主题：占豪《美国的慈善基金》和关于遗产税 -- dolong

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are kind of people who believe "to leave enough money for children to do anything, but not enough for them to do nothing". Some facts, 1) Warren puts majority of his money under Bill's control rather than his children; 2) Before that, about 1 or 2 years ago, he put $1 Billion to each of his child already. Note, all money is in form of BRK-B stocks, and all goes into foundations. I will get back to the stocks thing later.

To super rich people, money has 2 meanings. First, good living condition for themselves and their descendants, as Warren called it "food stamps" for children. Secondly, the power to control. And, to Warren, he separated them pretty nicely. The reason behind this is obvious. $1 Billion for each child is pure food stamps and enough money to keep them in the party. And if they or their descendants are good enough to move the needle, such amount of money will give them enough to jump start their powerful engine. But, $1 Billion does not really have power unless they have the ability to utilize it well. For Bill Gates, that's totally a power game. Warren Buffett may wish many times that Bill is his actual son. Bill has the ability to control the power. Bill does not need any more money. Bill has the same view as Warren. Warren trusts Bill. What Bill will do and is doing is to put money to save lives. Their agenda is clear, save as many people as possible with same amount of money. They like the power they have, they don't want to abuse the power, they want to do as much as possible the good things to society.

On the other side, Warren has his own abacus. Warren likes to save lives, but he does not put time onto it. He loves Berkshire, he loves business, he put his life onto it. That's the thing he really really cares. And, to him, Berkshire is the real power machine. And Berkshire itself is a wonderful "tax shelter". But, Bill himself doesn't like to be the next CEO of Berkshire for obvious reason. Putting Bill as the major shareholder of Berkshire gives him the best protection to Berkshire and yet still let Bill do whatever he wants to do. Bill once expressed to the media that he will make sure Berkshire's future.

Warren really loves money. He really wants to turn his money in power. He puts his money into hands of who he really really trusts.