Warren Buffett: We invested in tobacco companies 🚬 Charlie Munger: We also distribute cigarettes 💰

요약 보기

버핏과 멍거는 합법적이지만 사회적으로 논란이 되는 기업(담배 등)에 대한 투자 기준을 설명한다. 버핏은 도덕적 완벽을 요구하지 않으며 합법이고 자신이 직접 지지하기 어려운 사업이라도 주식·채권 보유는 허용된다고 말한다. 다만 어디에 선을 그을지는 명확히 설명하기 어렵다고 인정한다. 과거 RJ레이놀즈 주식과 채권을 보유했고, 담배 광고를 싣는 신문을 소유하며, 담배를 판매하는 월마트·코스트코 등 유통 기업도 보유하거나 보유를 용인한다고 밝힌다. 한 담배 관련 기업은 인수를 검토했으나 경영진과 만난 뒤 최종적으로 거부했으며, 이후 사위의 연구 등을 근거로 직접 소유는 하지 않기로 했다. 담배 사업의 재무적 수익성과 미래 전망에 대해서는 입법 위협이 심각하다고 보며, 담배 산업이 장기적으로 어떻게 될지 예측하기 어렵다고 말한다. 자신의 순자산 상당 부분을 담배 사업에 두는 것은 원치 않는다고 밝힌다. 버핏은 자신을 사적 시민으로서 정치적 견해를 밝히는 것이며 버크셔를 대변하지 않는다고 강조한다. 영상에서 제시된 대상 자산(삼성전자, 비트코인, 나스닥 등)에 대한 1~3개월 가격 방향 예측 발언은 없다.

다듬은 글

※ 자동 자막 원문(다듬기 전)

01. investors are increasingly looking to invest in companies that are socially and morally responsible you said you didn't think business should have a role at all and you wouldn't impose your values on others at this meeting years ago you said you wouldn't buy a tobacco company because of the social issues the idea that Berkshire would associate with any company as long as it isn't illegal seems at odds with everything I think you stand for please tell us you misspoke I do not have a problem buying stock in companies uh marketable Securities the bonds of those of companies in the market uh that that uh engage in activities that I I wouldn't probably endorse myself I would have trouble owning outright and actually directing the activities of some of those companies but you know the uh any major retailer in this country is virtually is going to be selling cigarettes RS for example at uh uh and if they're not declared illegal it does not bother me to own would not bother me to own those retailers outright or does not bother me to own the stock I can't tell you that that's the perfect line or I can't tell you precisely why that's where I draw it but I will tell you that is where I draw it we owned stock at one time in RJ reyolds before it before it had the lbo we own Bonds in it uh and you know I would still be doing it if I liked either the bonds or the stock we passed one time on the chance to buy an extraordinarily profitable company because Charlie and I met the people that ran it and they were they were perfectly decent people too and we went down in the lobby of the hotel that that we met him in and we just decided that in the end we didn't want to be involved in that on the other hand I would have bought stock as a publicly traded stock in the same company we don't claim to have some kind of perfect morals you can draw these lines where you wish but at least we've got a huge area of things which is perfectly legal to do that we think beneath us so we won't do them and we see more and more in America a culture where just anything that's unlikely to send you to prison which looks like it'll make money is okay and that is a very bad development if a majority of the shareholders voted to do it or if a majority of the board of directors voted to do it I wouldn't I wouldn't I wouldn't accept that I don't I don't think that the my political views I don't think I put them in a blind trust at all when I take the job I don't think I'm speaking for burshire I'm speaking as a private citizen and I don't think I have any business speaking for burshire I I do not believe in imposing my political opinions on the activities of our businesses and if you get to what companies are pure and which ones aren't pure I think it is very difficult to make that call well obviously you do draw a limit Warren all kinds of things yeah which are beneath us even though they're legal but we don't necessarily draw it perfectly because we've got some sort of supreme knowledge we just do the best we can we have no problem owning Costco or Walmart you know and and a substantial number of their stores and U you know they they sell cigarettes it's a big item you know it's it's it's something that brings people in they know the price of cigarettes and and uh you know they put them up front and uh so we don't uh it's a very tough situation it's it's a very tough thing to decide whe whether you get in or out of a business it's very tough time to decide what so what companies benefit Society more than others I don't like making the moral judgments on stocks in terms of actually running the businesses but there's something about every business that if you knew what you wouldn't like if you expect Perfection you know in your spouse or in your friends or in companies you're not going to find it we made that decision a long time ago when we went to Memphis and and we looked at a business that was a very very good business and it was much less harmful uh at least from everything I could find out uh it was much less harmful than smoking tobacco chewing tobacco was and these were decent people and they were running a legal business and they all chewed tobacco themselves so they they they and they told me that their mother was 100 and Che tobacco and all these things but Charlie and I did go down in the lobby of that hotel and we just said to ourselves this probably the best business we've ever seen uh and I called my then son-in-law Al re ber and he studied showing tobacco and its effects when he was working for uh a Nat related organization and we decided not to do it we have owned tobacco stocks in the past we've never owned a lot of them although we may have made a mistake by not owning a lot of them but we we've owned we've owned tobacco stocks in the past we own a newspaper in Buffalo it carries tobacco advertising we are part of the distribution chain now why would we why would we take the ads for those companies or why would we own a supermarket for example that sells them and and not want to manufacture them I I I really can't give you the answer to that precisely but I just know the one the one bothers me and the other doesn't bother me and I'm sure other people would draw the line in a different way uh so the fact that we have not been significant holders of tobacco stocks has not been because they've been on a a boycotted list with us probably the biggest distributor of the biggest seller of cigarettes in the United States is probably Walmart you know do I find that morally repr reprehensible you know I don't if I owned we owned all of Walmart we'd be we'd be selling cigarettes at Walmart but other people might call it differently and I wouldn't disagree with them each individual has to draw its own ethical and moral lines and and personally I like the messy complexity of having to do that it makes life interesting I don't think we can justify our call particularly we just we have to draw the line somewhere between what we're willing to do and what we're not we've generally uh tried to only swing at things in the strike zone and our particular Strike Zone I think we've probably and it doesn't take a genius to do it but I think we've sort of avoid avoided the self-destructive Behavior there are a lot of people who make a lot of money and everybody hates them and they don't admire the way they earn the money and and we we've turned down businesses including a big tobacco business so I don't think B would work as well who are just terribly shrewd we we want to have people think of us as having one fairly and used wisely given the scrutiny that the tobacco business is going under right now what do you see as the business prospects for those huge cash cows it's fraught with questions that relate to societal attitude D you you have to come to a conclusion as to how how Society is going to want to treat and and the presid administration for that matter and and uh the economics of the business may be fine uh but that doesn't mean it has a great future I would not like to have a significant percentage of my net worth in the tobacco business myself but uh they may have better Futures than than I envisioned I think the legislative threat to Tobacco is serious and I haven't the faintest idea of how to predict yeah I would say that there no comparison between the threat