I’ll tell you what the real purpose is behind Warren Buffett’s column in the New York Times.

Warren writes, “Buy American. I Am.” He goes on to tell Americans to not panic and flee equities, but instead, buy them. That’s right – Warren Buffett wants people to buy equity stakes in American companies.

He’s doing the government’s dirty work in trying to calm the fears of the masses. That was the whole purpose of his column. The timing was perfectly executed. As the markets splintered and rocked the world of regular people everywhere, and as they were fleeing their speculative adventures in equities, here was the respected, hard-working, sensible folk hero, telling everyone that the fear felt by others should be a sign to us, and let that dictate our speculative strategy.

Warren Buffett is an admired man. He is admired, even by the middle class, for his frugality, his wisdom, his no-nonsense delivery of his truths, his plain folk personality, and his hard-earned wealth. Readers know that I especially admire this man because I reflect on his business acumen frequently. But this column puts him in the role of propagandist for the government and its bull market-perpetual bubble-sustainable boom doctrine.I find his reason for not fearing the equity speculation game a bit odd. He says, “But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now.”

He’s careful, here, to not “give out” strict advice because it makes him uneasy. So he’s telling us that the profits will be there in “5, 10, or 20 years.” Is it 5 or is it 20? Or anything in between? Or more than 20 years? Of course, no one knows, but to middle class Joes it makes a heck of a difference whether it’s 5, 10, or 20 years, or at all, because we don’t have the cushion to be wrong (and 20 years off the mark), as does Warren Buffett. Twenty years can be almost a half of one’s working life in the middle class, and that kind of time is not available to most folks to find out whether or not they won or lost the roll of the dice.

The supermajority of the population cannot ever have an investment strategy like that of Warren Buffett. We can take much (and I do) from his business conduct, value investing blueprint, and sensible roadmap for avoiding speculative pitfalls while engaging serious investment analysis. But Joe the Plumber and his friends cannot afford to gamble away their financial futures on the hunch that the market “can never go anywhere but up.” On BubbleVision the other day – CNBC, that is – two desk jockeys also questioned Buffett’s BUY advice – amazing! – and they noted that since he’s working on a much bigger scale than the rest of us, how does his simpleton recipe for success apply broadly to a populace of terrified people who are about to lose big on a lifetime accumulation of wealth?

How can unsophisticated “investors” (they are really speculators) apply his big-picture advice knowing that every person he speaks to about the “long term” has a unique age, time to retirement, ability to save, and capability to bear risk?

Warren Buffett is just wrong this time.