Item — HN Reader

"Society should place an initial emphasis on abundance," Mr. Buffett argued, but "then should continuously strive" to redistribute the abundance more equitably.

This is both succinct and extraordinarily perspicacious. I believe an ability to reconcile these two would solve so many problems in our current society. As it is now, we have a right wing focusing on wealth creation and inadvertently widening the gap between rich and poor, and a left wing focusing on wealth redistribution and inadvertently causing wealth destruction.

2 comments

How odd, I see things completely differently.

The Right focus on widening the gap between rich and poor and inadvertantly causing wealth destruction.

The Left... there is no Left. But generally, when governments have focused on reducing inequalities and providing for everyone (in the US, this was the postwar era through to the late 70's, similarly in Europe), growth was strong - far stronger than it is now.

I'm not so sure that the widening of the gap is inadvertent. There are a lot of subtle measures in the US that directly hurt the poor, even at the cost of wealth destruction.