Warren Buffett and Bill Gates Talk Economics

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates had an interesting conversation on economics--here's one excerpt:

[I]t just occurred to me that if you don’t trust the government to do a lot of things very well—and business will never trust them to do that; rich people will never trust them to do that—and if, on the other hand, the honor system doesn’t work particularly well in terms of how many people behave (and this idea just occurred to me ten seconds ago so it will take a lot of refining): what if you had three percent or something like that of the corporate income tax totally devoted to a fund that would be administered by some representatives of corporate America to be used in intelligent ways for the long-term benefit of society, This group—who think they can run things way better than government—could tackle education, health, etc. or other activities in which government has a large role. And it would have this forced funding of three percent of corporate profits or some sum like that.

As readers know, I am a huge fan of Warren Buffett. Enjoy the link:

http://creativecapitalism.typepad.com/creative_capitalism/2008/06/bill-gates-and.html

(Conversation took place on May 15, 2008)