Tag archives: wealth
In a recent New York Times editorial, socialist economist Gabriel Zucman of Berkeley wrote “It’s Time to Tax the Billionaires.” Congresswoman Barbara Lee proposed a wealth tax, the Oligarch Act of 2023. Rep. Lee wants a yearly 8% tax on the “extreme wealth” (net worth) of the “aristocratic” rich. Our legislators in Sacramento have also […]
A recent New York Times Opinion piece claimed that inequality is not as bad as it appears because “spending power” is a more accurate measure than income or wealth. I reached out to author Peter Coy and to Berkeley economist Alan Auerbach who wrote the original paper. I asked Coy if he was familiar with […]
“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids all men to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets and to steal bread – the rich as well as the poor.” So wrote Anatole France in The Red Lily (1894). It is difficult to express the injustice of the legal system better than that one brilliant […]
While she had built a successful career, Lisa Greer wasn’t born into wealth. But when her husband Josh’s company, RealD, IPOed in 2010, she was instantaneously vaulted into the 1%. With the money came an opportunity for Greer to give back, and in seven figure increments. But like others whose lives are transformed by a […]
Jackie Waddill, who has served Dream Foundation recipients, their families, and the organization’s family of supporters for the last 23 years, has announced her retirement. “In my career with the foundation I’ve seen the delight and pure joy a final dream can bring,” says Jackie. “I’ve felt the short distance between hello and goodbye. I […]
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is once again the world’s richest man, despite his divorce last year which cost him a quarter of his stake in the shopping giant. Bezos, 56, is worth $113 billion, only a $18 billion drop from his $131 billion in 2019, despite giving $36 billion of stock to ex Mackenzie. He […]
Sleepless in Seattle star Meg Ryan, 58, is the latest celebrity to call our rarefied enclave home, joining fellow actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Natalie Portman. Ryan, who also appeared in Top Gun, When Harry Met Sally, and Courage Under Fire, has purchased a 4,268 sq. ft. three-bedroom, three and a half bathroom home on one […]
Remembering the Alamo About to become an octogenarian, I look back at a life well lived but am discouraged about the future. My despair is not for the few years I have left, but for the future of our grandchildren, their entire generation and this nation. All great periods in history eventually come to an […]
Beware the Ides of April – the time when the Federal and State tax men cometh to collect their share of the money needed to pay for next year’s government follies. Here are some taxing takeaways for Montecito residents: The ZIP Code List Montecito is too often associated with Oprah Winfrey, large estates, and the […]
Santa Barbara charity ShelterBox USA celebrated the New Year with an anonymous $1.5 million donation. The hefty gift, from a California supporter, comes at a particularly auspicious time with disaster and conflict forcibly displacing a record 88 million people from their homes globally, says the nonprofit’s president Kerri Murray. “There is an urgent need for […]
Former longtime general director of Opera Santa Barbara, Steven Sharpe, has landed in a whole new aria. Steven, an accomplished consultant and administrator who has successfully led a succession of nonprofit organizations, has been named executive director of Food From The Heart, which provides medically challenged residents with nutritious meals. “In many ways this is […]
Superlatives are not sufficient to describe the Spanish National Dance Company’s performance of Swedish choreographer Johan Inger‘s Carmen at the Granada. The 39-year-old Madrid-based troupe, who last dazzled us six years ago, showed why the quintessentially Spanish work has become one of the most talked-about new ballets of the decade with Japan-born Kayoko Everhart dazzling […]
