Warren Buffett, the collector

WARREN Buffett, who last year was proclaimed to be the richest man on Earth, has now agreed to buy the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, the principal railroad connecting Puget Sound ports to Chicago. We wish Buffett well in the railroad business, in addition to the diamond business, the insurance business, the news business and the underwear business.

Our local tycoons — Bill Gates, Paul Allen, the McCaws — piled up their billions by creating companies. Buffett did it by buying companies. We never quite understood how that works. He buys companies, and then buys some more.

He has not earned a reputation for squeezing labor or pillaging companies, like Charles Hurwitz or "Chainsaw Al" Dunlap. On the contrary: He is seen as a beneficent owner, a folk hero of American capitalism.

We have a bone to pick with Buffett about the federal tax on estates. He defends the death tax in terms of meritocracy, though we think it's more because the tax's 45-percent top rate — increasing to 55 percent in 2011 — provides Buffett with a market in family companies that heirs are forced to sell.

Buffett is not a creator. He is a collector.

His wisdom has been in buying cannily and not messing with the companies he owns. In the long run, however, what is the point?

Why would flight training, brick making, picture framing, candy retailing and car insuring be in one giant company? What is the common denominator of Ben Bridge Jeweler, See's Candies and the Burlington Northern? We see none.