I read this ages ago as a teenager and I didn’t like it as much as other people seemed to. It just portrayed this ultra capitalist guy playing the game so much better than everyone else he amassed an insane amount of wealth. And all for what because I don’t know. I’m not against capitalism just I think maybe that wealth could be put to good use rather than just shares of Apple. Start companies and take some bets rather than hoarding it at the top of the market.
But anyway the part that stuck with me was when he had taken over a struggling newspaper. I don’t have a memory for these sort of details but he bought out the company and put in money so it could turn around. If you know anything about Buffett you know how much he loved newspapers as they were the original monopoly. If you had the best distribution in a city then everyone would buy that paper and advertisers would then follow. You’d end up with the entire market as who wants the second best paper. Anyway in this case the workers were not really happy at the beginning and I remember some sort of strikes but in the end the company was turned around and he made some fantastical amount of money. All great and all that. But then it came time for him to collect his chips and take his winnings. He kept the paper around but profits went to him so he could invest elsewhere. I remember some line in it how he deserved those because he took the risk with the money. And that made me think, what about the workers? They had literal lives on the line. Buffett could have swam away into the sunset if that ship sank and he’d probably be still very rich right now anyway. But those workers would be stuck in a fairly big hole. No jobs or money coming in, no food for the families. They stuck with it and worked on. Maybe some didn’t really have a choice but I’m sure a lot did and they still stayed. For what? For some rich guy to just take it all when the paper did well?
And I guess that’s what angers me about all them. They are entitled to take all the money out when it goes well, and little goes to the actual employees. Risk doesn’t have much to do with it because the workers have far more risk involved, just it isn’t capital. Capitalism unchecked doesn’t work very well because it evolves to a winner take all over time, just play the game monopoly to see how it goes. That is why we need someone bigger than them. Someone that answers to the little guy that is stuck under the capitalists. I don’t know what the answer is, maybe labour unions and governments but they have shown they’re not really that good either. Maybe distribution of shares to the employees so they at least got something out of it for their risk taken.