Buffett: What would you do if you could live over again?

It's an interview worth sharing; it's like the assumption in the A Theory of Justice, a modern political philosophy classic written by John Rawls. And you may be interested in Bill Gates's speech too, see http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/kevin-wch/searchblog_art?p=speech&my=1.

(pls browse http://blog.cnfol.com/998a998/article/1273577.html for the Chinese translation, see the last part of the interview.中譯本詳見上面網址最後一部份，這個訪問內容就像John Rawls的正義論的理論前設,也可參看Bill Gates的演講: http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/kevin-wch/searchblog_art?p=speech&my=1  )

http://www.tilsonfu nds.com/BuffettU ofFloridaspeech. pdf

Moderator: Ok, Warren , we will let you take one more question from the audience….

Buffett: I will let you pick who get it. You can be the guy…(laughter).

Question: What would you do to live a happier life if you could live over again?

Buffett: This will sound disgusting. The question is how would I live my life over again　to live a happier life? The only thing would be to select a gene pool where people lived　to 120 or something where I came from.

I have been extraordinarily lucky. I mean, I use this example and I will take a minute or　two because I think it is worth thinking about a little bit. Let's just assume it was 24　hours before you were born and a genie came to you and he said, "Herb, you look very　promising and I have a big problem. I got to design the world in which you are going to　live in. I have decided it is too tough; you design it. So you have twenty-four hours, you　figure out what the social rules should be, the economic rules and the governmental rules　and you and your kids and their kids will live under those rules.　

You say, "I can design anything? There must be a catch?" The genie says there is a catch. You don't know if you are going to be born black or white, rich or poor, male or　female, infirm or able-bodied, bright or retarded. All you know is you are going to take　one ball out of a barrel with 5.8 billion (balls). You are going to participate in the　ovarian lottery. And that is going to be the most important thing in your life, because　that is going to control whether you are born here or in Afghanistan or whether you are　born with an IQ of 130 or an IQ of 70. It is going to determine a whole lot. What type of　world are you going to design?

I think it is a good way to look at social questions, because not knowing which ball you are going to get, you are going to want to design a system that is going to provide lots of goods and services because you want people on balance to live well. And you want it to　produce more and more so your kids live better than you do and your grandchildren live　better than their parents. But you also want a system that does produce lots of goods and　services that does not leave behind a person who accidentally got the wrong ball and is　not well wired for this particular system. I am ideally wired for the system I fell into　here. I came out and got into something that enables me to allocate capital. Nothing so　wonderful about that. If all of us were stranded on a desert island somewhere and we　were never going to get off of it, the most valuable person there would be the one who　could raise the most rice over time. I can say, "I can allocate capital!" You wouldn't be　very excited about that. So I have been born in the right place.

Gates says that if I had been born three million years ago, I would have been some animal's lunch. He says, "You can't run very fast, you can't climb trees, you can't do anything." You would just be chewed up the first day. You are lucky; you were born today. And I am. The question getting back, here is this barrel with 6.5 billion balls, everybody in the world, if you could put your ball back, and they took out at random a 100 balls and you had to pick one of those, would you put your ball back in?

Now those 100 balls you are going to get out, roughly 5 of them will be American, 95/5.　

So if you want to be in this country, you will only have 5 balls, half of them will be women and half men--I will let you decide how you will vote on that one. Half of them　will below average in intelligence and half above average in intelligence. Do you want to　put your ball in there? Most of you will not want to put your ball back to get 100. So　what you are saying is: I am in the luckiest one percent of the world right now sitting in　this room--the top one percent of the world. Well, that is the way I feel. I am lucky to be　born where I was because it was 50 to 1 in the United States when I was born. I have　been lucky with parents, lucky with all kinds of things and lucky to be wired in a way　that in a market economy, pays off like crazy for me. It doesn't pay off as well for　someone who is absolutely as good a citizen as I am (by) leading Boy Scout troops,　teaching Sunday School or whatever, raising fine families, but just doesn't happen to be　wired in the same way that I am. So I have been extremely lucky so I would like to be　lucky again.

Then the way to do it is to play out the game and do something you enjoy all your life and be associated with people you like. I only work with people I like. If I could make $100 million dollars with a guy who causes my stomach to churn, I would say no because　in way that is very much like marrying for money which is probably not a very good idea　in any circumstances, but if you are already rich, it is crazy. I am not going to marry for　money. I would really do almost exactly what I have done except I wouldn't have bought　the US Air.

Thank you.