SALON

Wednesday, Aug 17, 2011 7:12 PM UTC

Our Patriotic Billionaire Challenge!

UPDATED: Charles Koch answers us (and Warren Buffett) with an unequivocal no

By

Topics: Patriotic Billionaire Challenge, Taxes,

Our Patriotic Billionaire Challenge!

America’s second-richest person — billionaire investment oracle Warren Buffett — caused a commotion on Monday when he argued that the “mega-rich” should pay higher taxes, pooh-poohing the argument that it would drive business out of the country. Buffett himself only surrendered 17.4 percent of his taxable income to the government last year — a figure that lies toward the low end of the middle-class tax spectrum, and significantly below what upper-middle-class professionals pay. Buffett wrote:

“I know well many of the mega-rich and, by and large, they are very decent people. [...] Most wouldn’t mind being told to pay more in taxes as well, particularly when so many of their fellow citizens are truly suffering.”

Salon decided to put that idea to the test. We’ve contacted the other 19 wealthiest Americans — based on the Forbes 400 list — to ask if they would support paying higher federal income taxes. We quickly heard back from six, though only financier, philanthropist and Fox News target George Soros would say that, yes, he’d pay more (see his full statement below). We’ll update this post (and alert readers through Twitter and Facebook) when we have new responses. And we hope others who have the opportunity will ask them, as well.

We’ve also had five people duck out with “no comments,” but we’re still hopeful they’ll change their minds.

UPDATE (8/19/11): Charles Koch, chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, has issued a resounding, if expected, “No” on the issue of a tax increase: ”Much of what the government spends money on does more harm than good; this is particularly true over the past several years with the massive uncontrolled increase in government spending.” (See his full response below.)

Credit where credit’s due, Koch is just the second billionaire to answer our challenge. A half-dozen others have balked on the issue, dispensing opaque “no comments,” while other notables — such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin — so far remain mum. We’ll keep updating the page as we hear back from more of the subjects.

- – - – - – - – - -

  • 1. Bill Gates


    Founder of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. (2011 net worth: $54 billion)

    No comment

  • 3. Larry Ellison


    Co-founder and CEO of Oracle Corp. (2011 net worth: $27 billion)

    No comment

  • 4. Christy Walton (and family)

    Inheritor of WalMart fortune through her late husband, John T. Walton, and the world’s richest woman. (2011 net worth: $24 billion) (Walton’s brothers and sister in law — Jim, Alice and S. Robson, chairman of WalMart — are Nos. 7 through 9 on the Forbes 400 list, and each worth $20 billion-plus.)

  • 5. (tie) Charles Koch and David Koch


    Co-owners of Koch Industries and bankrollers of many a conservative cause. (2011 net worth: $21.5B, each)

  • NO VOTE “Much of what the government spends money on does more harm than good; this is particularly true over the past several years with the massive uncontrolled increase in government spending. I believe my business and non-profit investments are much more beneficial to societal well-being than sending more money to Washington.” — Charles Koch 

  • 10. Michael Bloomberg

    Mayor of New York; founder and primary owner of Bloomberg LP. (2011 net worth: $18B)

  • 11. (tie) Larry Page and Sergey Brin

    Co-founders of Google. Page is also the search giant’s CEO. (2011 net worth: $15B, each)

  • 13. Sheldon Adelson


    Chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp. (2011 net worth: $14.7B)

  • No comment

  • 14. George Soros


    Chairman of the Soros Management hedge fund and financier of liberal causes. (2011 net worth: $14.2B)

    YES VOTE “Warren Buffett is living up to his reputation as an astute investor,” he said. “The rich hurt their own long term interests by their opposition to paying more taxes.”

  • 15. Michael Dell

    Founder and CEO of computer giant Dell, Inc. (2011 net worth: $14B)

  • 16. Steve Ballmer


    CEO of Microsoft. (2011 net worth: $13.1B)

    No comment

  • 17. Paul Allen

    Co-founder of Microsoft, chairman of Vulcan, Inc. (2011 net worth: $12.7B)

  • 18. Jeff Bezos

    Founder, president, chairman and CEO of Amazon. (2011 net worth: $12.6B)

  • 19. Anne Cox Chambers


    Heiress, primary owner and a director of Cox Enterprises. (2011 net worth: $12.5B)

    No comment

  • 20. John Paulson


    Founder and president of the Pauls & Co. hedge fund. (2011 net worth: $12.4B)

    No comment

 

More Peter Finocchiaro.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 141 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations