(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Here's a different idea! [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-06-26
When I was college, almost 6 decades ago, I formed a lifelong friendship with another guy who went on to become a multi-multi billionaire. We’ve had some really interesting conversations recently, and I’ve learned some very interesting things about such rich people. First and foremost, they are almost all at the tippy top in competitiveness as well as wealth. Secondly, their objections to paying taxes are not to taxes themselves, but to the loss of wealth that reduces their competitive wealth position relative to others without getting any recognition in return.
My pal says that they would welcome a competition which brought them fame and being well liked if the point of the competition was “who can be the biggest contributor to the nation”, instead of “who has the biggest yacht.” These people are different. They seek being seen as the champion in everything they chose to do, but avoid anything that smacks of being made to do something. He would not blink an eye if giving $1B per year would get his name and picture on a USPS stamp, but he would give more if the more you gave determines the size of the stamp. If school children hand wrote thank-you cards, the one who got the most cards would win the competition, and get to remind all their friends of that victory at every opportunity.
Professional sports team owners spend the big bucks to win their competition, even though privately they admit that they don’t really care about the game as much as beating their competitors.
I think that this is an untapped source of funds for a lot of good and useful things if only it can be done right. Otherwise it will be the butt of many jokes.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/6/26/2330326/-Here-s-a-different-idea?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
