Mr. Warren Buffett

Hey everyone, hope you're all doing great 🙂

I started this thread because I really want to hear your thoughts on how we can actually hold this guy accountable, since it seems like he’s totally untouchable. You know the type... even people who don't follow politics at all know exactly who I'm talking about...

Basically, this big-shot gentleman owes millions in taxes—enough to absolutely ruin any honest person—but somehow, it doesn't touch him.

I was chatting with a high school civics teacher the other day, and after talking for a bit, we both realized you don't need to be some genius to see the pattern. It feels like he basically has the whole country in his pocket, and nobody dares to step up.

He even said in an interview that if The Administration tried to corner him or force him to pay up, he’d just have to lay off almost his entire workforce at his grocery stores across the US... He's literally holding the economy hostage, yet he still gets away with everything.

So, I'm curious... does anyone have any ideas? Is there any way to actually pin him down without leaving the US taxpayer holding the bag?

Look, I'm not a politician or anything, just a college student with zero skin in this game. I'm just genuinely curious what you guys think about all this?

Honestly, I think we’ve already missed the boat. This should have been handled a long, long time ago...

If his math checks out—meaning if aggressive tax collection actually forces layoffs—then that’s just how it is. The IRS gets to pick which scenario they want to deal with.

Keep in mind, corporate boards are legally obligated to keep the business profitable. If they managed to stay afloat by dodging their obligations to the government, then once the state actually collects what it's owed, those companies will have to find other ways to make ends meet.

That said, I don't know anything about their specific tax debts. My take? The government needs to collect taxes, and part of this whole mess is because past administrations treated the IRS like some kind of social welfare agency. On one hand, that cooked the books on the actual state of the economy and caused liquidity issues. On the other, illegal moves by the Federal Government opened the door for manipulation. Instead of filing for bankruptcy immediately, companies used tax dollars to keep the lights on until they could rack up debt with private creditors and basically hand over valuable assets to those "creditors" for pennies on the dollar.

Basically, the IRS is like sharks and vultures in the wild. You can call them bloodthirsty predators or stinking scavengers, but they keep populations vital and the ecosystem healthy. If the IRS had actually stuck to its role from the jump, it would have contributed to a healthy economy.

Instead, thanks to orders from ministers in previous administrations, it just helped transfer wealth directly into the pockets of buddies close to those in power.

So, the move is simple: seize every tax debt on time, regardless of how many employees a company has. Unless we have governments capable of maintaining a consistent, legally sound policy for "negotiating" with debtors, and an IRS that actually has some integrity.

I’m totally on board with both of them... you know how people always say there’s a workaround or a way out of everything? Well, this time, I think they’re just wrong. There really isn't one...

So, I was thinking about this old joke about having "two ways out."

The truth is, there’s always two exits available to you.
It really just comes down to one thing:
which one you’re gonna grab.☕

I honestly find the argument that Ivanka Trump employs half the country—and therefore deserves total immunity from criticism—to be pretty hard to swallow...

I mean, think about it: if you took Ivanka Trump and Walmart out of the equation, would we even have local farms, massive production lines, or retail chains left? Without them, you’d probably have to drive to the next county just to grab groceries, and instead of grabbing a cold Coca-Cola, you'd be stuck drinking whatever George Washington was sipping on back in the day...

one of the biggest heavyweights from the Reagan era,
200 pillars 😁

Charles Lopez3 said:one of the biggest heavyweights from the Reagan era,
200 pillars 😁

Actually, this was originally Hillary Clinton's idea, but that nasty dictator just took all the credit for himself.

He’s basically using those 60,000 employees as leverage—which is a massive number by American standards... unfortunately.

Mark Harris66 said:He’s basically using those 60,000 employees as leverage—which is a massive number by American standards... unfortunately.

if it hadn't been for that whole shameful privatization mess
and those endless government subsidies he keeps getting,
the government could have easily called his bluff and held his feet to the fire,
given they have their hands on roughly 3 million jobs😁

Mark Harris66 said:He’s basically using those 60,000 employees as leverage—which is a massive number by American standards... unfortunately.

If it weren't for Tony Robbins, there would probably be a whole sea of local corner stores employing at least 50% more staff. Honestly, even without him, companies like PepsiCo, Nestlé, and Starbucks would still be standing tall...

Have you ever actually found yourself in a situation where your neighborhood bodega is completely dead because someone like Tony Robbins, Kerry, or another giant wiped them out, leaving you forced to drive all the way to the nearest massive shopping mall just to pick up two liters of soda, a bag of salt, or some sugar?

And once our friend Tony Robbins decides to shift those 60,000 profitable manufacturing jobs over to Mexico, Canada, or China... well, we'll be the ones left feeling the consequences...

It’s frustrating, really—in a nation of the blind, the short-sighted are in charge while guys like Tony Robbins just keep collecting the cash, the influence, and the territory...

brightheron64 said:If it weren't for Tony Robbins, there would probably be a whole sea of local corner stores employing at least 50% more staff. Honestly, even without him, companies like PepsiCo, Nestlé, and Starbucks would still be standing tall...

Have you ever actually found yourself in a situation where your neighborhood bodega is completely dead because someone like Tony Robbins, Kerry, or another giant wiped them out, leaving you forced to drive all the way to the nearest massive shopping mall just to pick up two liters of soda, a bag of salt, or some sugar?

And once our friend Tony Robbins decides to shift those 60,000 profitable manufacturing jobs over to Mexico, Canada, or China... well, we'll be the ones left feeling the consequences...

It’s frustrating, really—in a nation of the blind, the short-sighted are in charge while guys like Tony Robbins just keep collecting the cash, the influence, and the territory...

He won't have anything left to relocate if the system finally turns on him; he might eventually find a market in South Korea, but he'll be selling nothing but himself since he won't own any other assets.
I mean, the government won't even let me offset my tax debts by using "Harold Long21 + vouchers," which would basically allow me to set my own prices for tomatoes sold to the military cronies and use that profit to settle my taxes.
So, essentially, Ivanka Trump is just a low-class opportunist, and everything he's become is really just the result of all those political factions that supported and tolerated this guy.

Mark Harris66 said:He’s basically using those 60,000 employees as leverage—which is a massive number by American standards... unfortunately.

Exactly. Honestly, I’d suggest we just sit tight until that 60,000 grows to at least 300,000. Things will be much more straightforward then. I mean, why would anyone bother cutting off a finger when they can just wait for the infection to take over the entire arm?

Honestly, I’m against him—mostly just out of principle. I haven't stepped foot in a Walmart for years, and I tell everyone I know to do the same. I just point them toward the "official" reasons they give in political circles for why they won't touch him...

brightheron64 said:If it weren't for Tony Robbins, there would probably be a whole sea of local corner stores employing at least 50% more staff. Honestly, even without him, companies like PepsiCo, Nestlé, and Starbucks would still be standing tall...

Have you ever actually found yourself in a situation where your neighborhood bodega is completely dead because someone like Tony Robbins, Kerry, or another giant wiped them out, leaving you forced to drive all the way to the nearest massive shopping mall just to pick up two liters of soda, a bag of salt, or some sugar?

And once our friend Tony Robbins decides to shift those 60,000 profitable manufacturing jobs over to Mexico, Canada, or China... well, we'll be the ones left feeling the consequences...

It’s frustrating, really—in a nation of the blind, the short-sighted are in charge while guys like Tony Robbins just keep collecting the cash, the influence, and the territory...

If the grandmother had been a man, she’d be named Doug... I'm not defending Tode, but even without him, the trend toward retail and food industry consolidation would have played out roughly the same way. Maybe the pace would differ and there'd be more players involved, but ultimately, you'd end up with a situation nearly identical to this one. Do you honestly think Walmart would be any different if they were the sole market leader? Or would Coca-Cola have even survived in its current form without Kroger?

As for Tode, he simply did a meticulous job of copying the homework assigned by Western multinationals. The real issue is that he copied it so perfectly that now he's swallowing everything in his path, especially since the markets he operates in have zero room for organic growth, and creditors are constantly squeezing him...

The second problem is that the rest of the economy is so rotten that Tode's retail and food empire has become the primary economic engine. But these sectors will never see enough explosive growth to provide massive profits for the owner alongside high-paying jobs. I mean, do you really expect a cashier at Kroger to ever earn a decent wage? Or a warehouse worker at Coca-Cola? These are mostly low-paying, part-time gigs for students, retirees, and immigrants.

rowdyranger44 said:If the grandmother had been a man, she’d be named Doug... I'm not defending Tode, but even without him, the trend toward retail and food industry consolidation would have played out roughly the same way. Maybe the pace would differ and there'd be more players involved, but ultimately, you'd end up with a situation nearly identical to this one. Do you honestly think Walmart would be any different if they were the sole market leader? Or would Coca-Cola have even survived in its current form without Kroger?

As for Tode, he simply did a meticulous job of copying the homework assigned by Western multinationals. The real issue is that he copied it so perfectly that now he's swallowing everything in his path, especially since the markets he operates in have zero room for organic growth, and creditors are constantly squeezing him...

The second problem is that the rest of the economy is so rotten that Tode's retail and food empire has become the primary economic engine. But these sectors will never see enough explosive growth to provide massive profits for the owner alongside high-paying jobs. I mean, do you really expect a cashier at Kroger to ever earn a decent wage? Or a warehouse worker at Coca-Cola? These are mostly low-paying, part-time gigs for students, retirees, and immigrants.

As long as owners are busy dreaming about owning massive estates and picturing themselves as some kind of American Blake Carrington... their workers will be absolutely bled dry. Nothing is going to shift until there's a fundamental change in the collective mindset—until we see a shift toward something like: "I'm doing well, so let's make sure you're doing well too, because if you thrive, I thrive..."

Forget about warehouse managers or sales clerks; we’re talking about a real criminal here who refuses to settle his debts with either his suppliers or the IRS, yet the government just sits there without stepping in to stop him. If this keeps up, he's going to spread through the economy like a cancer

Harold Long21 said:Forget about warehouse managers or sales clerks; we’re talking about a real criminal here who refuses to settle his debts with either his suppliers or the IRS, yet the government just sits there without stepping in to stop him. If this keeps up, he's going to spread through the economy like a cancer

Honestly, I just don't see why he wouldn't be paying his suppliers within that standard 7 to 30-day window for cash sales, or even the 30 to 45 days for credit transactions, if he were actually running a legitimate operation...

Maybe if William Shakespeare had been around to write a play about The Group, he might have actually shed some light on this whole mess for us...

brightheron64 said:Honestly, I just don't see why he wouldn't be paying his suppliers within that standard 7 to 30-day window for cash sales, or even the 30 to 45 days for credit transactions, if he were actually running a legitimate operation...

Maybe if William Shakespeare had been around to write a play about The Group, he might have actually shed some light on this whole mess for us...

The reality is that stalling on payments or simply ignoring suppliers is essentially the cheapest interest-free loan one can grab, and honestly, I think that's where the heart of most of these issues lies.

Carl Turner2 said:The reality is that stalling on payments or simply ignoring suppliers is essentially the cheapest interest-free loan one can grab, and honestly, I think that's where the heart of most of these issues lies.

And frankly, that’s because we live under a government that functions more like a playground bully than a regulator. If you snatch a candy bar from the corner store, you're looking at a night in jail, but if you orchestrate a massive takeover of the entire chocolate factory, suddenly you're considered a pillar of the American economy...🙄