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Property taxes are a kind of wealth tax. For most Americans, most of their wealth is in their house.   “92-year-old Pennsylvania woman   died in January   after prolonged health issues and a nightmarish six-year battle over property taxes.   “Gloria Gaynor, who was bedridden from illness, accrued $3,500 in unpaid property   taxes   in 2020. By 2025, she was facing eviction from a company that put a lien on her home after buying the unpaid debt from Delaware County   at auction,   ABC7   reported.   “This stressful scenario is one that strikes fear into the hearts of many   retirees,   and has led to a growing movement among the   baby boomer generation ( those aged 62 to 80)   to   eliminate their property taxes.” Property taxes  fund   public schools , fire and police departments, trash collection, public health programs and road maintenance, among other public services. Here in Rhode Island, our prope...

I’ve made relatively modest financial contributions to my former employer, Saint Louis Universities, targeting a couple of worthy endowment funds. Sadly, 40% of those contributions went to the university development office, even though they had no role in my decision to contribute.   Skimming political contributions is even worse: “If your $100 was in response to a fundraising text or email, the single most expensive way to raise money in American politics, $65 is instantly consumed by the cost of asking you for it. Asking this often, and this aggressively, is expensive. It means paying the data brokers who traffic in your personal information, the digital copywriters who draft the inexplicably bizarre messaging, the email and SMS providers who specialize in slipping past spam filters, the compliance lawyers, and, of course, the fundraising consultants. Another $2 goes to strategic consultants for advice on how to spend what’s left, and $14 to administration, travel, and staff. Of ...

When a business becomes critical infrastructure, its relationship with society alters. If  SpaceX  builds a near-monopoly on satellite internet, no matter how objectively good the product is, and its CEO then uses it to conduct foreign policy according to his own politics and against the interests of the United States, the company has violated the public trust.  ~Mike Brock  

There are few things I enjoy more than a sound debunking. A few years ago, I was asked to review a book on “the science of near-death experiences.” The guy who requested the review was the author, who is also the editor of Missouri Medicine. I wrote a review that expressed my deep skepticism in the gentlest terms I could summon, and it was published in Missouri Medicine. My only Amazon product review is of a book published by a colleague in the history department, and I was far less gentle with that embarrassing publication*.     I just finished reading “Morbid: Debunking modern longevity science” by Saul J. Newman. Newman is a skeptic of longevity/aging research as marketed in the popular press and pharma industry. Along the way, he takes on the claims of telomere length as a driver of aging, a field I’ve followed closely and written about. He also takes on popular nostrums like resveratrol and young blood transfusions. He explains the distinction between longevity and aging ...

Here’s   United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby  on inheritance taxes: “ Wealth inequality has become a danger to our society, and we need to address that. We should have a national wealth tax — it won't work by state because people will just move. And I think we should have inheritance taxes that get close to 100% at some level. I would pay them." I’d be fine with that. If you want to avoid the inheritance tax, give the money to your kids *before* you die. Currently, you can gift $19,000 tax-free to each child. If you’re married, each of you can gift $19,000/child/year. If your child is married, you can also gift their spouse $19,000/year. At the very least, inheritances should be taxed as income from the first dollar. Yes, I know that money was already taxed. So was the money I’ve paid sales taxes on. We tax every time money changes hands. Why should inheritances, which the recipients don’t have to work for, be any different?   https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/article/united-...

If you want to shift public opinion, you need to bring the most egregious act to the table. And bit by bit, the mainstream narrative will move toward the next, slightly less egregious thing. It’s worked, because everybody is talking about whether Nidal Hasan’s execution should be livestreamed, but nobody’s talking about why he is being executed in the first place. And in doing so, it has made a future livestreamed execution a much more realistic possibility. ~  Dr Asim Qureshi