WARREN BUFFETT: We've Made A 'Terrible Mistake' With Treatment Of Women In America
A lot of his commentary about the economy was standard stuff: Policymakers have done the right about amount of stimulus, the economy is good not great, and immigration needs to be reformed.
Of interest is his commentary about women, an issue he's been talking about more and more.
Below is a partial transcript of the interview (provided to us by ABC) where he talks about how we've made a terrible mistake in underutilizing the talents of women in America:
JARVIS: You have taken up the chance to become a member of the Twittersphere.
BUFFETT: Here we go.
JARVIS: Tweet away.
BUFFETT: OK. "Warren is in the house."
JARVIS: Which is a surprise to a lot of people, because you held out for so long.
BUFFETT: You're still looking at a technophobe who is kind of pathetic in that -- in all things news, but I felt it was giving additional distribution, particularly to an article. I wanted that wide distribution about women. So I joined Twitter. And it seems to be working.
JARVIS (voice-over): In the article in Fortune magazine, Buffett called women the key to America's prosperity writing "we've seen what we can be accomplished when we use 50 percent of our human capacity. If you visualize what 100 percent can do, you'll join me as an unbridled optimist about America's future." (on camera): You're bullish on women.
BUFFETT: I think that -- I think we've made a terrible mistake in this country and a lot of other countries, too, but in not using all of our talent. I mean, if we said we were only going to let people, men 5'10", or below engage, in three or four occupations, it would be regarded as totally nutty. And for decades, centuries, we relegated women to just a few occupations. And we did not fully use the talent that's available. And we're making progress, but we have got a ways to go.
JARVIS: Beyond rhetoric, what can be done to change that?
BUFFETT: I think there should be more pushing forward, in terms of both the outer structure, but then I was also encouraging women not to hold themselves back.