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I agree with your skepticism about Davos and it being about "thought leadership" and a vanity virtue signaling game. I think the case for making an award for p
by somethoughts 4y ago
I agree with your skepticism about Davos and it being about "thought leadership" and a vanity virtue signaling game.
I think the case for making an award for patriotically contributing the highest taxes is that for the most part paying taxes is done privately and is therefore rewardless for the contributor. And then you (as the contributor) see on the flip side - politicians rewarded for boosting taxes and praised for legally taking from you.
Celebrating tax contributions and rewarding the contributor (on an opt in basis) could be hugely beneficial for certain types of wealthy individuals. Often times wealthy people enjoy being on these lists as it helps their business, PR, etc. - not to mention just plain vanity.
Since its for the most part audit-able, it isn't as easily gamed (unlike net worth) and can't just be empty virtue signalling.
I think it would lead to healthier discourse as the tax contributor would be in a public position to effectively be saying - of all the philanthropic causes I could support, I am purposely choosing to give up that right and instead contribute it via taxes to my country because I believe in its people to vote intelligently and the elected politicians to act in the best interests of those people.
- codefreeordie 4y agoI somewhat support this idea. I think it will not work -- none of the right people will join the list, because I think they actually don't care at all, but it probably won't make anything worse, and might help shine a light on their hypocrisy maybe.
- somethoughts 4y agoMy hunch is you could probably get a critical mass of folks in the Forbes 490 to 1000 Richest range that'd love to be on some sort of list since they didn't make the Forbes 500 cut. Particularly if it was published in conjunction with a major publication that loves rankings (i.e. US News, Fortune, etc.). And maybe these are the right people that society should laud? A bit about the group - Patriotic Millionaires - discussed in the article [1] - and interesting interview with one of founders[2]. [1] https://patrioticmillionaires.org/who-we-are/ https://patrioticmillionaires.org/who-we-are/ - George Zimmer of Men's Wearhouse fame is an advisor. [2] Millionaire argues for Higher Taxes, Fox Host Throws Temper Tantrum! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agHkrhws5Lo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agHkrhws5Lo [3] https://patrioticmillionaires.org/about/ https://patrioticmillionaires.org/about/ The group is chaired by Morris Pearl, a former Blackrock executive... members include investors and business owners filmmaker Abigail Disney; technologist Steve Silberstein; lawyer Roberta Kaplan; investor Lawrence Benenson of Benenson Capital Partners; textile entrepreneur Great Neck Richman; philanthropist Molly Munger; corrugated cardboard magnate Dennis Mehiel...