Why don't you lighten up LR45JI?
Here's a quote right from his annual report, "Our NetJets fractional ownership program sold a record number of planes last year and also showed a gain of 21.9% in service income from management fees and hourly charges. Nevertheless, it operated at a small loss, versus a small profit in 2000. We made a little money in the U.S., but these earnings were more than offset by European losses. Measured by the value of our customers' planes, NetJets accounts for about half of the industry. We believe the other participants, in aggregate, lost significant money."
"NetJets experienced a spurt in new orders shortly after Sept 11th, but its sales pace has since returned to normal. Per-customer usage declined somewhat during the year, probably because of the recession."
With these statements in mind, I'll ask the same question again without being indignant, do you really believe you're going to see a 100% pay increase? Think about this for a minute. By the way, looking at the above quotes directly from the horses mouth, how exactly is NetJets a cash cow for Berkshire??????
Here's another quote out of the same annual report. "Executive Jet's results in 2001 and 2000 reflect operating losses related to expansion in Europe as well as significantly higher operating costs incurred to insure that a premier level of safety, security and service is maintained."
Maybe you think you will get a 50-100% increase in pay, but how would doubling the labor costs offset other costs to put NJA in the black??
I think you may have to break out your college economics book and look up ROI, because your numbers literally make no sense at all. How do you take the sum of the retail costs of the assets and subtract the purchase price and come up with the ROI??? What about incurred expenses and liabilities? Also, due to the scale of NJA and it's 4.8 billion in list price assets, who would actually pay this amount if they had to liquidate?
And yes, you are correct, he promotes NJA just like all his other companies under the Berkshire veil. What else would he do? His track record speaks for itself, making money, not losing it. Nice comparison with Disney, they won't be around very long, will they.
And one more quote for you, "As of Dec 31, 2001, Berkshire's borrowings under investment agreements and other debt, excluding finance businesses, included commercial paper and other short-term borrowing totaling 1.8 billion. Most of these borrowings were by Executive Jet and Shaw for operating needs."
Hate to burst your bubble, but you might want to look at the dot com rise and fall and see if you see any similarities with fractional ownership.
Amazing how this board brings out the worst in people.