Warren Buffett, Genius Porn Stars, and Treasure

Even with the economic decline, Warren Buffett’s net worth stands at $37 billion dollars, give or take a few million.  At the outset, please understand I hold nothing against Mr. Buffett.  Having recently devoured his authorized biography, Snowball, I fully note his genius, his wit, his consistency, in the modest life he lives.  I even intend to follow his investment methods.  Yet, this highly favorable, unabashedly fawning biography highlights some significant lowlights to Warren’s magnificent life.

Specifically, of his three children, none graduated from college, even though one attended prestigious Stanford University and almost completed his degree.  His three children managed to wrack up four divorces.   At 50, his wife Susie moved out, and left Nebraska for good, establishing her own separate life in beautiful Laguna Beach, California.  She established various separate relationships with old flames, and her one-time tennis instructor, among others.  While Warren and his wife continued to be married and affectionate until her death in 2006, Warren established a common law marital relationship in Omaha with Astrid Menks, and made no bones about it.  After his legal wife’s death, Warren and Astrid married. 

Money, it seems, guarantees neither perfect children, perfectly happy children, or serene and blissful marital harmony.

Asia Carrera, studied piano as a child, played Carnagie Hall at 14, starred as a state spelling champ, Math team champ, and won a full ride academic scholarship to Rutgers.  Where is she today?   She recently announced her retirement from the world of pornographic films, where she scored many leading roles in films with titles not appropriate for a Christian newsletter.  Why?  According to her web site (I boast of no familiarity with her films), she cites demanding parents who never found her successes sufficient, who pushed her too hard until she snapped, and just ran off into the night, and ultimately, pornography.  With brains and exceptional beauty, it made for easy money to be a porn queen.

Asia’s hero?  Warren Buffett.  She follows his successes as a true fan, and, like me, hopes to emulate his financial investment success.

Brains, it seems, guarantees neither automatic financial success nor contentment with choices made by others, including parents, no matter how well-intended, and apparently wise, compared to the choices made by the aforementioned genius.  Will she treasure her legacy?

Jesus, of course, offered a few words on treasure.  According to the gospel of Matthew 6:19, he warns:  “Do not store up treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up yourselves treasures in Heaven…For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

To his credit, Warren announced a spectacular foundation that will receive the great bulk of his wealth upon his death.  No Christian he, I wonder if some of Jesus’ ideas seem to be making more sense to him as he heads towards the end of the trail.  Does Warren regret the early pursuit of wealth that may have contributed to the tribulations of his private life?

As we ourselves abruptly now come to the end of our gilded age of financial aggrandizement and look at the cost of our wealth acquisition spree, individually and as a nation, does a different sort of treasure now possess more appeal?  While we breath, it’s never too late to seek a better sort of treasure.

Copyright 2010 – David J. Carr

Thank Goodness for Al-Qaeda

 By David J. Carr

With the Haitian earthquake came the immediate response of Al-Qaeda .  The calls for aid created an outpouring from the organization and those who support its worthy goals and ideals.  Literally within hours of the quake, aid began pouring in from Al-Qaeda :  cargo planes loaded with food, water, temporary shelters. 

People, boots on ground, followed as well, although more than a few Al-Qaeda  members already were in Haiti when the disaster occurred.  Indeed a number were casualties themselves, having been involved in ongoing relief and missionary work directed towards the perpetually beleaguered nation.  In a particularly highly publicized move, Osama Bin Laden himself, being a multi-millionaire, flew his own personal 747, filled with donated supplies, into Port-Au-Prince airport to the cheers of millions across the world.

In small towns and villages controlled by Al-Qaeda , religious groups took up special offerings exclusively for Haiti relief.  All over controlled areas, special prayers went out, even children of Al-Qaeda families raised thousands of dollars for Haiti.

Meanwhile, the world cringed as the United States, with little or no mention of the heartbreaking suffering of the Haitian people, proudly took credit for a Ramadan season attempted bombing, by munitions-loaded underwear, of an Air Arabia airlines flight loaded with men, women, and children coming home for the holiday.

 Since that cowardly episode, the U.S. continues to be conspicuously absent from the world Haitian rescue and relief effort.  No planes of relief, no food, no supplies, no shelter, no relief workers, not even any mention of prayers toward the poor suffering people.  All indications point toward, if anything, renewed attacks against the peaceful civilians of the Middle East–attacks designed to maximize the deaths of non-combatants, including women and children.  Rumors continue that the U.S. may even try to fly a commercial airline into the world’s tallest building located in Dubai.

Is it any wonder that the glorious Ayatollah Khomeni repeatedly referred to the United States as the Great Satan?  Thank goodness for Al-Qaeda . 

Copyright 2010–  David J. Carr

Obama Care and Torrey Pines Tee Times

Most everyone knows that Torrey Pines stands as one of the most magnificent golf courses in the world.  Nestled against the Pacific shores of La Jolla, California, it offers unmatched cliff-side vistas—a golfer’s dream, and sparkles as the sight of the Buick Open each year.  It also stands out as a public course with exceptionally low greens fees (e.g. for you non-golfers, cost to play).

How do free markets react to exceptional values at artificially low prices?  Excess demand, of course.  Torrey Pines attempted deal with this by limiting advance tee times, meaning that golfers wishing to pay could not schedule a playing time in advance.  Instead, it required the golfer to come in several hours in advance, huddle in the dim, cold morning fog, and wait in turn for the chance to secure, after a wait of several hours, one of the prized tee times for the day, with no guarantees.

A frightful system?  Yes.  However, free market forces, like Marvel comic super heroes,  mercifully intervened.  A secondary market emerged.  The unemployed, underemployed, or the merely adventurous entrepreneur, could stand in line for others, secure the “golden ticket” tee time, and then sell the ticket to a broker.  The end user golfer purchased the ticket from a broker, paying full market value for the tee time, but getting to play the fabulous course on the day, and at the time, that he needed.  The entrepreneur, the broker, and the end user golfer all came out ahead.  Free enterprise at its best!

Alas, our story offers no happy ending.  Sadly, the California State Parks Department took exception to our happy little enterprise zone.  It secured illegal status for the brokering, scattered the entrepreneurs, and limited the allowance of out-of-county tee times to five per day.  The result?  A windfall for local residents, a requirement to sign up for tee times as much as six months in advance for everyone else, meaning no golf at all for most eager duffers, due to limits of time and scheduling.

Medical care, like golf, by its nature possesses even more stringent limits on time and scheduling.  As John Maynard Keynes accurately stated, “In the long run, we are all dead.”  Healthy competition between insurance companies or health care providers for your dollars seems most likely to secure an efficient allocation of health resources.  Government control of the economics of medical care likely will fare no better than its regulation of Torrey Pines tee times.  Enjoy your Obama Care; just don’t get sick.

Copyright 2010 –David J. Carr

The Worst Generation?

Our parents’ generation received the moniker: “The Greatest Generation” from former broadcaster Tom Brokow.  Brokow’s book of the same name makes a convincing case for the appellation. 

Born in the throes of the Great Depression, our parents matured in time to fight World War II, the Korean War, and for some even the Vietnam War.  A generation winning wars, raising the standard of living, giving birth to, well, us, the Baby Boomers.  We arrived on the wave of post-WWII prosperity, which washed across this great land. 

We grew up while our parents’ generation struggled to fight, and win, the Cold War against Communism, and the Soviet Union.  That last struggle saw the ageless warrior, Ronald Reagan, lead one last great triumph for that generation.

Having now reached middle age, of what triumphs can we boast?  Middle East peace? Not exactly.  Worldwide elimination of poverty?  No.  Worldwide embracing of democracy?  Fits and starts at best.  Worldwide embrace of capitalism?  Perhaps, but it came in the form of the 18^th or 19^th Century form, the one that smacks of corruption, exploitation, and avoidance of minimum labor and environmental laws now considered mandatory in this country as part of the definition of modern civilization.

Promotion of the family?  Hardly.  We did manage to bring in a new worldwide plague in the form of a new venereal disease: AIDS.   On our watch out-of-wedlock births soared.  In this country, minority birth out of wedlock exceeds 70% of total births.  Caucasian out-of-wedlock births continue to trend upward, and in some Scandinavian countries total birthrates show over 75% out-of-wedlock.  We appear well on the way to subsidizing the extinction of the nuclear family.  Public subsidies make the government, not a spouse, the “bread winner” of last resort.

Promotion of morality or even the rule of law?  Just like the Roman Empire, outside our borders “might makes right.”  All too often, military force remains the weapon of choice.  When self-proclaimed enemies declare war on us, rather than pray for them, we bomb them.  Even more unfortunate, the bombing remains insufficiently pinpoint to completely avoid the killing of  innocents, playing right into the hands of our enemies.

Domestic tranquility?  De Tocqueville mused that democracy will be finished when people discover that they can get what they want from their government, and send the bill to the next generation.  In 1968, the federal budget allocated over 45% of revenues to the military.  Today, thanks to the afore-mentioned Cold War victory, that percent stands reduced to a mere 19.1%, a peace dividend. (Source: gpoaccess.gov/budget)

Unfortunately, in its place, entitlement payments (Health and Human Services) rocketed from 7.3% in 1968 to 24.5% today, and represent the largest line item in the federal budget.  The federal debt stands at an all time high: $12 trillion and climbing.  The federal budget for 2010 projects an annual deficit of $1.4 trillion on a total budget of $3.6 trillion.  While we remain a wealthy nation with GDP of $12-14 trillion annually, we appear to be racing toward a sovereign debt crisis.

We respond by voting ourselves a new entitlement, health care, with generous subsidies and little in the way of legitimate funding mechanisms.  It also appears to provide little in the way of incentives for wellness or health cost containment.  The means to obtain this entitlement involved political gimmickry, backroom deals, and circumvention of the Senate filibuster mechanism. 

We remain unwilling to recognize that 43% of the citizens of the nation on our southern border would prefer to live here—no surprise—to take advantage of our entitlement system.  Our system invites their illegal immigration to our country by guaranteeing full benefits to all of their children simply by virtue of their birth upon arrival.  Indeed, currently 70% of the births in Los Angeles public hospitals record the parents as illegal immigrants.

Guaranteeing health care for all of these new U.S. citizens certainly will do nothing to discourage further illegal immigration.  While these brave new immigrants, and their innocent children, bring many positive attributes to our country, the further entrenchment of an underground economy seems destined to further undermine the rule of law in this country.

Will the U.S. end up being “no country for old men.”  Will we go down in history as the “worst generation”?  Time appears to be running short on the chance to make our legacy a positive one.

Copyright 2010—David J. Carr