From Monday's press conference about Warren Buffet's gift to the Gates Foundation:

"I can’t think of anything that’s more counter to idea of meritocracy than dynastic wealth. The idea that you win the lottery the moment you are born if you come from the right womb, just strikes me as outrageous.

I had the advantage of a home where people talked about interesting things and intelligent parents that went to very decent schools. They had all kind of advantages let alone being given billions of claim checks on the activities of others in the future.

That’s what wealth is. They’re a bunch of claim checks. You can use that wealth in any way that you want to cash in those claim checks. But the idea of passing those from generation to generation so that hundreds of your descendants can essentially command the resources of other people simply because they came from the right womb flies in the face of a meritocratic society

I love it when I'm around a country club, and I hear people talking about these debilitating aspects of a welfare cycle, where some woman had a child at 17, and all these terrible things are happening because of food stamps and the fact that we’re perpetuating this by keeping these people who are not behaving in a way they’re suppose to in a situation where they continue to do so merely by eating.

At the same time, they leave their kids a lifetime and beyond supply of food stamps. They essentially instead of having a welfare officer, they have a trust officer. And instead of having food stamps, they have stocks and bonds that pay them dividends and interest."

- Warren Buffet

I couldn't agree more.