Acting legend Bill Murray sent in a question for investing legend Warren Buffett

During the 2020's Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting, Bill Murray had a question about health care workers for Warren Buffett.

Video Transcript

BECKY QUICK: This question comes from Bill Murray the actor, who is also a shareholder in Berkshire. He says, "This pandemic will graduate a new class of war veterans, health care, food supply, deliveries, community services. So many owe so much to these few. How might this great country take our turn and care for all of them?

WARREN BUFFETT: We won't be able to pay, actually. You know, it's like people that landed in Normandy or something. I mean, the poor, the disadvantaged, they suffer. There's an unimaginable suffering, and at the same time, they're doing all these things that-- you know, they're working 24-hour days, and we don't even know their names. And so we ought to do-- if we go overboard on something, we ought to do things that can help those people.

And this country-- I've said it a lot of times before, but the history of it-- I mean, we are a rich, rich, rich country. And the people that are doing the kind of work that Bill talks about, you know, they are-- they're contributing a whole lot more than some of the people that came out of the right womb or, you know, got lucky and thinks they're-- know how to arbitrage bonds or whatever it may be. And I'm-- you know, in large part I'm one of those guys.

So you really try to create a society that, under normal conditions with more than $60,000 of GDP per capita, that anybody that worked 40 hours a week can have a decent life without a second job and with a couple of kids and have-- you know, they can't live like kings. I don't mean that. But nobody should be left behind.

It's like a rich family. You know, you find rich families, and if they have five heirs or six heirs, you know, they try and pick maybe the most able one to run the business, but they don't-- they don't forget about them, the kid that actually may be a better citizen in some ways even than the one that does the best at business, but he just doesn't have that market value skills.

So I do not think that a very rich company ought to totally abide by-- totally abide by what the market dishes out, you know, in 18th-century style or something of the sort. So I welcome ideas that go in that direction.

We've gone in that direction. You know, we did come up with Social Security in the '30s. We've made some progress, but we ought to. I mean, we have become very, very, very rich as a country, and we've-- things have improved for the bottom 20%. I mean, you see various statistics on that, but I'd rather be in the-- I'd rather be in the bottom 20% now than be in the bottom 20% 100 years ago or 50 years ago. But what's really improved is the top 1%.

And I hope we, as a country, move in a direction where people Bill was talking about get treated better, and it isn't going to hurt-- it isn't going to hurt the country's growth. And it's overdue, but a lot of things are overdue.

We are-- I will still say we're a better society than we were a hundred years ago, but you would think with our prosperity we could-- we would hold ourselves to even higher standards of taking care of our fellow man, particularly when you see a situation like you've got today where it's the people whose names you don't know that are watching the people come in and watching the bodies go out. Greg?

GREG ABEL: Yeah, I-- yeah, the only other group that I would highlight-- and I think it'll be very interesting to see how it plays out-- is with the number of homeschooling and the children that are home, I think there's a-- we've always had so much respect for our teachers, but we all talk about how we don't take care of them. And, you know, it is remarkable to hear how many people comment that clearly we don't recognize or-- you know, I have a little eight-year-old Beckett at home, and, you know, plenty of challenges for mom. But all of a sudden you respect the institution, the school, the teachers, and everything around it.

So there-- and then when I think of our companies and the delivery employees we have, it's absolutely amazing what they're doing, and they're truly on the front line. You know, that's where we have our challenges around keeping them health and safety. And then you go all the way to the rail. The best videos you see out of our companies are when we have folks that are actively engaged in moving supplies, food, medical products. And they're so proud of it, and they recognize they're making a difference. So a lot of it is we just owe them a great thanks.

And you know, Warren, you touched on it. We can in some way, maybe hopefully longer term, compensate them, but there's a great deal of thanks and I probably just think an immense amount new appreciation for a variety of folks.

WARREN BUFFETT: We're going in the right direction overall in the country, but it's been awfully slow.