Investing legend Warren Buffett rarely needed many words to expose what was broken in modern finance. One line, buried in his 1996 Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) (BRK.A) shareholder letter, does exactly that. It draws a sharp line between two very different philosophies of capitalism – one built on partnership, and one built on extraction. The line? “We are here to make money with you, not off you.”
Buffett – then CEO of Berkshire, and now chairman – was speaking directly to shareholders, but the implication was much broader. He was rejecting an incentive structure that dominates much of Wall Street, where managers get rich whether investors succeed or fail. Performance fees, upside-only bonuses, asset-gathering games and constant product churn all reward the seller first and the client second. Berkshire refused to play that game.
