2020: How can the US can take care of those on the front lines of the pandemic?
BECKY QUICK: Warren, this question comes from Bill Murray, the actor, who’s also a shareholder in Berkshire. He says, “This pandemic will graduate a new class of war veterans, health care, food supply, deliveries, community services. So many owe so much to these few. How might this great country take our turn and care for all of them?”
WARREN BUFFETT: Well, we won’t be able to pay, actually — you know, it’s like people that landed in Normandy or something. I mean, the poor, the disadvantaged, they suffer. There’s an unimaginable suffering, and at the same time, they’re doing all these things that — you know, they’re working 24-hour days, and we don’t even know their names. So, we ought to a —
If we go overboard on something, we ought to do things that can help those people.
And this country — I’ve said it a lot of times before — but the history of it, I mean — we are a rich, rich, rich country. And the people that are doing the kind of work that Bill talks about, you know, they are they’re contributing a whole lot more than some of the people that came out of the right womb, you know, or got lucky and thinks they’re — know how to arbitrage bonds, or whatever it may be. And I’m, you know, in large part, I’m one of those guys.
So, you really try to create a society that under normal conditions, with more than $60,000 of GDP per capita, that anybody that worked 40 hours a week can have a decent life without a second job, and with a couple of kids, and have, you know —
They can’t live like kings. I don’t mean that. But that — nobody should be left behind. It’s like a rich family. You know, you find rich families, and if they have five heirs, or six heirs, they know they try and pick, maybe, the most able one to run the business.
But they don’t forget about — you know — the kid that actually may be a better citizen in some ways even than the one that does the best at business, but he just doesn’t happen to have that market value — skill.
So, I do not think that a very rich company ought to totally abide by — totally abide by what the market dishes out, you know, in 18th century style or something of the sort.
So, I welcome ideas that go in that direction I — we’ve gone in that direction — you know, we did come up with Social Security in the ’30s.
We — we’ve made some progress, but we ought to. We have become very, very, very rich as a country. And we’ve been — things have improved for the bottom 20 percent. I mean, you can see various statistics on that. But I’d rather be in the — I’d rather be in the bottom 20 percent now than be in the bottom 20 percent a hundred years ago, or 50 years ago.
But it’s — what’s really improved — (laughs) — is the top 1 percent. And I hope we, as a country, move in a direction where the people Bill’s talking about get treated better. And it isn’t going to hurt — it isn’t going to hurt the country’s growth, and —
It’s overdue, but a lot of things are overdue.
We are — I will still say we’re a better society than we were a hundred years ago. But you would think with our prosperity, we could — we would — hold ourselves to even higher standards of taking care of our fellow man, particularly when you see a situation like you’ve got today, where it’s the people that — whose names you don’t know, that are watching the people come in and watching the bodies go out.
Greg?
GREG ABEL: Yeah, I — the only other group that I would highlight, and I think it’s — it’ll be very interesting how it plays out — is with the number of homeschooling and the children that are home — I think there’s a — we’ve always had so much respect for teachers, but we all talk about how we don’t take care of them.
And, you know, it is remarkable to hear how many people comment that, clearly, we don’t recognize or — you know, I have a little 8-year-old — Beckett — at home and, you know, plenty of challenges for Mom. But all of a sudden, you respect the institution, the school, the teachers, and everything around it.
So, there’s — and then when I think of our companies and the delivery employees we have, it’s absolutely amazing what they’re doing, and they’re truly on the front line. You know, that’s where we have our challenges around keeping them health and safety.
And then you go all the way to the rail. The best videos you see out of our companies are when we have folks that are actively engaged in moving supplies, food, medical products, and they’re so proud of it, and they recognize they’re making a difference.
So, a lot of it is, we just owe them a great thanks. And, Warren, you touched on it. We can — some way — maybe, hopefully, longer term compensate them, but there’s a great deal of thanks, and I probably just think an immense amount — new appreciation for a variety of folks.
WARREN BUFFETT: We’re going the right direction (inaudible) the country, but it’s been awfully slow.
GREG ABEL: Yeah.