A non-libertarian economist colleague recommended Warren Buffett's recent op/ed, "Stop Coddling the Rich," to me and I decided to read it for myself. I came away unimpressed. I won't do a full analysis, but I will point out a few of my disappointments and disagreements as well as one important point of agreement.
Warren Buffett starts off with his prime example of people who are sacrificing: "the poor and middle class fight [who] for us in Afghanistan." Put aside the fact that they're not fighting for me, nor, I suspect, are they fighting for many of the readers of this blog. I have opposed those wars from the getgo and I would have rather they not have fought, not have killed, and not have died. But the other point is that they are all volunteers. So what they're doing is not sacrifice in the normal sense of that word. They are choosing what they regard as their best option. The people who are sacrificing for those wars are people who pay higher taxes because of those wars. Buffett could argue that the wars are being financed by debt rather than taxes: tax revenues are fungible so who knows. But debt generally leads to higher taxes in the future. And those taxes are likely to be disproportionately on those who are taxed heavily now. Of course, the government could default and then bond-holders would lose. But bonds are disproportionately owned by the wealthy.
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