This first question comes from Bill Mitchell. I received more questions about this than any other question. He writes, "Warren, in a 2003 Fortune article, you argued for import certificates to limit trade deficits and said these import certificates basically amounted to a tariff. But recently, you called tariffs an act of economic war. Has your view on trade barriers changed, or do you see import certificates as somehow distinct from tariffs?"
Yeah, the import certificates were distinct, but their goal was to balance imports against exports, and so that the trade deficit would not grow in an enormous way. In fact, it would have, and it had various other provisions in it that helped third world countries at that time, as they were called, to perhaps catch up a little bit.
And they had a variety of aspects to them, but basically they were designed to balance trade. And I think you can make some very good arguments for the fact that balanced trade is good for the world, and the more balanced trade there is, the better it will continue to be — better for cocoa to be raised in Ghana and coffee in Colombia and a few things. And over time, the American industry has gone from being an agricultural country. This was nothing but an ag country. I mean, it virtually — and that was only 250 years ago. And we have become a very industrial country, and we did not want to make that a situation, in my view, where we ran greater and greater deficits, building up greater and greater debts against the country. So, I designed this import certificate thing which Charlie thought was a little too much like Rube Goldberg. I don't know whether that type of name is, but it's gimmicky.
But it's certainly a lot better than anything that I think than what we're talking about now, and there's no question that trade can be an act of war, and I think it's led to bad things. Just the attitudes it's brought out in the United States. I mean, we should be looking to trade with the rest of the world, and we should do what we do best, and they should do what they do best. And I don't think it...
That's what we did originally. I mean, we were good at producing tobacco and cotton 250 years ago, and we traded it, and we want a prosperous world with eight countries with nuclear weapons, including a few that I would call quite unstable. I do not think it's a great idea to try and design a world where a few countries say, "Ha ha ha, we've won," and other countries are envious.
So, my import certificate idea, which went no place — I think we got extra copies, probably not a great demand for the copies. If anybody did, I know if you'd like it, write the office, I think we can probably send you a copy of it. But the main thing to do is not use — trade should not be a weapon. And the United States, we've won. I mean, we have become an incredibly important country starting from nothing 250 years ago. There's nothing that anything like it. And it's a big mistake in my view when you have 7 and a half billion people that don't like you very well, and you have 300 million that are crowing in some way about how well they've done. And I don't think it's right, and I don't think it's wise.
I do think that the more prosperous the rest of the world becomes, it won't be at our expense. The more prosperous we'll become, and the safer we'll feel, and your children will feel someday. So, that's...
But don't expect my import certificate idea to go up there with Adam Smith. It's one of the nations are doing. Okay, well...
All right, this question comes from Jessica Poon, who says you've long been a strong believer in the American tailwind and the resilience of the United States, and history has proven you correct. Today, the US appears to be undergoing significant and potentially revolutionary changes. Some are now questioning the concept of American exceptionalism. In your view, are investors being overly pessimistic about the US economy, or is the country indeed entering a period of fundamental change that requires a reassessment from a new perspective?
Well, I would say that, Jessica, what I believe is in some instances she is the step-granddaughter of one of our managers that I mentioned in the annual report — may not be the same one. But in any event, America's been insignificant and revolutionary changing really ever since it was developed. I mentioned that, you know, we started out as an agricultural society.
We started out as a society with high promises, and we didn't deliver all that very well. We said all men were created equal, and then we wrote a constitution that said blacks count as three-fifths of those three-fifths, and in Article Two you'll find male pronouns used 20 times and no female pronouns used. So, you know, it took till 1920, I should say, till the 19th Amendment was passed saying, oh yeah, we promised the women this back in 1776, and now we'll do something about it. And then we didn't do something about it for a long time.
So, we're always in the process of change. We'll always find all kinds of things to criticize in the country, but the luckiest day in my life is the day I was born. You know, because I was born in the United States, and at the time, 3% of all the births in the world were taking place in the United States. And I'd like to say that I had something to do, you know, listen, sent messages out to my parents, for God's sakes, move to the United States before I'm born or anything, but I was just lucky. And I was lucky to be born male, I was lucky to be born white, and I was lucky all kinds of things.
But it's been — if you don't think the United States has changed since I was born in 1930, it's been — we've gone through all kinds of things, we've gone through great recessions, we've gone through world wars, we've gone through the development of the atomic bomb that we never dreamt of, you know, at the time I was born. So, I would not get discouraged about the fact that it never does look like we've solved every problem that's come along. And if I were being born today, you know, I would just keep negotiating in the womb until I said, "You can be in the United States." So, we're all pretty lucky.
Hello, Mr. Buffett. My name is Saskia from Giessen, Germany, and first of all, I want to thank you because you made such a great impact in my life and the life of people I love, and that's priceless.
