Subject: Re: Rational Walk Annual Meeting Questions
it's not a big deal he doesnt know what a chevy (or even most consumer items) cost, this is just normal gerontological progression. people seem much more amused when its younger politicians that dont know, even if they are not wealthy.


Let's just examine what he said:

If you're an Apple user and somebody offers you $10,000, but the only provison is they'll take away your iPhone, and you'll never be able to buy another, you're not going to take it. If they tell you if you buy another Ford car, they'll give you $10,000 not to do that, you'll take the $10,000, and you'll buy a Chevy instead,' Buffett said during an appearance on CNBC's Squawk Box.

I can see how you might interpret this as Buffett thinking that you can 'take the $10,000, and you'll buy a Chevy instead'. But there is another possibility: that he is saying $10,000 is enough compensation to get you to switch from Ford to Chevy, but not necessarily enough to actually buy the Chevy without additional funds. The $10,000 is just a lot of money to turn down for not buying a roughly equivalent item (say, an Android phone), with no particular relationship to the price of the phone, and the same would be true for the car.

Buffett is a numbers guy - I'm pretty confident he knows how much a car costs in 2023, in addition to knowing what shares of IBM and 5-year treasuries are trading at. If I saw any other trace of a loss of numerical proficiency, I would be more inclined to worry about the possibility that he thinks a Chevy costs only $10,000, but as it is, I think you should consider the more generous interpretation.

dtb