QuestionerHas Berkshire reviewed stocks in the area of communications, and would you consider an investment in this area at some time in the future?
WarrenI think for people who understand it and are reasonably early, you know, there could very well be substantial money to be made. There's been an awful lot of money made in this town of Omaha by people who have participated in this, but I'm not one of them. And I have no insights that I bring to that game that I think are in any way superior, and probably may. cases not even equal to those of other participants. There's a lot of difference between making money and spotting a wonderful industry. You know, the two most important industries in the first half of this century in the United States, in the world, probably with the auto industry and the airplane industry. I mean, here you have these two discoveries, both in the first decade, essentially in the first decade of the century. And if you'd foreseen in 1905 or thereabouts what the auto would do to the world, let alone or this country or what the airplane would do, you might have thought that it was a great way to get rich. But very, very few people got rich by being, by riding the back of that auto industry and probably even fewer got rich by participating in the airline industry over that time. I mean, millions of people are flying around. around every day, but the number of people who have made money carrying them around is very limited. And the capital has been lost in that business, the bankruptcies, it's been a terrible business. It's been a marvelous industry. So you do not want to necessarily equate the prospects of growth for an industry with the prospects for growth in your own net worth by participating in it.