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<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11915967" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="warren-buffett" source="Orion">Warren Buffett</keyword> has underlined how lucky he is by pointing to <keyword id="11892774" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="afghanistan" source="Orion">Afghanistan</keyword>.</li><li>The investor won the "<keyword id="11975071" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ovarian-lottery" source="Orion">ovarian lottery</keyword>" by being born in the US, where his skills are rewarded.</li><li>Buffett has also invoked Afghanistan to highlight inequality and push for higher taxes.</li></ul>Warren Buffett's talent for spotting undervalued businesses has made him one of the wealthiest men in history. However, he has repeatedly underscored the outsized role that luck has played in his career, and highlighted Afghanistan to hammer his point home.<h2>Winning the lottery</h2>The famed investor and <keyword id="11915968" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="berkshire-hathaway" source="Orion">Berkshire Hathaway</keyword> CEO popularized the term "ovarian lottery," or the idea that the circumstances of a person's birth shape their opportunities in life. "It's the most important event in which you'll ever participate," Buffett said at Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting in 1997. "It's going to determine way more than what school you go to, how hard you work, all kinds of things. You're going to get one ball drawn out of a barrel that probably contains 5.7 billion balls now, and that's you."Buffett noted that he and his business partner, Charlie Munger, won the lottery by being born white, smart, able-bodied, male, and in America."When we were born, the odds were over 30-to-1 against being born in the United States," Buffett said at the meeting. "Just winning that portion of the lottery, enormous plus. We wouldn't be worth a damn in Afghanistan.""We'd be giving talks, nobody'd be listening," he continued. "Terrible."The US has richly rewarded the two men's knack for valuing businesses, but that wouldn't be the case in every country, Buffett continued."Is that the greatest talent in the world? No," he said. "It just happens to be something that pays off like crazy in this system."Buffett repeated that point more than a decade later, adding that many important jobs are far less lucrative."The market system rewards me outlandishly for what I do," Buffett told <a href="http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2104309,00.html">Time magazine</a> in 2012. "But that doesn't mean I'm any more deserving of a good life than a teacher or a doctor or someone who fights in Afghanistan."<h2>Sharing the jackpot</h2>Buffett has drawn comparisons between the US and Afghanistan to emphasize how inequality starts at birth. He's called for a system that incentivizes people to use their skills if they're valued by the market and society, but also helps people who don't hit the jackpot in life.That type of system "makes sure that just because at that one moment in time they got the wrong ticket, they don't live a life that's dramatically worse than the people that were luckier," Buffett said at the 1997 meeting.The Berkshire chief has also pointed to Afghanistan to make his case for higher taxes on the wealthy."While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks," he said in a New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html">column</a> titled "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich" in 2011.Buffett's comments show he's aware of his numerous advantages and privileges, which include living in a country that rewards his skills and protects his wealth. Afghanistan is his go-to example of a much tougher situation, fueling his belief that the less fortunate should be lifted up and the most affluent should share more of their wealth.

Warren Buffett used Afghanistan to explain the role of luck in his career - and call for higher taxes on the rich

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Rebecca Cook</div></div><keyword id="6358963" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Warren-Buffett">Warren Buffett</keyword> recently met with a <a href="http://blogs.rhsmith.umd.edu/davidkass/uncategorized/warren-buffetts-meeting-with-university-of-maryland-mbams-students-november-15-2013/">group of MBA students</a>.
A student asked him what shaped his political views (Buffett is a Democrat). The famous investor offered a great through experiment, which helped him think through the kind of world he wants to live in. In it he characterizes something he calls the 'Ovarian Lottery':
My political views were formed by this process. Just imagine that it is 24 hours before you are born. A genie comes and says to you in the womb, "You look like an extraordinarily responsible, intelligent, potential human being. Going to emerge in 24 hours and it is an enormous responsibility I am going to assign to you - determination of the political, economic and social system into which you are going to emerge. You set the rules, any political system, democracy, parliamentary, anything you wish, can set the economic structure, communistic, capitalistic, set anything in motion and I guarantee you that when you emerge this world will exist for you, your children and grandchildren. 
What's the catch? One catch - just before you emerge you have to go through a huge bucket with 7 billion slips, one for each human. Dip your hand in and that is what you get - you could be born intelligent or not intelligent, born healthy or disabled, born black or white, born in the US or in Bangladesh, etc. You have no idea which slip you will get. Not knowing which slip you are going to get, how would you design the world? Do you want men to push around females? It's a 50/50 chance you get female. If you think about the political world, you want a system that gets what people want. You want more and more output because you'll have more wealth to share around. 
The US is a great system, turns out $50,000 GDP per capita, 6 times the amount when I was born in just one lifetime. But not knowing what slip you get, you want a system that once it produces output, you don't want anyone to be left behind. You want to incentivize the top performers, don't want equality in results, but do want something that those who get the bad tickets still have a decent life. You also don't want fear in people's minds - fear of lack of money in old age, fear of cost of health care. I call this the "Ovarian Lottery". 
My sisters didn't get the same ticket. Expectations for them were that they would marry well, or if they work, would work as a nurse, teacher, etc. If you are designing the world knowing 50/50 male or female, you don't want this type of world for women - you could get female. Design your world this way; this should be your philosophy. I look at Forbes 400, look at their figures and see how it's gone up in the last 30 years. Americans at the bottom are also improving, and that is great, but we don't want that degree of inequality. Only governments can correct that. Right way to look at it is the standpoint of how you would view the world if you didn't know who you would be. If you're not willing to gamble with your slip out of 100 random slips, you are lucky! The top 1% of 7 billion people. Everyone is wired differently. You can't say you do everything yourself. We all have teachers, and people before us who led us to where we are. We can't let people fall too far behind. You all definitely got good slips.
Even if you don't buy Buffett's idea that only government can alleviate certain forms of inequality, one thing that's great about Buffett is his appreciation of <keyword id="16504" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="luck">luck</keyword>, and the realization that he won a lottery ticket by dint of his birth. So many of our elites can't stop talking about how hard they worked, or the importance of taking risk and all that. Buffett readily acknowledges that he had incredible fortune from the moment he was born.
At the same event, Warren Buffett <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-on-george-w-bush-2013-12">also explained</a> why he thought George W. Bush said the greatest economic statement of all time.

We Love What Warren Buffett Says About Life, Luck, And Winning The 'Ovarian Lottery'

Warren Buffett discussed Apple, Activision Blizzard, bitcoin, and inflation during Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting. We live-blogged the event.

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Warren Buffett used Afghanistan to explain the role of luck in his career - and call for higher taxes on the rich

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We Love What Warren Buffett Says About Life, Luck, And Winning The 'Ovarian Lottery'

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Warren Buffett discussed Apple, Activision Blizzard, bitcoin, and inflation during Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting. We live-blogged the event.

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