Richard D. Wolff

Warren Buffett has indeed repeatedly made clear that he believes wealth individuals like himself are undertaxed and that the growing US income and wealth inequalities are dangerous for social stability - inequalities worsened by the existing tax structure. Buffett's stance has endeared him to US liberals, etc. That is fine as far as it goes. There have always been members of elites who call upon their fellow elites to slow down their rapacious self-aggrandizements lest they provoke social revolution and thereby kill the proverbial golden goose. The question is always whether Buffett-type elites do or do not win support from their fellow elite members. In the case of the US these days, the answer is a fully unambiguous NO from fellow elites who keep rushing headlong toward ever greater economic, political and cultural inequalities. Trump (see his new budget proposals) has the enthusiasm of the military, big banks, major corporations and their top ranks - the 1% - because he promises them what they want and expect...no matter mass dissaffection for his regime....at least so far. I poked at Buffett only because I wanted my audiences to see how much solidarity he has always felt with the very fellow elite members whose capital accumulation he wants to slow down so as to keep their elite status in tact.