QuestionerHow should CEOs decide which issues to take assent on or whether their companies should engage in the political realm at all? Thank you.
WarrenThat's a terrific question. And that is one obviously I've had to think about plenty. And at one point, I said I don't put my citizenship in a blind trust. I just want to take the job as CEO of Berkshire. But I've also learned that you can make a whole lot more people sustainably mad than you can make temporarily happy by speaking on any subject. And on certain subjects, they will take it out on our companies. And that means that the people that are employed by us, some of them we would end up letting go, it means that the shareholders get hurt, and do I really think that it's so important that I talk on every possible subject that people can get very upset about, whether they should be asked to pay that price? And I've come to conclusion, the answer is no, why in the world? Do I want to hurt the people in that other room that do you want to hurt the people in that other room that all kinds of things for Berkshire. Why do I want to hurt you? Because I say something that 20% of the country is going to instantly disagree with it. And sometimes they will be so upset about it that they will try and take it out. And since they can't scream at me, they'll, they may have campaigns against their companies or anything else. So I think it applies to me. I'm not going to go around and take positions where instead of saying Warren Buffett says, it will be, it will say, you know, Berkshire Hathaway or Warren Buffett up, Berkshire Hathaway. I get it identified and I do not want to make the lives of you. And I decided I'm not going to be doing that. And if I want to do that, I should quit my job. I think my citizenship speaking out is that important. I'll give up what I love the most, which is having this job. I don't want to do that. So I've decidedly backed off. I don't want to say anything that'll get attributed basically to Berkshire and have somebody else bear the consequences of what I talk about.