A bigger fence will shut off Mexican migrants, Obamacare, the Iran deal and ISIS will be ripped to shreds and then, only then, will America start winning again. The rhetoric from the campaign trail may be bringing in new voters, but billionaire investor Warren Buffett counts himself among those who don't believe America is doomed unless the right presidential candidate moves into the Oval Office.
In an annual letter to shareholders, Buffett addressed the negativity that has come out of the debates and stump speeches of the current batch of presidential hopefuls. Buffett has endorsed candidate Hillary Clinton, who has stressed that she intends to pick up where Obama will leave off on Jan. 20 of next year.
"It's an election year, and candidates can't stop speaking about our country's problems (which, of course, only they can solve)," Buffett wrote. "As a result of this negative drumbeat, many Americans now believe that their children will not live as well as they themselves do. That view is dead wrong: The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history."
The United States gross domestic product (GDP) of $56,000 per capita is, "in real terms," six times what it was back in 1930, he stated. That's the year he was born.
The economic shape of the country isn't an indicator of people's intelligence or work ethic. It's because people work more efficiently and produce more, a trend Buffet stated was sure to carry on.
While some bemoan the country's 2 percent per year growth in real GDP, Buffett stated that the rate produces "astounding gains." With an annual population growth rate of about 0.8 percent (0.5 percent from births minus deaths and 0.3 percent from immigration), that 2 percent growth will compound to about 34.4 percent in real GDP per capita.
All of that makes for a projected $19,000 increase in GDP per capita, stated Buffett.
He pointed out that people living in his upper middle class neighborhood can afford luxuries that simply weren't available to oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller Sr.
But he conceded that he can't say for sure just how evenly the pie will be cut up, meaning the gulf between the rich and the poor could continue to swell. There will remain the tug of war between rich and poor, new rich and old rich, prime workers and retirees, the sick and the healthy and so on.
"Clashes of that sort have forever been with us - and will forever continue. Congress will be the battlefield; money and votes will be the weapons. Lobbying will remain a growth industry," Buffett stated.
