'This Week' Transcript: The Giving Pledge

November 28, 2010 — -- There's been this increasing disparity between the rich and the poor, and we found out that a rising tide just lifted all yachts, not all boats.

Warren Buffett has been practically begging the country - begging the congress to tax him more. In fact many of the richest Americans like Buffett, Bill and Melinda gates and ted turner say they should pay higher tax.

BUFFETT: the rich are always going to say that you know, just give us the money and we'll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you. But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on.

The debate over whether the rich should pay more taxes takes place outside Washington, DC as well. In Washington State for instance where Bill Gates Sr. has been passionately championing a new tax on the rich. Washington is one of seven states with no state income tax.

AMANPOUR: Proposition 1098 that was in Washington state to try to bring a wealth tax championed by Bill Gates, Sr., supported by Bill Gates, it failed.

BUFFETT: Right. Got beat pretty badly, but I really admire Bill Sr. for what he did on this. I mean there's a guy that's going out and trying to do something for his state and, unfortunately, lost.

AMANPOUR: What do you say though to the executives? One, apparently, was even a Microsoft executive who spent a lot of money trying to defeat that.

BUFFETT: they're not alone in those look at who fights in terms of the estate tax and in terms of higher tax rate. That's what K Streets all about in Washington. And, unfortunately, the politics is a game of push and pull and you get to push with money.

AMANPOUR: Are you disappointed that it got defeated?

B. GATES: I voted yes and I was hoping that it would pass. But that's done now.

AMANPOUR: If people aren't going to pay for the services that they need, how are those services going to get funded, do you think?

B. GATES: Well, taxes and spending have to match each other in the long run. There's many ways to tax, there's many ways to spend. That's all up to the voters. Some states, you rely on your legislators to do that. Some, you have lots of referendums.

AMANPOUR: Do you agree with the former Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan that all Bush era tax cuts should come to an end?

BUFFETT: no, I think -- or actually you might extend them further for the lower class, middle class, maybe upper middle class but I think that you should raises taxes on the very rich. I lived in periods where capital gains taxes were 39.6 percent, when earned income taxes were 70 percent and our economy did just fine.

AMANPOUR: why do you think there isn't there more of that kind of debate....

BUFFETT: I think that it hasn't been to the interest of the people in Washington to get as riled up about that as they get riled up about other things. You know, we're going to raise $2.2 trillion this year or something like that. Nine hundred billion will come from individual income taxes. Nine hundred billion will come from payroll taxes. So the payroll taxes become 40 percent of our total revenue just like the income tax. And people that talk about how the rich pay their share and all that sort of thing, they totally ignore the payroll tax. You know, I did this little survey in my office a few years ago and there were 16 people who responded. And I had the lowest tax rate of the 16. I didn't have any tax shelters. I didn't have any tax planner. It was all courtesy of the U.S. Congress. I mean, they did my tax planning for me. And, literally, the average for the office, counting payroll taxes was 32 percent and mine was 16 and a fraction percent.

AMANPOUR: their rationale is that by giving you a tax break, so to speak, which is what it amounts to, you help all the others...that it trickles down.

BUFFETT: Yes. Well, all I can say it hasn't trickled. You know, as I said, a rising tide has listed all yachts, but the row boats have been left behind.

TURNER: I still pay quite a bit of taxes but not as much as I would if I didn't give so much money away. I get a lot of deductions.

AMANPOUR: so what do you think about the prospects of cutting Social Security --and means testing for people like you

TURNER: Well I don't like it. I paid for Social Security. It's my own money I'm getting back. Social Security, we get taxed for Social Security. In my opinion. I think Social Security -- since you paid for it, it's yours and you're entitled to get it.

BUT EACH OF THESE MULTI BILLIONAIRES SEEs NEEDS THAT ARE NOT MET…THUS THEIR CALL TO OTHERS LIKE THEM TO JOIN THE GIVING PLEDGE.

BUFFETT My wealth has come from a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest. (Both) my children and I won what I call the ovarian lottery.

WARREN BUFFETT, WHO IS CEO OF BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY AND ONE OF THE WORLDS'S RICHEST MEN HAS PLEDGED TO GIVE AWAY 99% OF HIS FORTUNE. TODAY, THAT'S WORTH 50 BILLION DOLLARS.

AMANPOUR: was it difficult at first to sort of go from making that money to giving it away? Did your hands shake? Did your heart stop?

BUFFETT: No, it was not difficult to make the decision. My wife and I made the decision back when we were in our twenties that we were going to do it. The question was how to do it. And it's much easier to make it than it is to give it away intelligently.

We have been blessed with good fortune beyond our wildest expectations and we are profoundly grateful. But just as these gifts are great, so we feel a great responsibility to use them well.

BILL GATES, FOUNDER OF MICROSOFT IS ALSO GIVING AWAY HIS MONEY. AND APPLYING HIS INNOVATIVE SMARTS TO TRYING TO SOLVE SOME OF THE WORLD'S BIGGEST PROBLEMS. ALONG WITH HIS WIFE MELINDA, THEY'VE CREATED THE LARGEST PRIVATE FOUNDATION IN THE WORLD WITH $35 BILLION IN ASSESTS WHICH THEY'RE FOCUSING ON IMPROVING GLOBAL HEALTH AND IMPROVING EDUCATION HERE IN THE UNITED STATES.

AMANPOUR: What was the personal, mental shift between making all that money and then deciding to give it away?

M GATES: I think that's an important thing to understand about Bill and me, which is we knew -- even during the time we were engaged, we talked about the fact that this wealth would go back to society. That was a given between us, because we both grew up in families where volunteerism was really important, giving back was really important. And Bill had thought it was going to be later in his career, in his 60s. But once we started getting going in a small way, it builds on itself.

I don't measure success in numbers. But I consider my contribution of more than $1.3 billion to various causes over the years to be one of my proudest accomplishments and the best investment I've ever made

TED TURNER, CAPTAIN COURAGEOUS WHO WON AMERICA'S CUP, MEDIA MOGUL WHO REVOLUTIONIZED TELEVISION NEWS WITH CNN, WHO MARRIED A MOVIE STAR AND WAS INVOLVED WITH THE BIGGEST MEDIA MERGER EVER-- AOL TOGETHER WITH TIME WARNER. WHEN HE WAS SURPRISINGLY FIRED FROM THAT VENTURE, HE REINVENTED HIMSELF WITH A SECOND CAREER AS PHILANTHROPIST---- AND IN 1997, HE STUNNED THE WORLD WITH ONE OF THE LARGEST DONATIONS IN HISTORY, ONE BILLION DOLLARS TO CREATE THE United Nations FOUNDATION.

AMANPOUR: Was it scary to give a third of your wealth away?

TURNER: It is scary because everybody is always afraid that they're going to go broke.

NEVERTHELESS, THESE BUSINESS GIANTS ARE NOT AFRAID TO GIVE BACK IN BIG WAY.

BUFFETT: I've got everything I possibly need. I've never given up a meal, a movie, a vacation trip, anything in my life. And I've got all this huge surplus. I've got a whole bunch of what I call claim checks on society. Little stock certificates. They sit in a box and have been there for 40 years. They can't do anything for me. They can do a lot for other people if intelligently used.

AMANPOUR: you said you won the ovarian lottery. Is that because of opportunity? Was it because of smarts?

BUFFETT: It was being born in America in 1930. I was born in the right country at the right time. Bill Gates has always told me if I had been born, you know, many thousands of years ago, I'd have been some animal's lunch because I can't run very fast, I can't climb trees, and some animal would be chasing me and I say, well, I allocate capital. The animal would say, those are the kind that taste the best. You know?

AMANPOUR: And how did you get your head around not giving it all to your children?

BUFFETT: Well, I just think the idea of dynastic wealth is kind of crazy. The idea that you should be able to do nothing in this world, you know, for the rest of your life and your children and your grandchildren just because you picked the right womb does not really seem to be very American.

AMANPOUR: If you're not giving up anything, are you a do-gooder? Are you a philanthropist?

BUFFETT: I'm somebody doing something that's very logical to me. And I consider the real philanthropist the person who sticks $5.00 in a collection plate this Sunday and can't go to a movie because of it. Plenty of people do that. They actually give up an extra toy for their kids at Christmas by giving that $5.00 or $10.00. I consider somebody like my sister who spends hours every day working to help other people. They're giving away time which is precious.

AMANPOUR: And yet you have called it a moral obligation.

BUFFETT: Well, it's certainly an internal obligation. I mean, I don't want to preach morality to other people. But it's -- I don't see any other choice that makes any sense. I mean, I could build a pyramid to myself and I could kill tourism in Egypt. You know, if I spent the whole $40 or $50 billion on building the greatest tomb ever and people would come for a couple of hundred years. But I think that's kind of crazy.

AMANPOUR: So would you say you're egoless?

BUFFETT: No, I'm not egoless. I take great pride in, you know, what Berkshire Hathaway does if we do well. And, I mean, I like accomplishing things and if I accomplish them, I like other people acknowledging that. So, no, I've got plenty of ego. But I don't believe in spending money that doesn't do anything for me when it will do something for somebody else.

BUFFETT IS GIVING MORE THAN 15% OF HIS MONEY TO FOUNDATIONS STARTED BY HIS THREE CHILDREN AND HIS LATE WIFE, SUSAN. THEY TACKLE ISSUES like THE ENVIRONMENT, FAMILY PLANNING, EDUCATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS.

BUFFETT: I've told them, they're a failure if they don't have any failures, because if they just do easy things, you know, anybody can do those. They're supposed to tackle tough, important problems and, to some extent, ones where funding is otherwise not available. That's where you make a difference.

BUFFETT HAS ALWAYS CHOSEN WISELY WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING THE BEST POSSIBLE RETURN FOR HIS MONEY -- SO THE BULK OF HIS FORTUNE 75% WILL BE INVESTED WITH THE BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION.

BUFFETT: they have this identical goal that every human life is the equivalent of every other human life.

AMANPOUR: Describe how you chose the areas that you chose, and why you chose those when there are so many government programs, let's say, for education or, indeed, for global health.

B. GATES: Well, we looked around and saw that the greatest miracle that had happened for everybody on Earth is that as health had improved, it not only saved lives, it reduced sickness, let kids be able to learn. But that also led to the stabilization of the population wherever good health was created.