Person A has one billion dollars. Holds it in cash in a vault deep in a mountain he owns. He does not earn any wages.[1]

20% income tax: $0.00

01% wealth tax: $10,000,000.00

[1] Every billionaire controls their taxable income. Unlike wage earners, billionaires have 100% control over how much taxable income they have each year. They make choices.

They can have the vault in the cave. Or they can put money into artwork that grows in value and only generates income upon sale. Or a million other ways they can choose to control taxable income.

Billionaires obviously do not need to earn wages in order to survive. If they do, they choose to do so.

And they are not required to invest their money. They do that voluntarily for the obvious reason that it makes them more money after taxes. They 100% control whether they will have any income at all.

None of the rest of us get to make that choice. Yet, isn't it amazing how income is the test for the amount of taxes we pay. The wealthy control the rules and they have chosen income - earned by workers - as the measure of how much everyone shares in the cost of operating society.

"With productivity rising at a brisk pace, the share of national income that goes to workers has sunk to its lowest point on record"

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/business/economy/cpi-infl...

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/business/economy/cpi-infl...

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/business/economy/cpi-infl...

As a trial attorney for over 40 years, that is an incredibly offensive take. Attorney/client privilege is usually litigation related and a prime example of the nature of conversations involve our advising our client of the prospects of prevailing at trial and whether to engage in settlement discussions with money amounts involved. If some day you are sued and you have a conversation with your lawyer about your financial worth as well as how much you are willing to pay to the person suing you - and that information ends up being turned over to the person suing you - you won't be so snide about the importance of attorney client privilege.

Aside: I was such a fan of Foxbase that the very day Microsoft's acquisition was announced (circa ~1992), I invested $10,000 in Microsoft. I sold maybe 10 years later for $100,000. Stupid Stupid Stupid.

Kids would always laugh at him and block his path or trip him or knock his books out of his hands. My sense is that this was widespread behavior, not limited to a small group.

I also seem to recall a group of kids who were picked on all eating at the same table during lunch and always being subjected to taunting and being picked on verbally or having their books knocked off the table, etc.

Sadly, I do not recall ever seeing anyone stand up for him or help him pick up his books. The memory makes me feel horribly ashamed because I have no recollection of ever helping.

https://www.asml.com/en/news/press-releases/2026/q4-2025-fin...

>>Even before water reaches them, the sound of droplets triggers germination in rice plants

>>Rice plants sense the sound vibrations of raindrops hitting the ground

The study involved rice seeds that were already under the water reacting to wave pressure produced by rain drops.

Moreover, the article ignores the question why seeds existing under the water would react to rain - instead surmising many other plant seeds react to the sound of raindrops, presumably on land - without explaining how 'wave pressure' would be created on land.

"centrists"

"conservatives"

"radical Left"

"the center"

"moderates"

"swing voters"

"liberal msm"

"anti-American radical Left"

"moderate-right party in power"

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47807047

Points: 2

# Comments: 1

Salary (income) is a horrible choice to serve as the marker to determine a person's (family's) fair share contribution to the burden of paying the costs to operate a society. Not everyone is so poor that working for a living is a matter of survival.

I can think of only one universal marker that would assure every citizen shares the burden of paying for society's costs equally: wealth.

Adjusted in a manner that the financial impact of one thousand dollars to a full-time MacDonald's counter worker is transformed into a dollar amount that causes the same relative financial impact to everyone, all the way up to the wealthiest family in America.

Moreover, your examples are crossing over into active investing versus indexing. Indexing theory submits active investors cannot beat indexing over time (Buffet's purchasing/controlling whole companies notwithstanding).