The man has enviable health.

McDonalds has healthy food options. Getting a quarter pounder, a salad, and a cup of water is reasonably healthy.

It's the soda and the shakes and the fries that'll getcha.

> what is heroic about those two things?

America threw off a king and founded a republic. Equality is a founding value and one we still respect. A rich man keeping his habits despite his wealth, and doing so next to the rest of us, is a role model for other up and comers.

(The Romans had a similar thing about pastoral farmers. Every culture has its myth, and we like it when those in power try to live up to it.)

I think they just meant it's very stereotypically american to drive a very walkable distance and eat McDonald's every day

Nothing. We shouldn't dilute the term hero. Let's call it what it is "groundedness"

It's just a sarcastic take. I wouldn't read into it too much. If it didn't make you grin like a goofball, it failed and you should just move on to the next comment.

It's down to earth.

We expect the ultra-wealthy to eat at the French Laundry in California, to have chauffeurs, to live in New York penthouses…

It's sarcasm

I think they are being hyperbolic.

Not just relative to other billionaires, relative to the average American, he never went after get rich quick schemes, has a reputation less dirty, values life-long relationships more, and fell to not one of so many traps and dynamics that see many successful people trash their own legacy.

The internet citizen is so often convinced that everyone with a high net worth is crooked, cheated to get where they are at, and would be even more morally corrupt if only they weren't so undeserving as to be incompetent of the ways to do so.

So often the ambitious can believe that to succeed one must perform ultra sexy acts of innovation multiplied by inhuman hours of naive young team members. This pressure can drive us to be impatient, reckless, and unscrupulous.

When we look at most startup CEOs who make it big, we say "don't try to emulate them" because we know they took huge risks and rolled at least a few good numbers. A person can emulate Warren Buffet. It's just patient and prudent, avoiding self-deception for decades. Yet it is excruciating. If not for Warren Buffet, so many would say, "It's not worth it" or "It will never work because you'll slip up."

Being at least an anecdote that being honest and right can work out in the long run is a herculean counterweight against the vast traps of cynicism that can lead many to defeat themselves before they even try. It's tough to keep going or commit to that path, especially as your options keep going up. Few else tried because it takes an entire lifetime. Making it work saved a lot of people from a lot of imprudent choices and will continue to save more. That is heroic.

I think they meant hero in the sense of archetype rather than heroic.

But I agree with the person suggesting not diluting the word.

If Buffet was a customer of mine, I'd give him such a card, too. It's good for business!

He spends big money on security.

If he was poor, people would call him lazy for eating mcdonalds everyday...

If you define success as number going up and to the right, sure.

Coca-Cola is a great energy drink. But you have to expend this energy, say, by thinking really hard.

As a red blooded capitalist who loves this country as much as the next patriot, I can assure you admiration for fast food and coke is 100% real.

Well, impossible to prove of course but it reminds me of Ingvar Kamprad (the man behind IKEA) who used to drive an old Volvo when in Sweden to appear as a "man of the people".

In fact he had his main residence in Switzerland and was filthy rich which is a bit of a hard swallow especially in Sweden, a country still very much affected by the "Law of Jante".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante

A reporter that was doing a documentary about his wealth asked him once directly when stepping out of his old Volvo and Kamprad kinda lost it; it was a big kerfuffle at the time on the telly.

For those paying attention it was really revealing about the true nature of the man (let me add he was a young Nazi back in the day).

Most people came to his defense like the red-blooded capitalist gentleman commenting above about Buffet being a 100% American.

The older generation still swallow the farce hook, line and sinker. For the rest of us it's pretty clear it was a well thought-out facade to placate the plebeians to sell more cheap furniture.

if one is to make a fake persona, fast food and coke (the drink) probably won’t make top-100 list

Not doubting you, but any specific examples of him supporting monopoly?

Or are you saying the general environment of high finance supports this?

No doubt he had more money than he needed but if this is referring to his preference for coka-cola and apple stock / any stocks with the ability to set their own prices because of market dominance, I feel like that’s not a totally fair criticism.

Which “opulent mansions”?

It's very obvious that some of the lesser plutocrats have public PR campaigns now. Zuck obviously got a stylist too.

Like he said, an American Hero

Do you feel this way about all billionaires or is it something about Buffet?

I respect Buffett greatly on a professional level, and think it's the height of arrogance to believe any one of us personally has the moral right to decide which level of lawful activity becomes turpitudinous greed.

THAT SAID...

My uncle (he's 98) had a passing acquaintance with Buffett during their overlap at Penn, and in the one econ class they shared, he remarked having heard Buffett say in almost salivating eagerness as he rubbed his hands that if only there could be another Great Depression, he would make a killing. The dude has value investing in his DNA beyond anything else, I truly believe. But he's argued for changing complex and unfair taxation, and always been a good citizen as far as I can tell. I think if all of Wall Street were like him, the world would be a much better place.

A man who built what he loves and produced so much surplus value for the rest of us to enjoy (read: profit) is _exactly_ a hero. I’m sure I could find ways critique him, but not in the context of celebrating his career.

Buffet has also made a lot of money for his investors. People can buy shares in Berkshire Hathaway.

I don't think built around greed is fair. If he was greedy he'd be spending the money rather than giving nearly all of it to charity.

If he built his life around greed, you must have numerous examples, so give specific instances to support this charge. No handwaving.

Mostly true, compared to other billionaires he's a much better flavor and a stronger record of appearing human but still, agree. I'd recommend reading The Snowball for a more complete understanding of him.

He is an _American_ hero

Actualy, he didn't. He's probably the one billionaire alive today for which you could not make that case. I know of one other (but he's dead).

He built his life around developing successful businesses. That's not greed.

He made his billions by figuring out who were worthy people to give money to.

He's not exactly curing cancer but i could think of a lot more underhanded ways to make billions. I think he is above average ethically relative to his billionaire peers.

But hey, he also owns Sees Candy.

I don't want a society where you have to be a hero to produce mass benefit to others. I want a society where greedy people feel like they have to serve the needs and wants of others to fulfill their greed.

I don't know to what extent Buffet does it. Nor does our current quasi-fascist society where the government is highly embedded with industry and regulating who is the winner and who is the loser and then taxing/inflating the working class to make sure they stay afloat.

But in the idealistic version of America, it is supposed to be a place where becoming a billionaire means you are not just producing billions of profit for yourself, but billions of value for others. That every deal, both sides are better off. This is what we aspire to, the whole ideal towards voluntary trade and capitalism as a method a tide that rises almost all boats and at the very least doesn't involve sinking another boat lower.

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And he’s giving away most of his fortune to help others when he dies.

Idk how that can be considered a “life centered around greed”