death and taxes

 

When Dwight Eisenhower was president, the marginal tax rate reached its peak (92%) in 1952 and 1953. Union membership reached its peak in 1953, and the country experienced significant economic growth for most of the 1950’s.      

Although you might think that we were “soaking the rich”, the reality is a lot different than that. The article listed below goes into more detail, but the short version is that due to deductions and credits that are available to wealthy individuals, the top 1% actually paid 42% of their income in federal, state, and local taxes. Today, that total has declined only slightly, to 36.4%.

https://taxfoundation.org/taxes-on-the-rich-1950s-not-high/

The article below lists the tax burdens in all 50 states. The list compares personal individual income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, and combined sales and income tax leaders.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/fun-facts/states-with-the-highest-and-lowest-taxes/L6HPAVqSF#:~:text=The%20top%20five%20highest%20total%20sales%20tax%20states,sales%20tax%29%3A%20Louisiana%209.98%25%20Tennessee%209.46%25%20Arkansas%209.30%25

If you took the time to review the data in the article that I published in January of 2019, you’d discover that the states that have the highest income taxes also happen to have the highest GDP, and they also tend to have the best schools.

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2019/01/its-really-just-simple-math.html

The man most responsible for causing the Republican Party “off the rails” is Grover Norquist, who founded Americans for Tax Reform in 1985. Prior to the November 2012 election, 238 of 242 House Republicans and 41 out of 47 Senate Republicans had signed ATR's "Taxpayer Protection Pledge", in which the pledger promises to "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rate for individuals and business; and to oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Norquist

Ronald Reagan introduced the “tricle down” theory, which stated that tax reductions for corporations and wealthy individuals would lead to economic growth, and more income for everybody. The Trump administration followed this theory in December of 2017, when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was passed.

The Tax Policy Center (TPC) estimated that the bottom 80% of taxpayers (income under $149,400) would receive 35% of the benefit in 2018, 34% in 2025 and none of the benefit in 2027, with some groups incurring costs. TPC also estimated 72% of taxpayers would be adversely impacted in 2019 and beyond, if the tax cuts are paid for by spending cuts separate from the legislation, as most spending cuts would impact lower- to middle-income taxpayers and outweigh the benefits from the tax cuts.

In 2018, companies spent a record-setting $1.1 trillion to buy back their own stock, and a majority of major firms (84%, as polled by the National Association for Business Economics) did not alter their hiring practice or their investment in their business in response to the tax cuts they received. This pattern was evident even in early 2018, when Bloomberg reported (based on an analysis of 51 S&P 500 companies) that an estimated 60% of corporate tax savings was going to shareholders, while 15% was going to employees. A Bloomberg Economics analysis found that, while business investment did increase in 2018, relatively little of that activity could be attributed to lower taxes.

The law also impacts healthcare by repealing the ACA individual mandate, resulting in projections of up to 13 million fewer persons covered by health insurance as some younger, healthier persons will likely choose not to participate. Those in the remaining less healthy pool will pay higher insurance costs on the ACA exchanges, which will result in additional persons dropping coverage

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Cuts_and_Jobs_Act_of_2017

When Doug Ducey was sworn into office, he pledged to reduce taxes every year. If you’d studied the recent history of Kansas (which slashed taxes when Sam Brownback was governor, you’d realize that tax reduction is NOT a good idea.

Two ballot initiatives related to taxes managed to get onto the ballot in Arizona for the November election.

Proposition 207 asks voters if they want to legalize recreational marijuana. You would think that this proposition should be fairly straight, but the state managed to spend 70 pages listing the pros and cons of the proposition.

In 2014, the state of Colorado legalized recreational marijuana. To date, the state has surpassed $1 billion in tax revenue. In addition, the state has also saved money because it no longer needs to imprison folks convicted of minor drug offenses.

https://www.denverpost.com/2019/06/12/colorado-marijuana-revenue-one-billion/

In my opinion, Proposition 207 should be an easy “yes” vote.

Ever since the Great Recession, funding for Arizona schools has been among the worst in the nation. Although the state passed a very modest sales tax increase a few years ago, it simply was not enough to measurably improve school funding.

Proposition 2018 would impose a very modest increase in taxes for the wealthiest individuals in the state Individuals making less than $500,000 a year would see no increased in taxes at all. Individuals making $501,000 would see their taxes go up by a whopping $35 a year (the 3.5% surcharge only applies to income over $500,000. Although opponents contend that Arizona is one of the highest taxed states in the country, the Turbo Tax listed above illustrates that it is completely FALSE.

A proposition similar to 208 was suggested last year, but was yanked from the ballot due to a minor technicality. Thankfully, it will be voted on again this year. Hopefully, voters will be smart enough to approve it this year.                                                                                                                                 

 At this point, though, it looks like both propositions will pass. 

Arizona registered voters overwhelmingly support Proposition 208, the education measure that would tax the wealthy. They also back legalizing recreational marijuana, though are less enthusiastic about it, a new poll shows.

The Monmouth University poll indicates 66% of registered voters “support adding a 3.5% surcharge onto the income tax rate of high-earners to fund teachers’ pay.” Only 25% would vote against it. 

That support drops just a bit to 64% among a high turnout likely voters and 61% among low turnout likely voters, the poll says.

Either way, the widespread backing is clear, and that might explain why opponents of Prop. 208 tried every possible legal maneuver to keep it off the November ballot.

 

 

 

The World Trade Center fell on my head.

 

 

I wrote the story below nearly 10 years ago, and somebody someplace in the world read it yesterday. Although most of us would admit that our lives are pretty good right now, the truth is that there really is not much difference between our lives and the lives of the homeless people begging for money on street corners.

 https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2010/10/thin-red-line.html 

We’ve all had bad days. In fact, most of us have had bad YEARS. Sharon developed stage 4 cancer in the early 1990’s, but managed to survive. However, a co-worker of mine named Pete lost his wife about the same time due to virtually the same disease. 

My bad year was 2003.

At the time, I was a commissioned life insurance salesman. Although I had done modestly well my first three years in the business, things were not going as well in 2003. On top of that, I managed to pick up two speeding tickets, Sharon got called into court over some credit disputes, and our Chrysler PT Cruiser was rear-ended on the way to court.

Since my income had decreased, it became more difficult to pay our bills. I was able to postpone our mortgage payments for a while, we now qualified for food stamps, the local St. Vincent de Paul Society was able to give u a modest cash grant to help with our expenses – but they couldn’t help us with the electric bill. For that, we had to go to the Salvation Army.

Let me tell you about Jim.

Before I met Jim, he was the pastor of a large Lutheran congregation in Naperville. He and his wife lived in a nice house in town, he drove a fairly new Cadillac, and he was able to take a couple of nice vacations every year.

Unexpectedly, he suffered a brain aneurysm, which prevented him from working. Eventually, he permanently lost his job, his home was foreclosed, his car was repossessed, and his wife left him for a boyfriend in St. Louis. When I met him, he described what he had gone through as like having the World Trade Center fall on his head, and he actually contemplated suicide for a while.

Over time, his health improved, and he was finally physically able to apply for work again. He answered a blind ad in the Chicago Tribune, and he was hired by the company that placed the ad.

That company was The Salvation Army. As he described it, if you are in the social service business, the Salvation Army is the Cadillac of employers. After a few months of working, he was able to save up enough money to buy a used Chevrolet, he was renting a modest house in Aurora, and he met a wonderful local school teacher, who he immediately fell in love with. They were planning on getting married later on that year.

Even before the pandemic, a lot of people in this country were struggling financially. In December of last year, a survey by a financial company discovered that 69% of the respondents to their survey had less than $1000 in savings. Although the unemployment rate has now dropped slightly from its peak, there are literally MILLIONS of people who are behind on their rent or mortgage payments. Although there currently is a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, eventually the piper has to be paid,

https://www.gobankingrates.com/saving-money/savings-advice/americans-have-less-than-1000-in-savings/

Currently, there are an estimated 1,750,000 people who are homeless in this country, and 31 million people (nearly 10% of the population) suffer from hunger or live on the edge of hunger. In 2011, there were more than 44 million people who were living on food stamps, an increase of more than 50% since 2007.

https://www.tennhelp.com/public-resources/homeless-statistics-in-the-usa.html

I managed to survive 2003 – but I had to move to China before things started to improve. At this point, I can’t predict what’s going to happen when those rent/mortgage moratoriums expire, but it’s not going to be pretty. However, as Jim’s story points out, help can sometimes come from unexpected sources. Even if the World Trade Center falls on your head, it’s not the end of the world, and there IS something you can do to improve your situation.

Be sure to vote in November (or earlier).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year - in September?

 

You are already familiar with the fact that there are NUMEROUS days celebrating the New Year throughout the calendar year – and this coming Friday is one of them.

The link below will allow you to view the rest of the celebrations:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2016/02/happy-new-year-again-and-again-and-again.html

The New Year celebration this coming Friday is called Rosh Hoshanah.  Like several other New Year celebrations, the exact date of the celebration varies from year to year, but is generally some place between early and late September. In the case of Rosh Hoshana,  the two-day celebration begins on the first day of Tishrei, which is the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year. In contrast to the ecclesiastical year, where the first month Nisan, the Passover month, marks Israel's exodus from Egypt, Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the civil year, according to the teachings of Judaism, and is the traditional anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman according to the Hebrew Bible, and the inauguration of humanity's role in God's world. According to one secular opinion, the holiday owes its timing to the beginning of the economic year in Southwest Asia and Northeast Africa, marking the start of the agricultural cycle.

Rosh Hashanah customs include sounding the shofar (a cleaned-out ram's horn), as prescribed in the Torah, following the prescription of the Hebrew Bible to "raise a noise" on Yom Teruah. Its rabbinical customs include attending synagogue services and reciting special liturgy about teshuva, as well as enjoying festive meals. Eating symbolic foods is now a tradition, such as apples dipped in honey, hoping to evoke a sweet new year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_Hashanah

When I lived in Evanston, I tried to get to every one of the 71 churches in town, but ran out of energy after about 60 of them. Because I always worked on Friday evening, I was unable to attend services at mosques of synagogues.

https://www.faithstreet.com/evanston-il

 

Since I grew up in a Christina household, I’ve read various versions of the Bible on numerous occasions, and I also read the Koran, after I received a couple of free copies in the mail.

The Bible, of course, was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. The first person to translate it into English was John Wycliffe. After his death (from a stroke)  his corpse was exhumed and burned and the ashes cast into the River Swift, which flows through Lutterworth, England.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wycliffe

The Koran is written in Arabaic, and was translated into English as early as the 17^th century, but most translations were done in the 20^th.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_translations_of_the_Quran#:~:text=1649%20The%20earliest%20known%20translation%20of%20the%20Qur%27an,du%20Ryer%2C%20Lord%20of%20Malezair.%20L%27Alcoran%20de%20Mahomet..

The Jewish Bible is called the Talmud, and the earliest versions date from the 2^nd century. It is written in Mishnaic Hebrew and Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and contains the teachings and opinions of thousands of rabbis (dating from before the Common Era through to the fifth century) on a variety of subjects, including halakha, Jewish ethics, philosophy, customs, history, and folklore, and many other topics. The Talmud is the basis for all codes of Jewish law and is widely quoted in rabbinic literature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud

The Talmud was translated in English by Michael Rodkinson in 1918. Although I took the time to do a “book report” on the Koran (it was about 4000 words long) I no longer have the energy to attempt to so the same thing with the Talmud.

https://sacred-texts.com/jud/talmud.htm

Since I’m not Jewish, we have no plans to celebrate the New Year on Friday. Although you CAN find recipes for matzo ball soup on line, I’ll take the easy way out and buy a can or two of prepared versions at the store.

 Since the Hebrew version of “Happy New Year” looks like a variation of our 2 year old grandson’s scribbling,  I’ll leave you with the Irish language version:

athbhliain faoi mhaise duit

 

 

 

 

 

 

the magical coffee cup

 A few years ago, Sharon and I had breakfast at the home of our daughter and son-in-law. After we finished the meal, Kelly and Chris left to go to Home Depot in order to get some more supplies for the house. Since we consider ourselves to be good house guests, I decided to clean up the kitchen. After loading the dishwasher, and washing the pots and pans, I noticed a coffee cup that looked unusually dirty. Since I did not think the that dishwasher could clean it adequately, I decided to clean it by hand. 

The inside of the cup was covered with a hard, brown substance, so I had to use a scrub brush in order to make it clean. 

 Wrong move. 

 When Kelly and Chris got home, he was less than pleased that I had cleaned his coffee cup – and a lot of his displeasure stems from the fact that he spend some time in the Navy.

 Like Army coffee, Navy coffee is not particularly good. In the words of a Navy blogger, “it was hot and strong. Very strong. The thickness of it closely resembled crude oil. It tasted both wonderful and terrible at the same time. Your mind can trick you into believing anything. When a supreme pot of joe is brewed, many of the volunteers would call it “Signal Bridge Coffee,” recalling the nostalgia of long nights and many cups consumed.

” https://www.navyhistory.org/2013/11/dont-wash-that-coffee-mug/ “

The 1945 Cookbook of the United States Navy lists several reasons why a clean mug and pot of coffee is essential to a flavorful experience. All parts of the coffee mess had to be “scrupulously clean,” according to the cook book. 

 Sailors today might read those guidelines and laugh at the rules and regulations. 

Several recent articles about the practice surfaced on the internet on message boards and military news blogs. One blogger from the Military Times (Broadside Blog) wrote about it this past August. “There are only a few things you need to know about Navy coffee, and most of it involves the cup,” the blogger writes. “You do not wash a Navy coffee cup. Ever.” 

 I took Chief Martin’s advice, but not at first. For the first few weeks following our confrontation, I washed my cup out after he left for the day. But I got lazy after a while. I starting noticing dark brown rings inside my cup. My mug started to look like the inside of a tree, and I started to like it. The mug was white, so it was easy to measure my progress. The rings grew larger and darker until the entire inside was jet back. Although I was never in the military, I felt a swelling of pride at my Frankenstein creation. Unfortunately, that mug did not survive. My latest and greatest creation came about in 2009. It has not been washed or cleaned since its purchase. I don’t know if my peers understand it. My wife surely doesn’t. I have a similar mug at home that she avoids looking at, and, on rare occasions, will clean when I am not looking. 

 Here is my (meager) contribution to this fine naval tradition. I warn you, if you are unfamiliar with the practice, you might be shocked. Behold: My four year “seasoned” mug:”

 According to The Wall Street Journal, you don’t need to wash your coffee cup every day, unless you happen to share your coffee cup with someone else, or if you add cream and sugar to your coffee cup (cream and sugar can lead to mold). 

 Before you run away screaming from the germ-tastic idea, let’s break this down to figure out if it’s actually OK to do. Infectious disease expert Jeffrey Starke, a pediatrics professor at Baylor College of Medicine, tells The Wall Street Journal that even though there might technically be germs in an unwashed coffee cup, it’s fine because they are yours. These germs, even if you’re sick, won’t hurt you again if you drink out of the same mug. “Very few viruses can exist for more than an hour on an inert object” 

Starke said. In fact, Starke says that washing your coffee mug every day might actually be worse for you, especially if you’re using an old sponge at your office. The sponge in the break room probably has the highest bacteria count of anything in the office,” Starke explains. If you are washing your coffee mug with said sponge, it might benefit from a quick ride in the microwave to kill off germs.

 https://www.thekitchn.com/is-it-really-ok-to-not-wash-your-coffee-cup-238581 

 It’s up to you if you want to wash your coffee cup (or not) but you NEVER want to drink your coffee out of a Styrofoam cup. 

Styrofoam is a brand name for a material called polystyrene. Polystyrene is injected with gas to get polystyrene foam which is then used for food packaging. So now you know what you are drinking if you drink your coffee out of a Styrofoam cup. Polystyrene from Styrofoam cups and containers can easily get into the food or beverages carried in them. Styrene is a carcinogen that can cause irritation and secretion of mucous from the eyes and nose, increase the level of fatigue, decrease the ability to concentrate, and disrupt the hormone functions resulting in thyroid problems.

Styrene can take about 500 years to decompose so remember that most of the food products we purchase today could be disposable but not decomposable. If you are looking for alternatives to Styrofoam cups, you can use these environmentally friendly options. Biodegradable cups: Unlike most cups, these cups do not use a paper jacket but cardboard on the interior of the mug to keep the heat inside. Also, these cups have lower toxicity levels than traditional go-to cups. Reusable coffee mugs: Just go ahead and purchase a reusable coffee mug such as stainless steel or aluminum. Wash your coffee cup each day, and you will have a clean, attractive and environmentally friendly alternative.

 https://www.today.com/health/why-it-s-ok-not-wash-your-favorite-coffee-mug-t104698  

Oh … If you are wondering where coffee came from in the first place - you can thank the Muslims.

 https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2009/03/muslims-and-dancing-goats.html

kill the Christians !

 

More than a decade ago, I wrote about the Crusades, which turned out to be 9 military assaults on the most advanced people in the world at that time (the Muslims). In all, the Crusades lasted nearly 200 years, and finally came to a conclusion in the year 1272.

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2009/06/book-of-signs.html

Christian persecutions of “the other” did not end with the Crusades, since the Spanish Inquisition lasted longer than the Crusades, from 1478 to 1834. The primary target for the Inquisition was the Jewish population of Spain, but also included the Muslims as well. In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella issued the Alhambra Decree, which gave Jews the choice of either conversion or exile. As a result, more than 160,000 Jews were expelled from Spain. (In 1924, the regime of Primo de Rivera granted Spanish citizenship to the entire Sephardic Jewish diaspora. In 2014, the government of Spain passed a law allowing dual citizenship to Jewish descendants who apply, to "compensate for shameful events in the country's past." Thus, Sephardi Jews who can prove they are the descendants of those Jews expelled from Spain because of the Alhambra Decree can "become Spaniards without leaving home or giving up their present nationality).

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Spanish-Inquisition

 If you read enough fiction, you’ll discover that you can learn a lot of FACTS by reading a good fiction novel. Many of my favorite authors (John Grisham, Clive Cussler, James Patterson, and Steve Berry) are all masters at wrapping intriguing story lines around historical facts – and Steve Berry is the best of the bunch.

I just finished reading “The Lake of Learning”, which focused on the only Crusade (the Albigensian Crusade) where the Christians were killing Christians. The target in this Crusade were the Christians who practiced a variation of Christianity called the religion of the Cathars, and it took the lives of nearly 1,000,000 people. The “last stand” for the Cathars was a place in southern France named Montesgur (pictured below)

 

History lies at the heart of every Steve Berry novel. It’s his passion, one he shares with his wife, Elizabeth, which led them to create History Matters, a foundation dedicated to historic preservation. Since 2009 Steve and Elizabeth have crossed the country to save endangered historic treasures, raising money via lectures, receptions, galas, luncheons, dinners and their popular writers’ workshops. To date, 3,500 students have attended those workshops with over $1.5 million dollars raised.

Berry was a trial lawyer for 30 years and held elective office for 14 of those years. He is a founding member of International Thriller Writers—a group of more than 4,200 thriller writers from around the world—and served three years as its co-president. Berry first appeared in print with his historical thrillers The Amber Room and The Romanov Prophecy in 2003 and 2004. A practicing attorney at the time, Berry had been writing fiction since 1990, and it took him 12 years and 85 rejections before selling a manuscript to Ballantine Books. Berry credits the nuns who taught him in Catholic school with instilling the discipline needed both to craft a novel and to find a publisher.

 

The website for History Matters (see below) includes a list of the past events for the organization. One of the events was at the Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina, which I have actually been to.

 

https://history-matters.org/

 

Steve Berry has written more than 20 novels – and I have read nearly all of them. If you’re looking for a good read, grab one of his books.

 

 

 

 

  

 

Why I don't watch television, part 4

 

Life keeps getting more complicated. Since I published the article posted below, we’d made a few more changes in our technology.

http://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2018/05/why-i-dont-watch-television-part-3.html

After Brian’s old laptop flamed out, I was forced to buy another desktop computer. By now, the bugs have been worked out of the Windows 10 operating system, so everything worked fine when I put it all together in our home office.

Our current system of CenturyLink and Direct TV worked fine - until about a week ago. Since Kim will be starting work again in the new future, she needed HIGH SPEED internet to do her job. Since CenturyLink could not provide a service that was fast enough, we went to Xfinity, which also necessitated switching back to Comcast for our television service, at least for now.

Since we have now added a TV to the living room, we needed add another DirectTV box for the living room. Due to the switch shown above, it will be dormant until (and if) we switch back to DirectTV.

Since the DVD player in the master bedroom is a bit rickety, we bought a DVD/Blu- Ray/streaming device for the TV in the living room. From what I can tell, it did not come with an owner’s manual, and I had Brian install it for us. It IS possible to download the entire 62 page owner’s manual for free, but that would necessitate the printing costs. If you are willing to spend the time, you can view the owner’s manual in a PDF file for free.

http://pdfstream.manualsonline.com/8/8b625c2e-dca3-4376-8c70-2aaa6e5720da.pdf

The remote for our DVD/Blu-Ray unit has 38 buttons, which includes the TWO “power buttons”. The new Xfinity box has its own remote, which has 30 buttons. The Samsung TV also has a remote, which has 47 buttons.

Television, naturally, is not the only thing that has gotten more complicated – and it’s all due to the coronavirus. In order to pick up a book from the library, I need to send a text from outside the building, and the librarian will then bring my books to me.

My sister attends church services by ZOOM, because going to church services inside a building is still too dangerous.

Even more dangerous than going to church, though, is going to school, and I have not worked as a sub teacher since the middle of March. You may have read that 166 students contracted the virus the first day of school in Mississippi, but neither political party will have live conventions because it is not safe to do so.

Sub teachers will soon the option of subbing remotely, but I have no idea how that will work. Another option is acting as a proctor for a classroom with a limited number of students.

Although I’m reasonably competent when it comes to computers, when it comes to television, I’m going to have to get by with a little help from my friends – and that’s why I don’t watch much television

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C58ttB2-Qg

The American dream is not dead

Our history is littered with stories of men , often immigrants, who had ideas that would transform society, and they became very rich in the process.

Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in history. He became a leading philanthropist in the United States and in the British Empire.

During the last 18 years of his life, he gave away $350 million (conservatively $65 billion in 2019 dollars, based on percentage of GDP) to charities, foundations, and universities – almost 90 percent of his fortune. His 1889 article proclaiming "The Gospel of Wealth" called on the rich to use their wealth to improve society, and stimulated a wave of philanthropy.

At the time of his death, he was worth $372 billion in 2014 dollars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie

Although Andrew and Dale Carnegie were not related, they both shared a desire to help improve the prospects of their fellow man. Although Andrew Carnegie founded numerous charitable organizations, his most lasting legacy is  the Carnegie libraries. Between 1883 and 1929, he used his vast fortune to fund a total of 2509 Carnegie libraries.

Carnegie’s philosophy of life can be summed up by “the Andrew Carnegie Dictum”:

·         To spend the first third of one's life getting all the education one can.

·         To spend the next third making all the money one can.

·         To spend the last third giving it all away for worthwhile causes.

Dale Carnegie was born in rural Missouri in 1888, and was the second son of farmers James Carnegie and his wife Amanda Harbison. His first job after college was selling correspondence courses to ranchers. He moved on to selling bacon, soap, and lard for Armour & Company ^[He was successful to the point of making his sales territory of South Omaha, Nebraska, the national leader for the firm.

After saving $500, Dale Carnegie quit sales in 1911 in order to pursue a lifelong dream of becoming a Chautauqua lecturer. He ended up instead attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, but found little success as an actor, though it is written that he played the role of Dr. Hartley in a road show of Polly of the Circus. When the production ended, he returned to New York, living at the YMCA on 125th Street. There he got the idea to teach public speaking, and he persuaded the YMCA manager to allow him to instruct a class in return for 80% of the net proceeds. In his first session, he had run out of material. Improvising, he suggested that students speak about "something that made them angry", and discovered that the technique made speakers unafraid to address a public audience. From this 1912 debut, the Dale Carnegie Course evolved. Carnegie had tapped into the average American's desire to have more self-confidence, and by 1914, he was earning $500 (about $12800 today) every week. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Carnegie 

William Henry Gates III is an American business magnate, software developer, investor, and philanthropist. He is best known as the co-founder of Microsoft Corporation. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, chief executive officer, president and chief software architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014. He is one of the best-known entrepreneurs and pioneers of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. As of 2020, his net worth is $113 billion, which makes him the SECOND richest man in the world, after Jeff Bezos.

  Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Gates co-founded Microsoft with childhood friend Paul Allen in 1975, in Albuquerque, New Mexico; it went on to become the world's largest personal computer software company. From 1995 to 2017, he held the Forbes title of the richest person in the world all but four of those years. In October 2017, he was surpassed by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who had an estimated net worth of US$90.6 billion compared to Gates's net worth of US$89.9 billion at the time. As of July 2020, Gates had an estimated net worth of US$111.8 billion, making him the second-wealthiest person in the world, behind Bezos.  

^{Looking at the picture shown below (from 1975) it's hard to imagine that the man on the left would one day be the richest man in the world.} 

 

^{Like Andrew Carnegie, Bill Gates believes in philanthropy.}

Later in his career and since leaving day-to-day operations at Microsoft in 2008, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors. He has given sizable amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reported to be the world's largest private charity. In 2009, Gates and Warren Buffett founded The Giving Pledge, whereby they and other billionaires pledge to give at least half of their wealth to philanthropy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates

Jeff Bezos is an American internet entrepreneur, industrialist, media proprietor, and investor. He is best known as the founder, CEO, and president of the multi-national technology company Amazon. The first centi-billionaire on the Forbes wealth index, Bezos has been the world's richest person since 2017 and was named the "richest man in modern history" after his net worth increased to $150 billion in July 2018. In September 2018, Forbes described him as "far richer than anyone else on the planet" as he added $1.8 billion to his net worth when Amazon became the second company in history to reach a market cap of $1 trillion.

Bezos was born Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on January 12, 1964, the son of Jacklyn (née Gise) and Ted Jorgensen. At the time of his birth, his mother was a 17-year-old high school student and his father was a bike shop owner. After his parents divorced, his mother married Cuban immigrant Miguel "Mike" Bezos in April 1968. Shortly after the wedding, Mike adopted four-year-old Jorgensen, whose surname was then changed to Bezos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos

Google was founded in September 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University in California. Together they own about 14 percent of its shares and control 56 percent of the stockholder voting power through supervoting stock. They incorporated Google as a California privately held company on September 4, 1998, in California. Google was then reincorporated in Delaware on October 22, 2002. An initial public offering (IPO) took place on August 19, 2004, and Google moved to its headquarters in Mountain View, California, nicknamed the Googleplex. In August 2015, Google announced plans to reorganize its various interests as a conglomerate called Alphabet Inc. Google is Alphabet's leading subsidiary and will continue to be the umbrella company for Alphabet's Internet interests. Sundar Pichai was appointed CEO of Google, replacing Larry Page who became the CEO of Alphabet. It is considered one of the Big Four technology companies, alongside Amazon, Apple and Microsoft.

Larry Page was born in Michigan, but Sergey Brin and his family emigrated from Russia when he was 6. As of 2020, Brin is the 7^th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $67.6 billion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google

Apple is now the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, passing Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco. As of close of business Friday, July 31, Apple has a market valuation of $1.84 trillion, while Saudi Aramco’s is $1.76 trillion, according to CNBC. Apple’s stock, which has been on a largely-steady climb since the end of March, closed up more than 10 percent on Friday following the company’s record-breaking third-quarter earnings on Thursday, ending the day at $425.04.

Apple Computer Company was founded on April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne as a business partnership.  The company's first product is the Apple I, a computer designed and hand-built entirely by Wozniak . To finance its creation, Jobs sold his only motorized means of transportation, a VW Microbus, for a few hundred dollars, and Wozniak sold his HP-65 calculator for US$500 (equivalent to $2,246 in 2019). Wozniak debuted the first prototype at the Homebrew Computer Club in July 1976 .The Apple I was sold as a motherboard with CPU, RAM, and basic textual-video chips—a base kit concept which would not yet be marketed as a complete personal computer.It went on sale soon after debut for US$666.66 (equivalent to $2,995 in 2019). Wozniak later said he was unaware of the coincidental mark of the beast in the number 666, and that he came up with the price because he liked "repeating digits

https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/31/21350154/apple-worlds-most-valuable-company-saudi-aramco

Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, to Abdulfattah Jandali and Joanne Schieble, and was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs (née Hagopian).

His biological father, Abdulfattah "John" (al-)Jandali, grew up in Homs, Syria, and was born into an Arab Muslim household. While an undergraduate at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, he was a student activist and spent time in prison for his political activities He pursued a PhD at the University of Wisconsin, where he met Joanne Carole Schieble, a Catholic of Swiss and German descent As a doctoral candidate, Jandali was a teaching assistant for a course Schieble was taking, although both were the same age. Mona Simpson, 

Jobs's biological sister, notes that her maternal grandparents were not happy that their daughter was dating a Muslim. Walter Isaacson, author of the Steve Jobs biography, additionally states that Schieble's father "threatened to cut Joanne off completely" if she continued the relationship. Jobs’s adoptive father, Paul Reinhold Jobs, was a Coast Guard mechanic. After leaving the Coast Guard, Paul Jobs married Clara Hagopian in 1946. Their attempts to start a family were halted after Clara had an ectopic pregnancy, leading them to consider adoption in 1955. 

 Schieble became pregnant with Jobs in 1954, when she and Jandali spent the summer with his family in Homs, Syria. According to Jandali, Schieble deliberately did not involve him in the process: "without telling me, Joanne upped and left to move to San Francisco to have the baby without anyone knowing, including me."

Schieble gave birth to Jobs on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco and chose an adoptive couple for him that was "Catholic, well-educated, and wealthy, but the couple later changed their mind. Jobs was then placed with Paul and Clara Jobs, neither of whom had a college education, and Schieble refused to sign the adoption papers. She then took the matter to court in an attempt to have her baby placed with a different family, and only consented to releasing the baby to Paul and Clara after the couple pledged to pay for the boy's college education.

YouTube is an American video-sharing platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. Three former PayPal employees—Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim—created the service in February 2005. Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion; YouTube now operates as one of Google's subsidiaries.

Chad  Hurley founded YouTube in 2005 with Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. On October 16, 2006, Chen and Hurley sold YouTube to Google Inc. for $1.65 billion. Although Hurley was born in Pennsylvania, Steve Chen was born in Taiwan, and Jawed Karim was born in   East Germany. At the time of the company’s sale to Google, Hurley was 30 years old, Cen was 28, and Karim was 26.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

Although all of the stories shown above are remarkable, I’m of the opinion that YouTube is the most fantastic. In little more than a year after its founding, the company was sold to Google for $1.65 billion, which instantly made the three founders mulit-bilionaires.


Who said that the American dream is dead?