WWWBD?

If you haven't seen it, the article on Warren Buffet in the latest TIME (Jan.23rd issue) makes me want him to run for president. From the little I knew about him, and certainly from his support for raising taxes on the wealthiest because he realized he was paying less in taxes percentage wise than people who worked for him including his secretary, I liked what he seemed to stand for.

But I like him even more now. The way he handles his private life, the way he handles his wealth, and the way he sees the problems in our country and the solutions. There's a short list in a sidebar of some of the things he advocates that the magazine titles "What Would Warren Do?" (in this post's title I added his last name initial too):

Don't lower corporate taxes (he says "The idea that American business is at a disadvantage against the rest of the world because of high corporate taxes is baloney.")

Levy higher taxes on the rich (he says he'd like to see folks who earn their money through investing pay more than those who earn it through their labor, couldn't agree more even though I have some close friends who earn their ducats through investing)

No foreign-profit repatriation (totally)

Curb speculative gains (he calls the idea that you can hold a stock for 10 seconds and have 60% of your gains taxed as "long term" "nuts")

Get tough on directors (forfeit five years' pay if their firms have to be bailed out etc.)

Get rid of private schools (they say he's not totally serious about this idea but feels if rich people had to send their kids to public schools they'd invest in them)

Reform healthcare (he calls the healthcare situation in the U.S. "a tapeworm" that hurts competitiveness much more than taxes)

He's an interesting man with interesting ideas and the article is well worth reading (you have to be a subscriber to read it on line).