I remember from childhood a TV series called “The Millionaire,” where this guy would select a deserving recipient, someone who had a lesson to learn, and give them one million dollars… often with strings attached. One string I recall was “You have to spend it all in one day.” Back then, that was nearly impossible. Anyway, also back then, the income tax on a million dollars was $900,000, which left the receiver a whopping $100,000 to keep. Imagine! 100K was an enormous amount, when working folk earned way less than 10K/year. Somewhere along the way, the wealthy bribed their way into gummint control and got their tax burden reduced to essentially zero, leaving the low-earning taxpayers to support everything: infrastructure, moon shots, defense, social services… etc., while the fat cats continued to rape the country and consume caviar. WTF is wrong with this picture?
John Beresford Tipton, Jr. What a guy. I remember when the wealthy professionals were just part of the community, Their houses may have been a bit nicer, but they were integrated into the community. The separation of the ownership of local industry and business from their roots in the community was the beginning of money's not giving a rat's ass about people. The corporation became a person, and one designed with all the power at the top, a dominance hierarchy instead of a cooperative society. It was a matter of time before this concept was materialized in a person with similar attributes.
I remember from childhood a TV series called “The Millionaire,” where this guy would select a deserving recipient, someone who had a lesson to learn, and give them one million dollars… often with strings attached. One string I recall was “You have to spend it all in one day.” Back then, that was nearly impossible. Anyway, also back then, the income tax on a million dollars was $900,000, which left the receiver a whopping $100,000 to keep. Imagine! 100K was an enormous amount, when working folk earned way less than 10K/year. Somewhere along the way, the wealthy bribed their way into gummint control and got their tax burden reduced to essentially zero, leaving the low-earning taxpayers to support everything: infrastructure, moon shots, defense, social services… etc., while the fat cats continued to rape the country and consume caviar. WTF is wrong with this picture?
John Beresford Tipton, Jr. What a guy. I remember when the wealthy professionals were just part of the community, Their houses may have been a bit nicer, but they were integrated into the community. The separation of the ownership of local industry and business from their roots in the community was the beginning of money's not giving a rat's ass about people. The corporation became a person, and one designed with all the power at the top, a dominance hierarchy instead of a cooperative society. It was a matter of time before this concept was materialized in a person with similar attributes.