Years ago, I had the opportunity to fly on a private jet with billionaire investor and philanthropist Warren Buffett from Omaha to Grand Island, where we were attending a political event – he to give money, me to accept it – for my candidate.

I was nervous because it seemed impossible that I could make small talk with such an iconic man.

But I tried.

Having read that Buffett purchased the Dairy Queen franchise not so much because investment “numbers” looked great, but because he loved their ice cream and because they served hot dogs which most fast-food restaurants didn’t. Americans loved hot dogs he said.

I thought I had an ice-breaker question.

“Mr. Buffett, if you were allowed to make one last investment that would give you the greatest return of any investment, what would it be?” I asked.

His answer was eye-opening.

“That’s easy,” he said, “I’d go to the federal government and tell them that at whatever point they quit paying for a kid’s education, didn’t offer a student loan because the kid’s parents made too much money, or a kid quit school because he could not afford the student loans, whatever reason, I’d pay for the educational continuation of every one of those kids.

“But I would tell the government, I would get to tax the difference in the kid’s life’s earnings from the time the federal government quit educating them to when I quit paying to educate them.

“So if the government only paid to get a kid a high school degree and that kid couldn’t get a student loan or grant to go to college, they would get to tax that kid’s income for the first wages that an average high school graduate would make – say $20,000 a year.

“If I took that kid and paid for his PhD and he was making $200,000 a year, I get to tax the $180,000 additional income or whatever it is over his entire working life. If I was allowed to do that, I wouldn’t be able to count my money.”

Education - nice investment.