Millionaires for more taxes

After the best year in history to be among the super-rich, one of America’s 745 billionaires wonders: “What’s enough? What’s the answer?”

(From 2022 but ever more urgent.)

“Tax us, the rich, and tax us now,” said the letter. Otherwise, there will be “pitchforks” over the injustice, they warned.

Article in the Huffington Post: 100 Millionaires And Billionaires Sign Open Letter Pleading For Higher Taxes: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/patriotic-millionaires-more-taxes-injustice-letter_n_61ecbfb2e4b03216750b98a6; Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/30/moral-calculations-billionaire. And the website with the open letter: https://intaxwetrust.org:

History paints a pretty bleak picture of what the endgame of extremely unequal societies looks like. For all our well-being – rich and poor alike – it’s time to confront inequality and choose to tax the rich. Show the people of the world that you deserve their trust.

If you don’t, then all the private talks won’t change what’s coming – it’s taxes or pitchforks. Let’s listen to history and choose wisely.

Aristotle’s rules for a good life

Summary from the article:

Name your fears and face them.

Know your appetites and control them.

Be neither a cheapskate nor a spendthrift.

Give as generously as you can.

Focus more on the transcendent; disregard the trivial.

True strength is a controlled temper.

Never lie, especially to yourself.

Stop struggling for your fair share.

Forgive others, and forbear their weaknesses.

Define your morality; live up to it, even in private.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/08/aristotle-10-rules-happy-life/674905/. (If you can’t access that, send me a note and I’ll post a PDF.)

And good news from Fix the News:

Nine countries eliminated a devastating disease in 2024
Chad got rid of one form of sleeping sickness. Cape Verde and Egypt became malaria-free. Jordan became the first country to eliminate leprosy. Brazil and Timor Leste eliminated elephantiasis, and Vietnam, India, and Pakistan eradicated trachoma, the latter after a 20-year battle: “I can’t explain the jubilation on their faces…Many had tears in their eyes to see this moment in their life.” NPR

The Cyber Sleuth: IRS

Let me pause here for a moment. I am a novelist; I make things up for a living. In my trade, it would be considered malpractice to make up Jarod Koopman. You just do not give your protagonist a set of attributes that includes black belts, vintage trucks, sommelier certificates, tattooed biceps, a wholesome, all-American rural family and a deeply consequential yet uncelebrated and under-remunerated career in global cybercrime. But as Mark Twain said: “Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.”

One example of his work:

In November 2021, they traced another stash of bitcoin that had been stolen from Silk Road nine years earlier. The key to the digital wallet was found on a circuit board in a popcorn tin stored in the bathroom closet of a house in Gainesville, Ga. Because of the steep rise in the value of bitcoin, that find delivered $3.36 billion to U.S. taxpayers.

Full article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2024/cyber-sleuth/ (about 5,600 words and worth it).

Dave Barry Year in Review 2024

Excerpts (it’s worth reading the entire 6,000 words):

January
In a troubling aviation incident, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 flying at 16,000 feet suddenly develops a refrigerator-size hole in the fuselage when an improperly attached panel blows off, terrifying passengers who have reason to wonder whether the airline crew, instead of making a big deal about the position of everybody’s tray table, should maybe be checking to see whether the plane has been correctly bolted together. As a safety precaution, the Federal Aviation Administration grounds all Max 9s and advises passengers on other Boeing aircraft to “avoid sitting near windows.” For its part, Boeing states that “at least the plane didn’t lose a really important part, like one of the whaddycallits, wings.”
February
Tucker Carlson conducts a two-hour interview with Vladimir Putin, offering Westerners a rare opportunity to find out what the Russian leader really thinks. It turns out he thinks Carlson is a useful idiot.
April
… the nation is enthralled by a total eclipse, a rare celestial occurrence in which the Earth, sun and moon align in such a way as to cause a large number of people to deliberately travel to Indianapolis. Huge crowds in the path of the totality watch excitedly as the sky gradually turns completely dark — a spectacular sight that most people will never witness again in their lifetimes, unless they’re still around at sunset.
December
…While we’re hoping, let’s hope that 2025 will be a better year. How could it be worse?

Try not to think about it.

https://archive.ph/20250102205458/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/12/30/dave-barry-2024-year-review/. Send me a note if you can’t access this.