Least I Can Do

I happen to have a talent for allocating capital.  But my ability to use that talent is completely dependent on the society I was born into.  If I'd been born into a tribe of hunters, this talent of mine would be pretty worthless.  I can't run very fast.  I'm not particularly strong.  I'd probably end up as some wild animal's dinner.

But I was lucky enough to be born in a time and place where society values my talent, and gave me a good education to develop that talent, and set up the laws and the financial system to let me do what I love doing -- and make a lot of money doing it.  The least I can do is help pay for all that.

-- Warren Edward Buffett (30 August 1930-), American investor and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, spoken to Barack Obama, as quoted in The Audacity Of Hope, Chapter 5 (2006)