I would make a terrible billionaire

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His servant picked up the spade and dug a grave long enough for Pahom to lie in, and buried him in it. Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed. “How much land does a man need?” Tolstoy

Johnson's Rule for Winning at Life: Be the person in the nursing home with the best stories, not the most money.

Why does anyone making millions of dollars a year need a tax break? I sincerely do not understand this.

Congress is currently debating whether to extend Trump's tax cuts that are set to expire this year. While all taxpayers might be impacted, the richer you are, the more money you will save.

I don’t really care except that this tax cut seems to be coming at the expense of low income people: Medicaid, SNAPS, special needs students, and foreign aid recipients.

Way back when I was a high school English teacher, I had my juniors read the short story “How much land does a man need? by Leo Tolstoy. The gist of the story is that by trying to amass a huge amount of land, a peasant dies by over exerting himself. The lesson being that in the end, all the land anyone needs is enough for a grave. The classroom discussions that followed were always interesting, often revealing quite diverse values among the students. Money, service, family, leisure - what is the best thing for us to strive for in our lives.

It’s a question that in retirement I don’t need to ask myself much anymore. I long ago decided that enough income on which to live comfortably, not extravagantly, was enough. I’ve never yearned for a mansion, a yacht, a giant pickup truck, or a diamond studded Rolex. I am not envious of those with more money than I have. I value economic security, good health, positive relationships with friends and family, interesting books, and adventurous travel. 

This is not to say that I don’t in some ways empathize with those who would like the finer things in life and have the money to afford them. People do seem to enjoy their possessions. I like my “things” as well - it’s just that their value lies in the memories they stir, not how much they might bring at auction.

But to paraphrase Tolstoy, just how much money does a person need?

Here is what really puzzles me. A person with one billion dollars invested in an account that pays just 3% has an annual income of thirty million dollars. Geeze, just enough to scrape by. What this tells me, for these billionaires who are determined to lower their taxes, it isn’t about the money. Or privately redistributing the funds to good causes.

It’s about keeping score. It’s about power. It’s about compensating for insecurity. It’s about winning a game. It’s a mental illness.

And we seem to have these nut jobs now running the country.

PS. On a related subject, I am glad when businesses make good profits since the investments in my IRA tend to do well. So I am not totally lacking in empathy for those who want less regulation, lower business taxes, etc. But I don’t think the health of my mutual funds should come at the price of the health of low income people.

PSS. Should I ever win the lottery (slight chance since I never buy tickets), I would take the winnings and create a kind of universal basic income for as many of my relatives and friends as possible. A trust fund that paid out, say, $50,000 a year would, I calculate, keep a person off the streets, but not living so well they are disincentivized to work. And yes, I’d keep a little for myself as well.