[DavidWanjiru]

The companies he owns make and sell stuff and services. You know, a bit like the company owned by Bill Gates, whom you seem to hold in better regard.

[logicalmind]

Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. They have, and do, sell products and services. Celebrating Warren Buffet is analogous to celebrating someone who was a provider of capital to Microsoft rather than the people who provided the products and services. The people who found and build companies are "Makers". Warren Buffet is not a "Maker", he profits off of "Makers".

[treebeard901]

For some reason, it really sounds like you have an axe to grind with Mr. Buffet or maybe with captialism in general. From my perspective, the problem with finance today is the tendency to think short term. The endless pursuit for profit next quarter. This is not the method Buffet uses... I find it refreshing to hear someone like him suggest that a longer term view is needed. Sure, he isn't changing the world directly by running a massive software company but he contributes in the way he can and that's all you can really ask of anyone.

[valuearb]

Try building a very successful company without someone else providing capital. It's almost impossible. Apple was VC funded for example.