>And if he paid less in taxes, he'd buy more goods and services, too.
I disagree. Buffett is so wealthy that it simply doesn't matter if his bottom line is reduced by 35%. His net worth is $40 billion. It is simply impossible for him to run out of money at this point.
Think about this for a moment. At $200M each, he could have a personal Boeing 777 on call in every state in the country ($10B) and still have $30B left over. The most expensive house in the United States is a $165M compound in Beverly Hills with 72,000 square feet of living space. Why not build 100 of them around the world for $16B? There's still $14B left for the cheap stuff: Ferraris, Bugattis, servants, chefs, and whatever else you can dream up.
Barring any bad business deals, it's effectively impossible to squander away one billion dollars much less forty. A 35% tax hike or cut won't affect his spending in any way, shape, or form.
Only if you define "spending" as "immediate spending on consumer goods." Saving is just that kind of spending, deferred -- in Buffett's case, deferring it increases the amount that's spent, since he compounds his net worth at an above-average rate. So take whatever numbers you'd use assuming my previous comment was correct, and bump them up drastically.
I disagree. Buffett is so wealthy that it simply doesn't matter if his bottom line is reduced by 35%. His net worth is $40 billion. It is simply impossible for him to run out of money at this point.
Think about this for a moment. At $200M each, he could have a personal Boeing 777 on call in every state in the country ($10B) and still have $30B left over. The most expensive house in the United States is a $165M compound in Beverly Hills with 72,000 square feet of living space. Why not build 100 of them around the world for $16B? There's still $14B left for the cheap stuff: Ferraris, Bugattis, servants, chefs, and whatever else you can dream up.
Barring any bad business deals, it's effectively impossible to squander away one billion dollars much less forty. A 35% tax hike or cut won't affect his spending in any way, shape, or form.