard to be open minded in some places…
MDN quote: “That said, if Gates and Buffett want to give all of their vast wealth to the U.S government to pay down the national debt, by all means have at it! Let’s see… that’s $45 billion for Buffett and – wow! – $54 billion for Gates, so that’s $99 billion to subtract from $13.853 t-t-t-trillion *gack!* or, in other words, Bill Gates’ and Warren Buffett’s entire fortunes combined are a meaningless drop an ocean of U.S. debt plus there’s the added bonus that two more potential job producers will be broke and therefore no longer able to produce jobs. Wonderful. Great idea, Melind! Sheer genius.”
Oh! Thank you GW Bush. These wars where just a fantastic idea! Usually wars always helped USA to rise up the $… Damn! It didn’t work this time!..
@SirROM – thanks. Didn’t know that.
Well, it was certainly no secret.
It was “reported” here on 21st October and met with the predictable level of scorn and abuse from the idiots who really know nothing about political philosophies other than what they’ve heard from some other equally uneducated doofus like Glenn Beck or Limbaugh (both of whom are as dumb as a box of rocks).
This is the problem when people start believing education and having an willingness to see problems in a multi-dimensional context are akin to some sort of plot to undermine the nation.
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/27159/P0/
MDN hit piece. Shame.
I’m not worried, this comment will be removed by the MDN thought police like many of the others.
Fredo,
You lie.
In 2010, Gallup finds 42% of Americans describe themselves as either Very Conservative or Conservative. This is up from the 40% seen in 2009 and contrasts with the paltry 20% calling themselves Liberal or Very Liberal.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/141032/2010-Conservatives-Outnumber-Moderates-Liberals.aspx
Amid the Democrat-controlled Congress’ lame-duck session, 13% of Americans approve of the job it is doing, the worst Gallup has measured since it began tracking congressional job approval in 1974.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/145238/Congress-Job-Approval-Rating-Worst-Gallup-History.aspx
America is a center-right country. They do not like having leftists trying to run the country (into the ground).
I heard that Melinda was slobbing on the old Obama knob under the table.
Great link Robert Gates! Exposes that dirt ball Warren Buffett for sham he is. He’s gaming the system and US population for his own personal gain while pretending to be supposedly helping poor people. The route to help poor people is entirely the wrong way to do it. Get government and unions out of our hair, create a vibrant free market that creates jobs for everyone. Help only the truly destitute. You liberals suck.
I heard that Melinda was slobbing on the old Obama knob under the table.
And you’re jealous.
Cheer up, you can let Mitch McConnell slip you a length whilst Lachrymose John Boehner whispers sweet nothings in your ear.
Running out of ideas or not having one in the first place.
Unbelievable, asking around. It only shows lack of capability.
That is what happens when a lawyer gets to be president of a country. It is not up for the huge important job of governing.
Next!
Here are some ideas…..
Do not attack or criticize or much less blame those who own the money. Oh wait, you already did that.
Do not spend more than you earn or more than necessary. Oh wait, you already did that.
Do not rise taxes. Oh wait, are you thinking on doing that?
Ok, let’s try this one…. Forget about expanding the economy; first try not to screw it up and then you try to figure how to expand it. OK?
For someone who does not understand the most basic principle of economics, you know, there’s nothing much we can do for you.
Next!
Everyone should read The Law by Frederick Bastiat. Hard to argue against anything in that book written over 150 years ago.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Law-Kindle-Edition-ebook/dp/B002WYJQD4/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1292657096&sr=1-5