The progressivity of the U.S. tax system has dramatically declined over the past seven decades. The upshot is that for most income levels, the U.S. tax system now resembles a flat tax that becomes regressive at the very top end, meaning the super-rich pay proportionately less. Today, virtually all income groups pay roughly 28 percent of their income in taxes--– except for the 400 richest Americans.

When Donald Trump invited Carlos Slim, one the world’s richest men and the single-largest investor in the New York Times, to dinner at his Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, it became clear that Trump’s admiration for Mexican “leaders” meant businessmen, not politicians. “What President-elect Trump wants to do in coming closer to the Mexican business community has an impact, not only nationally but regionally with Latin America, and opens the doors for good business relations overall,” said Larry Rubin, president of the American Society of Mexico. 

Maybe money can’t buy love, as the saying goes, but if recent trends in the world of philanthropy are any indication, it can, in many cases, buy absolution from a host of sins. How so? When oil companies such as BP or Exxon create environmental havoc, their go-to response is usually to donate money to pliant conservation organizations.  They then take ads out in national newspapers such as the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, or USA Today touting their donations. 

This past spring Summit Series co-founders Elliot Bisnow, Brett Leve, Jeff Rosenthal, and Jeremy Schwartz made headlines for buying Powder Mountain in Eden, Utah. The largest ski resort in the U.S. came with a price tag of $ 40 million dollars. What made the purchase especially newsworthy though was the fact that the company, then only five years old, was run by four entrepreneurs all under 30. To some, the thought of a young start-up buying a mountain in Utah might seem daring and even somewhat audacious, but this kind of thinking epitomizes the Summit Series. 

If you’re a man who has everything you could ever want and more money than you could begin to count, what could you possibly do to entertain yourself? How could you keep things interesting in a world where anything is possible? What’s that? You buy a Caribbean island for $250,000  to impress your girlfriend? And on the day of your wedding you arrive clinging to the bottom of a helicopter on said island to wed said girlfriend? Touché, Sir Richard Branson.