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- Warren Buffett won’t be overly concerned about who wins the US presidential election, given his firm belief that America will only grow more prosperous in the long run.
- “After every election, you’ll have people feeling the world is coming to an end and [asking] how could this happen,” the famed investor said at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in 2018.
- There will always be “lots of disagreements,” he said, but the US “really, really works” as a means of mass wealth generation.
- The Berkshire CEO pointed to the sixfold rise in per capita GDP in his lifetime, which means millions of Americans enjoy a better quality of life than billionaire industrialist John D. Rockefeller Sr. did.
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Warren Buffett won’t be too worried about the US presidential election on Tuesday, regardless of President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden’s dire warnings about what a victory for their opponent would mean for Americans.
“After every election, you’ll have people feeling the world is coming to an end and [asking] how could this happen,” the billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO said at his company’s annual meeting in 2018, according to a transcript on Sentieo, a financial-research site.
“Multiple times in my life, people have felt the country was more divided than ever,” Buffett continued. “I’ve gone through periods where people I knew and admired thought that because the other party was in power, that there never would be another election.”
However, the investor emphasized that he’s lived under 14 of the 44 US presidents — he refuses to count Grover Cleveland twice — and the nation has only grown more prosperous with time.
While there will always be "lots of disagreements," Buffett said, the American model "really, really works."
The Berkshire chief highlighted the sixfold increase in per capita GDP during his lifetime. The result, he said, is that millions of Americans enjoy a better quality of life than John D. Rockefeller Sr. did — the world's wealthiest person when Buffett was a boy.
Buffett's unwavering belief in a brighter future for the US might help to explain why he he hasn't endorsed Biden, despite throwing fundraisers for Barack Obama, campaigning for Hillary Clinton, and attacking Trump in the past.
The investor may have decided the benefits of backing Biden and contributing to his campaign are outweighed by the risk of a boycott of Berkshire's businesses, as he believes the country will be just fine, whether he wins or not.