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Is there any reason to value this kind of parasitic success?

I'm not sure you quite understand what Buffett does. Yes, his company invests in other companies. However, it's more typical for him to invest to: (1) gain a controlling share and (2) realign the company's management and strategy.

He often turning around companies through his own expertise. Not just "loaning them money and collecting interest".

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Actually, not true! His philosophy is to invest in solid business that will generate outsize profits in the future. Early on, he tried to buy undervalued companies and then try to turn them around, but he admits that this was a bad strategy, so he changed.

So I should have said, a benevolent Gordon Gekko.

So you would have preferred the companies to be less successful? Maybe laid some people off?

Yes Buffett got rich, but he got rich by creating things, which requires new jobs. A lot of other people got rich along with him.

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