The Crew at Berkshire Hathaway

I do not expect much in the way of objective news from the nightly corporate propaganda fests on network TV, but when Brian Williams touted the rise of closed stock fund Berkshire Hathaway from $7 to $100,000 a share, it made my stomach turn. Since when does the health of financial capitalists have anything to do with the commonwealth? Granted, Warren Buffett took shares of a nearly defunct textile manufacturer and turned them into a rich man's money machine. But does Mr. Buffett's fund produce anything of value to society as a whole? It certainly does not produce textiles anymore. Those are all made overseas nowadays. Does he employ a large work force that earns a living wage? Perhaps his small staff in Omaha earns a decent living. Does he invest in infrastructure or new plant and equipment that can in turn create value for society? Again the answer is no.
Undoubtably his defenders would counter these criticisms by saying Mr. Buffett benefits society by creating wealth. But wealth for who? How many of you can afford to invest 100,000 bones in his fund? Marx said of financial capitalists like Buffett,

The credit system...is one enormous centralization [that] gives this
class of parasites a fabulous power not only to decimate industrial capitalists
periodically but also to interfere in actual production...and this
crew...have nothing at all to do with it. Das Capital

So if your job is being outsourced to a low wage nation or your pension fund is going broke or you are working 80 hours to pay your ARM, comfort yourself with thoughts of how rich you would be now if you had bought Berkshire at $7. Really, you only have yourself to blame. For myself, I am with Jack Burden who told Willey Stark in All the King's Men to 'soak the fat boys'. Because they can afford it.