Warren Buffett 4 Kidz

May 16, 2011 6:51 AM

It's not uncommon for celebrities to get a cartoon. Billionaire Warren Buffett now joins their ranks with Secret Millionaire's Club, a cartoon about Warren Buffet giving a group of kids advice on investing, business and life.

Buffet provides his own voice acting to the show, and does it pro bono. It is going to air on The Hub, a cartoon network owned between Discovery and Hasbro that airs such programming as Transformers Prime and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

Former DIC CEO and creator of Inspector Gadget Andy Heyward is producing the series along with a cartoon about crafts featuring a young Martha Stewart as well as an action comic book with Stan Lee.

posted by mccarty.tim (28 comments total)

One wonders if there will be a crossover where Buffett explains ethical investing to a young Martha Stewart.
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:52 AM on May 16, 2011 [3 favorites]

Warren Buffett should do a kids-only newsletter called Big Money Betting Long on Penny Stocks.
posted by parmanparman at 6:57 AM on May 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

I expect you people to all rag on the billionaire here, but before you start wallowing in your liberal slop-pit let me just remind you all that Warren Buffet made his billions by actually INVENTING the buffet.

When you invent a whole new way of eating food, THEN you can "serve yourself" a heap-big plate of mockery, you fucking jackals.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 7:09 AM on May 16, 2011 [30 favorites]

Secret Millionaire's Club

I KNEW IT!
posted by penduluum at 7:10 AM on May 16, 2011

Argh, this is not my morning for typos.
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:13 AM on May 16, 2011

Possibly related: I remember when I was a kid how much we used to snicker when the vanity card for Dic Productions would come up and they'd prounonce it with a long I sound ("deek") but we all knew you could say it "dick."
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:22 AM on May 16, 2011

If I ever launch a line of wild rabbit foods, I'm definitely going to call it 'Warren Buffet'.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 7:25 AM on May 16, 2011 [5 favorites]

So what you're saying is that there's a possibility of a crossover episode where Warren Buffet teaches the My Little Ponies about investing?

YESSSSS
posted by dismas at 7:39 AM on May 16, 2011 [9 favorites]

I'm not sure business advice of any sort presented by Aol. has any kind of reputability.
posted by _Lasar at 7:43 AM on May 16, 2011

Man, imagine if Warren Buffet really was a secret millionaire.
posted by splatta at 7:44 AM on May 16, 2011

Well, at least Buffet actually spent a few bucks on the animation.
posted by maudlin at 7:46 AM on May 16, 2011

I need a superhero cartoon were The Sorosian fights against the evil plots of the MechaKochs, and they combat by spraying giant hosefuls of money at each other.
posted by FatherDagon at 7:49 AM on May 16, 2011 [6 favorites]

If you invest like Warren Buffet, you can live like Jimmy Buffett.

I made that up.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:50 AM on May 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

I expect you people to all rag on the billionaire here, but before you start wallowing in your liberal slop-pit...

Aren't liberals generally pretty approving of Warren Buffet? ISTR him backing proposals to increases the marginal tax rate rather than killing social security when Bush proposed it.
posted by DU at 7:54 AM on May 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

I looked around, and I like the website, anyway. Buffet answer kids' questions about investing and saving and the stock market (the first question, about a twenty dollar bill being the same as twenty ones is pretty silly and not something I think a kid would really ask, and there are questions that look like parents wrote them, but the advice is still sound).

I liked this one:
How did you get to be so rich?
I was lucky to be born in a free country like America where I had all kinds of opportunities. And I had parents who made sure I understood the importance of a good education, and I learned at a very early age how important it is to work hard and be honest. I always had an interest in business, and learned how important it was to listen and learn. I only invest in a business I fully understand, and then I am patient and I let my investment grow. My advice to you is to work hard in school, and look for something you like to do. If you are happy, you will be successful.

There's also a Bejeweled-type game about paying off credit card debt (match three dollar or coin amounts to make them disappear). I didn't really think it was teaching much, but if you take too long to match them, a screen comes up saying you have to pay interest on your debt now and yoru balance goes up, which made me smile.
posted by misha at 8:01 AM on May 16, 2011

Vox Pop: How did you get to be so rich?

-- "I was lucky to be born in a free country like America. Although not actually America. Thank God."

-- "I worked hard all my life, and then I used the money to buy several other people's lives, and I worked hard in all of their lives too. Then when I had enough money I bought some more people's lives. But I just pissed around in those, basically."

-- "Prostitution, gangland killings, drug trafficking, and shares in Exxon. But my portfolio is long on drug trafficking."

-- "I built a community website with strong moderation for good quality discussions about a range of interesting things on the web. Wait, did you say 'rich'? I thought you said 'redonculous'. Yeah, I'm not rich."

-- "I worked hard in school, and looked for something I liked to do. Turns out I like to be CEO of a Fortune 500 company and I also like oppressing the poor and vulnerable. I'm just glad I found my passion."
posted by the quidnunc kid at 8:40 AM on May 16, 2011 [4 favorites]

In related news, the bitcoin bubble has reached 8.5 USD per BTC. lol
posted by jeffburdges at 8:41 AM on May 16, 2011

A billionaire getting a cartoon series is like a brainless actor becoming President.

Kids learning life lessons from driven business executives can only end badly.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 8:47 AM on May 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

A billionaire getting a cartoon series is like a brainless actor becoming President.

So we can expect 8 seasons of this show then?
posted by FatherDagon at 10:02 AM on May 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

misha: "I looked around, and I like the website, anyway. Buffet answer kids' questions about investing and saving and the stock market (the first question, about a twenty dollar bill being the same as twenty ones is pretty silly and not something I think a kid would really ask, and there are questions that look like parents wrote them, but the advice is still sound).

I liked this one:
How did you get to be so rich?
I was lucky to be born in a free country like America where I had all kinds of opportunities. And I had parents who made sure I understood the importance of a good education, and I learned at a very early age how important it is to work hard and be honest. I always had an interest in business, and learned how important it was to listen and learn. I only invest in a business I fully understand, and then I am patient and I let my investment grow. My advice to you is to work hard in school, and look for something you like to do. If you are happy, you will be successful. Also, I'm white.

FTFY
posted by symbioid at 10:33 AM on May 16, 2011

FatherDagon: "A billionaire getting a cartoon series is like a brainless actor becoming President.

So we can expect 8 seasons of this show then?"

Nah, more like three seasons.
posted by symbioid at 10:35 AM on May 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Well, you've got to at least give him props for starting off his answer to "how did you get so rich?" with "I was lucky..." – and for mentioning that he had all kinds of opportunities, opportunities that lots of people don't have. He's right about that much.
posted by koeselitz at 11:33 AM on May 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

Right about the rest, too, actually. Warren Buffet is annoyingly nice and annoyingly rational for a rich person.
posted by koeselitz at 11:34 AM on May 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

I know that Metafilter doesn't like the very rich (believe me, I know this!), but I'm not sure what Warren Buffett could ever do that would redeem him in these cynical parts.

I'm honestly curious about the hostility surrounding him, as he seems to be the one wealthy person Metafilter would support.

He was born in America (Omaha, Nebraska), and yes, he is white, so that gave him advantages, which he freely admits to. But he worked hard to make his initial money with two paper routes and other jobs as a kid. Then he got into the stock market, where he made his fortune.

No, he hasn't created an operating system or a life-saving device; he made his money investing. But he seems to have dealt with all of his partners in a forthright way. He isn't a cheat like Bernie Madoff.

And though he is the second-richest man (he and Bill Gates keep switching places), he has chosen to live his life frugally. He still lives in the house he bought in 1958 for $31,500. He doesn't spend a lot on material things, and continues to do things for himself (no chauffeur, does his own taxes).

He doesn't think CEOs should make exorbitant salaries and is very open about the fact that he feels he should be paying more taxes than the people who work for him. In fact, Buffett feels that the tax burden should be, "shifted in a significant way to the super-rich from the middle class." He was a staunch Obama supporter in the last election, though McCain would have liked to seduce him to the dark side (Buffett believes McCain's financial opinons equate to social injustice and said he would need a "lobotomy" for them to agree, though he also said he has no problem with McCain personally).

Most importantly, to me at least, Warren Buffett is a philanthropist who has pledged to give away the bulk of his fortune while he lives and donate the rest, upon his death, to charity, because he doesn't believe in financial dynasties.

Aren't all of these stands Mefi-approved?
posted by misha at 12:13 PM on May 16, 2011 [18 favorites]

Oh, I'd definitely want to have more billionaires like Buffet and Soros, they're pretty much the best examples of 'least evil'. However, I'd much prefer to have drastically reduced volumes of billionaires in general, if I had my choice.
posted by FatherDagon at 12:32 PM on May 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

While instilling financial literacy in kids early is something I really applaud, I'm not so sure a cartoon is quite the way to go.

Because money, and the procuring of same, is actually really g-damn boring. Even the Schoolhouse Rock thing they did about the stock market kind of tanked, because...money itself is just not that intrinsically interesting. What you can obtain with money is the intersting part, but money, just....sitting there, is...dull.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:47 PM on May 16, 2011

I think that Warren Buffet, from everything I've seen, is probably a nice enough guy. But until everybody can have food in their bellies, an education, a roof over their head, and gainful employment with a livable wage, then nobody deserves billions of dollars to themselves.

First things first.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 1:43 PM on May 16, 2011

Also, be careful about glorifying a rags-to-riches story. They are exceedingly rare, and Buffett didn't exactly start from the bottom. His dad was a broker who gave Warren some very, very good connections. And from his first adult job on, Buffett was paid quite handsomely. ( I owned a very nice house that was built in 1958 and sold brand new - and loaded - for less than $11,000.)

Buffett has succeeded on brains and hard work. But you can't discount the luck.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 2:02 PM on May 16, 2011