Should Warren Buffet play James Taggart in Atlas Shrugged?

Michael Stuart Kelly · April 18, 2012

Should Warren Buffett play James Taggart in Atlas Shrugged?

Over the years, I have always regarded Warren Buffett as a good guy. But since Obama came on the scene, I have kept getting ripples at the edge of my antenna about him--something about incongruence with free market ideals.

But so what? Warren wants to play choo-choo train. Just like Jim. See the following from the Reason Foundation in 2009:

Atlas Shrugged, Railroads and Warren Buffet

Samuel Staley

November 3, 2009

Out of Control Policy Blog

Reason Foundation

From the article:

I couldn't help but notice the irony of Berkshire Hatthaway's $34 billion offer to take Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway private. Berkshire Hathaway is the investment arm of financial mogul Warren Buffet, widely regarded as one of the world's most prescient investors ("The Oracle of Omaha"). Railroads were also the central business of the Taggart family in the famed Ayn Rand novel Atlas Shrugged.
So, is Warren Buffet showing entrepreneurial leadership during a period of increasing government intrusion into the economy? According to the New York Times:
The deal, which will also include the assumption of $10 billion in Burlington Northern debt, represents what Mr. Buffett said was a big bet on the United States. He told CNBC in an interview that railroad operators cannot do well unless American businesses were producing goods and customers were buying them.
“It’s an all-in wager on the economic future of the United States,” he said in a written statement. “I love these bets.”

How cool is that? Just like Jim, Warren's all in.

But why?

According to another article just last year, by a PHD no less (too bad he can't spell Buffett's name right), Warren wants to show Ayn Rand how it is--just like Jim wanted to show Dagny,

Warren Buffet versus Ayn Rand

by Peter Corning, Ph.D.

August 26, 2011

The Fair Society

Psychology Today

As the anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist puts it, tax increases amount to "stealing" money from those who have earned their wealth and who deserve to keep it.
A subtext for this moral claim was provided by the famed 1950s novelist Ayn Rand and her "gospel of selfishness." To quote one of her characters, the architect Howard Roark in The Fountainhead: "All that proceeds from man's independent ego is good. All that which proceeds from man's dependence upon men is evil... The first right on earth is the right of the ego. Man's first duty is to himself...His moral law is to do what he wishes, provided his wish does not depend primarily upon other men....The only good which men can do to one another and the only statement of their proper relationship is - hands off!"
Warren Buffet disagrees. In a recent op-ed piece in the New York Times, he wrote: "While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as "carried interest," thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they'd been long-term investors. These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species. It's nice to have friends in high places...
. . .
"I know well many of the mega-rich and, by and large, they are very decent people. They love America and appreciate the opportunity this country has given them. Many have joined the Giving Pledge, promising to give most of their wealth to philanthropy. Most wouldn't mind being told to pay more in taxes as well, particularly when so many of their fellow citizens are truly suffering. My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It's time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice."

So it's sharing sacrifice!

Doesn't that sound just like Jim? Let's repeat Warren: "It's time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice."

That's obviously why he invested in the choo-choo train, isn't it? To share the sacrifice.

And that's why he's allowed himself to become Obama's Poster Boy by getting his name on the Buffett Rule. Obviously to share the sacrifice and help the government get serious.

Now along comes Glenn Beck and starts connecting dots.

How do Warren Buffett and Sen. Ben Nelson benefit from the White House killing the Keystone pipeline?

Posted on Glennbeck.com

April 17, 2012

Here are the videos on that post:

But you should go to the link and read the information. It is very enlightening.

There's also a report on The Blaze:

Did Buffett Help Obama Kill Keystone Pipeline to Reap Financial Gain?

by Tiffany Gabbay

April 17, 2012

The Blaze

I could quote from that article, too, but it is better to go to the link and read it. Man is Glenn a meanie who doesn't want to share sacrifice at all.

In a nutshell, the sacrifice-sharing goes like this.

Warren Buffett is worried about sharing your sacrifice and mine so much that he bought a choo-choo train.
TransCanada needs to transport its oil to the refineries on the Gulf Coast, so it wants to build the Keystone pipeline. Whether the pipeline gets built or not, the oil is still going to get to the refineries.
Obama needed a poster child so he could play Monopoly with the USA economy and Warren raised his hand like a good little citizen. He put his name on Obama's game. Everybody is sacrificin' up a storm.
The pipeline did not get approved, but Warren has a choo-choo train on standby to save the day. One that he bought just as Obama took office.

Ta-daa!

Warren's choo-choo will take all that oil--for top dollar, though. And maybe some Obama-bucks to sweeten the deal, but I speculate...

The point is now the public is going to get screwed with even higher gas prices because of this and Warren will make a butt-load of money. (See Dagny? I can make money, too! You think you're the only capitalist?)

Even George Soros got a slice of this action.

Ayn Rand couldn't have written it any better.

James Taggart has a real-life blood-brother: Warren Buffett.

This dude is going to make a killing with choo-choo trains not because he will compete with a better product. He peddled political influence to stilfe a superior anlternative with unfair laws.

The following picture says it all. (I got it from here: Warren Buffett’s Gravy Train.)

Michael

Brant Gaede · April 18, 2012

This is a complicated person. Randian heroes and villians are not complicated (or internally conflicted). This "Buffett Rule" crap is about envy deflection. Buffett fears envy so he throws parts of himself from the sleigh to the purported wolves chasing him down.

--Brant

Michael Stuart Kelly · April 18, 2012

Brant,

I heard Limbaugh say that, too, but after looking at this sweet choo-choo deal, it just lines up too much.

It fits the old saw to a tee, "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine."

If not, we live in amazing times with amazing coincidences...

Michael

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