GATES AND BUFFETT: 1000 TIMES WORSE THAN KEN LAY


Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Ken Lay--all thieves. Compared to the world's two richest men, however, Lay was small potatoes. So why are we praising them, and kicking Lay while he's down--six feet down?

Lay stole $43.5 million. Ross overpaid himself at least $78.2 million (worth $121.9 million today). Now consider investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, worth $44 billion and $50 billion, respectively, according to Forbes. Each one has accumulated one thousand times more cash than Ken "#1 Bush Campaign Donor" Lay. But we're supposed to like, and even admire, these rogues.

Buffett and Gates may not have broken any laws--although, in Gates' case, the Clinton-era Justice Department thought he'd cheated millions of American consumers by violating anti-trust laws--but it's hard to see how their billions are more ethically legit than Lay's misbegotten millions. Sorry, but "working hard" doesn't cut it. I don't care if you stay late at the office every night, work weekends and holidays, or you never go on vacation. It doesn't matter how smart, imaginative or lucky you are. It just isn't possible to earn $44 billion in a single lifetime.

Not honestly, anyway.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucru/20060711/cm_ucru/gatesandbuffett1000timesworsethankenlay;_ylt=ArtTk3R.nctsXxoC8kyJ0wv8B2YD;_ylu=X3oDMTA4MzQ0N2p2BHNlYwMxNzA0

Posted: Mon - July 10, 2006 at 10:07 PM          

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