What Charlie Munger once said about competing with the ‘Patels from India’. Watch

Charlie Munger has died at the age of 99

A legendary investor, a man of acerbic wit, someone who helped build an American institution – these are just some of the epithets that have been used to describe Charlie Munger in the wake of his death. Munger, who helped Warren Buffett build Berkshire Hathaway into an investment powerhouse, died on Tuesday in a California hospital. He was 99.

After Munger’s death, several business tycoons shared tributes to the man who led Berkshire Hathaway as its vice chairman for decades. Old videos showing his sharp wit and business acumen also surfaced online – and one such clip, of particular interest to Indians, shows Charlie Munger talking about the “Patels from India” and their hold on the motel business of the United States.

During Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in 2011, Munger was asked about real estate. He presented Gujarati-Americans as an example of success in the motel business.

“Those Patels from India buy all the motels; they know more about motels than you do. They live in a goddamn motel. They pay no income taxes. They don’t pay much in worker’s compensation, and every dime they get, they fix up the thing to buy another motel,” he said. “Do you want to compete with the Patels? Not I! Not I!”

On Patel Own Motel !. pic.twitter.com/u8Bw9X9D10

— Sanatana Iyervaal (@SanatanaDharmic) November 29, 2023

This wasn’t the last time Munger would comment on India and Indians. In 2017, he said India is bogged down by problems and it’s hard to get anything done in the country.

“I’d rather work with a bunch of Chinese than I would the Indian civilization mired down, caste system, over-population, assimilated the worst stupidities of the democratic system,” he said. “It’s hard to get anything done in India. And the bribes are just awful…The Indians I know are fabulous people. They’re just as talented as the Chinese, I’m speaking about the Indian populace. But the system and the poverty and the corruption and the crazy democratic thing where you let anybody who screams stop all progress? It mires India with problems that Lee Kuan Yew didn’t have.”