Sunday Fun: Comments From Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger

Via the Wall Street Journal are comments from yesterday's Berkshire Hathaway 50th anniversary annual meeting (BHAM):

A New York-based shareholder writes in that being invested in Berkshire over the years has essentially been at least partly about being [invested in] sugar companies. With the increasingly known health effects of high sugar consumption and changing consumer habits, the shareholder asks if we’ve reached an inflection point in the American consumer and, specifically, if Coca-Cola’s moat (competitive advantage) is narrowing.

(Berkshire has a big stake in Coke.) 

“It’s an enormously wide moat, but it’s also true the trends you describe are happening,” answers Mr. Buffett. But he thinks all food and beverage companies will adjust to the expressed preferences of the consumers. “No company ever does well ignoring its consumer,” he adds. Twenty years from now, Mr. Buffett predicts there will be more Coke cases consumed than now by some margin. Mr. Buffett jokes that one-quarter of all the calories he consumes come from Coca-Cola.

“I’m not sure which quarter,” he adds. 

There’s a lot to be said about being happy what you’re doing, he says. ”If I lived my whole life eating broccoli and brussell sprouts, I probably wouldn’t live as long.”

He subtly picks up the box of See’s [Candy which BH owns] on the table in front of him and passes it to Munger. The crowd laughs. Eating broccoli, he says, is “like going to jail.”

It’s a pretty good bet that an awful lot of people are going to like the same thing, says Mr. Buffet. “I don’t see smiles on the faces of people at Whole Foods, so I like the brands we’re buying.”

Munger jokes that sugar “prevents premature softening of the arteries.” If sugar shortens his life, he says, it’ll spare him “a few months of drooling in a nursing home.” Munger is 91.

Of course, Berkshire Hathaway owns BNSF Railway. One of the highlights of the BHAM is the giant BNSF/BH layout with one building for every one of the companies BH owns. 

Above, of course, are Warren Buffett and BH co-chair Charlie Munger (did you know he is a meteorologist?) celebrating their anniversary via a sign on the layout. 

The BNSF/BH layout was done by Trainworx of Dallas the same people that created my amazing layout. 

BNSF is a client of AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions. My layout's goal is to celebrate my family and my career. Trainworx did an amazing job executing my dream. 

I couldn't agree more with Mr. Buffett's advice that being happy is a key to longevity. I suspect that both of our layouts accomplish that for both of us.