Quick question:  are you being deliberately disingenuous or are you really that blinkered?  Charitable donations aren't going to significantly affect the national budget, as you either know or should know.  That's why Buffet and others like him advocate reforming the system instead of engaging in a doomed effort to singlehandedly fund the government.  To the extent that they give money away in relation to this cause, they will naturally give it to organizations aimed at reforming the system, instead of just throwing more money at the system itself. 

P.S.  Also, remember that this particular conversation is not actually about increasing (nor decreasing) the collective tax burden of society, but rather adjusting the distribution of that burden within the society. 

I sort of think I do, but it still seems nonsensical to me, so it's entirely possible that I don't see yet.  Here's my perspective. 

If the problem is "you took $10 of mine" then getting $5 back solves half the problem.  There is still a problem; it is unsolved; it is halfway to being solved compared to the original problem.  Thus "not solved at all" seems nonsensical to me when referring to the problem of "$10 missing". 

If going from "$10 missing" to "$5 missing" doesn't solve the problem at all, then there must be some other problem than "money missing" that you are referring to. 

Or ... wait a second.  When you say "the problem is not solved at all", do you mean "it's entirely false that the problem is entirely solved"?  (In other words, "not solved at all" is purely for emphasis, and means the same thing as just "not solved".)  In that case, I would agree with the intent of your statement while strenuously disagreeing with your choice of words to phrase that intent.  Your original statement "not solving the problem in the slightest" to me clearly said "no progress has been made in the direction of solving the problem". 

Relating this to the larger subject, I don't think you can reasonably say that the economy is a zero sum game.  Two businesses can each make profit by interacting with each other, and although I do think some workers are getting shafted the same principle applies in that society is increasing the overall amount of wealth.  It's just being funneled to the top even faster than it can accumulate at the lower end.