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Anyone else weirded out by the tone of Warren's email. His casual references to Coca Cola possibly causing cancer (when Coca Cola is probably the single biggest

Anyone else weirded out by the tone of Warren's email. His casual references to Coca Cola possibly causing cancer (when Coca Cola is probably the single biggest cause of disease in this country via obesity). Also, the way he framed Microsoft as being a toll on a water stream reminded me of Bill Burr's talking about Nestle trying to own the water supply https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_pb6r8VNWk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_pb6r8VNWk. Idk the most I hear of these oligarch's the more I'm terrified of them.

monkeynotes 6y ago
I imagine that when you are playing at the top of your game, everything seems like a game and that's the way you talk about it. Buffet is solely focussed on winning bets, that's how he got to where he is. People like Buffet fill a slot that is at the very foundation of capitalism. If you are terrified of rich, powerful business people you are in the wrong economic model. So far we are yet to find a better model, IMO.
- sukilot 6y ago
  I'd you think the purpose of economics is to make the most money and not the most utility for human society, you say you are in the wrong economic model. Tumors are the best growing parts of a body; that doesn't mean cancer is the ideal form of life
  - monkeynotes 6y ago
    Who said it was the best economical model? Human society is made up of individuals. Capitalism, as opposed to socialism puts the power of utility in the hands of the individual. Thus individuals strive to make the most of the economic landscape and this often means making as much money as they can. Again, I am not saying it's perfect but it's worked pretty well for western values.
- pdm55 6y ago
  Is Warren upset that he went ouside his sweet spot when he bought major shares in American, Delta, Southwest and United airlines? His analysis showed that investing in airlines last century would have netted him precisely zero dollars. However, this century's tourism boom seems to have persuaded him that now was the time to set aside that analysis. So in he went. THEN the coronavirus pandemic hit. And out he scampered for a $7 billion dollar loss! I wonder what an experience like that does to one's psyche.
  - tw04 6y ago
    Unstable leaders lead to unstable markets. I doubt it did much to his psyche other than act as a reminder to be careful what you invest in during periods of political instability.
bfieidhbrjr 6y ago
If you think long and hard about the core reason a PET scan works then it's inescapable that Coca Cola causes cancer, depending on your definition of "cause". In fact, we've know about this, the Warburg hypothesis, for a long time.
- mijoharas 6y ago
  > If you think long and hard about the core reason a PET scan works then it's inescapable that Coca Cola causes cancer Could you expand on this point? My background is in physics, and I think I've got a fair understanding of how PET scans work, but I think I'm missing the connection.
  - bfieidhbrjr 6y ago
    Sure. Once you get a positive cancer diagnosis, or sometimes before, you give someone a PET scan to see if it's gone metastatic. A PET scan will "detect cancer" down to a few mm in resolution. It will only miss cancers smaller than that. It detects all cancers, though there is noise. What is it detecting? Positrons. From memory you dope glucose with decaying fluoride. You inject this or drink it after fasting. Fasting clears out (some or most) your blood glucose and some glycogen in your muscles and other places. So you get a rush of this glucose and it goes straight to the tumors. There, it emits higher amounts of positrons due to concentration (and maybe metabolization, I forget). So why does glucose go straight to tumors? Because tumors exclusively process glucose. The other pathway to ATP, fat (triglycerides to ketones etc) is broken. That's why a PET scan works. Sugar. The stuff in coca cola. Although today there's a lot of fructose too (fun fact, fructose is a poison just like alcohol). To go further, human beings didn't used to eat nearly the quantity of sugar or at the frequency we do today. You can become much healthier by fasting and avoiding carbs (which are in some ways one and the same thing). A similar analysis of dentistry will lead to the same conclusions.
    - sukilot 6y ago
      Tumors eat more food, because that's what tumors are. Fetuses eat more food too, but eating food doesn't cause pregnancy.
11thEarlOfMar 6y ago
Coca-cola had been around for about 100 years at the point he made that comment. My read is that he was illustrating how solid Coca-cola revenue prospects were for the long term. He was certainly not saying there was a question about cancer as a possibility. No possibility in his mind, and therefore, his certainty that Coca-cola revenue was a sure bet.
c0nsumer 6y ago
That's not quite what Warren Buffett is saying. He's saying that Coca-Cola's revenue stream will continue unless something pretty much impossible happens; like finding out it causes cancer. To quote: "I feel 100% sure (perhaps mistakenly) that I know the odds of this continuing - again 100% as long as cola doesn't cause cancer."

monkeynotes 6y ago

I imagine that when you are playing at the top of your game, everything seems like a game and that's the way you talk about it. Buffet is solely focussed on winning bets, that's how he got to where he is. People like Buffet fill a slot that is at the very foundation of capitalism. If you are terrified of rich, powerful business people you are in the wrong economic model. So far we are yet to find a better model, IMO.

sukilot 6y ago
I'd you think the purpose of economics is to make the most money and not the most utility for human society, you say you are in the wrong economic model. Tumors are the best growing parts of a body; that doesn't mean cancer is the ideal form of life
- monkeynotes 6y ago
  Who said it was the best economical model? Human society is made up of individuals. Capitalism, as opposed to socialism puts the power of utility in the hands of the individual. Thus individuals strive to make the most of the economic landscape and this often means making as much money as they can. Again, I am not saying it's perfect but it's worked pretty well for western values.
pdm55 6y ago
Is Warren upset that he went ouside his sweet spot when he bought major shares in American, Delta, Southwest and United airlines? His analysis showed that investing in airlines last century would have netted him precisely zero dollars. However, this century's tourism boom seems to have persuaded him that now was the time to set aside that analysis. So in he went. THEN the coronavirus pandemic hit. And out he scampered for a $7 billion dollar loss! I wonder what an experience like that does to one's psyche.
- tw04 6y ago
  Unstable leaders lead to unstable markets. I doubt it did much to his psyche other than act as a reminder to be careful what you invest in during periods of political instability.

bfieidhbrjr 6y ago

If you think long and hard about the core reason a PET scan works then it's inescapable that Coca Cola causes cancer, depending on your definition of "cause". In fact, we've know about this, the Warburg hypothesis, for a long time.

mijoharas 6y ago
> If you think long and hard about the core reason a PET scan works then it's inescapable that Coca Cola causes cancer Could you expand on this point? My background is in physics, and I think I've got a fair understanding of how PET scans work, but I think I'm missing the connection.
- bfieidhbrjr 6y ago
  Sure. Once you get a positive cancer diagnosis, or sometimes before, you give someone a PET scan to see if it's gone metastatic. A PET scan will "detect cancer" down to a few mm in resolution. It will only miss cancers smaller than that. It detects all cancers, though there is noise. What is it detecting? Positrons. From memory you dope glucose with decaying fluoride. You inject this or drink it after fasting. Fasting clears out (some or most) your blood glucose and some glycogen in your muscles and other places. So you get a rush of this glucose and it goes straight to the tumors. There, it emits higher amounts of positrons due to concentration (and maybe metabolization, I forget). So why does glucose go straight to tumors? Because tumors exclusively process glucose. The other pathway to ATP, fat (triglycerides to ketones etc) is broken. That's why a PET scan works. Sugar. The stuff in coca cola. Although today there's a lot of fructose too (fun fact, fructose is a poison just like alcohol). To go further, human beings didn't used to eat nearly the quantity of sugar or at the frequency we do today. You can become much healthier by fasting and avoiding carbs (which are in some ways one and the same thing). A similar analysis of dentistry will lead to the same conclusions.
  - sukilot 6y ago
    Tumors eat more food, because that's what tumors are. Fetuses eat more food too, but eating food doesn't cause pregnancy.

11thEarlOfMar 6y ago

Coca-cola had been around for about 100 years at the point he made that comment. My read is that he was illustrating how solid Coca-cola revenue prospects were for the long term. He was certainly not saying there was a question about cancer as a possibility. No possibility in his mind, and therefore, his certainty that Coca-cola revenue was a sure bet.

c0nsumer 6y ago

That's not quite what Warren Buffett is saying. He's saying that Coca-Cola's revenue stream will continue unless something pretty much impossible happens; like finding out it causes cancer. To quote: "I feel 100% sure (perhaps mistakenly) that I know the odds of this continuing - again 100% as long as cola doesn't cause cancer."