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 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Facebook in Palo Alto and hugged Mark Zuckerberg at a townhall, he went up several notches in cool. The image of the two men hugging was splashed all over Indian media. But there’s no such thing as a Free Hug. Instead there’s Free Basics. Facebook has blanketed newspapers and billboards in India drumming up support for Free Basics. The ad budget, says one news report, is about one third of all its India revenue.
On February 4th Silicon Valley popped corks to celebrate Facebook’s 10th birthday. What began as a relatively exclusive event for the East Coast elite, very soon hit a central nerve and changed the way 1.23 billion people worldwide communicate, interact, engage, catch up, and bristle. Let’s think about those two numbers for a moment: A company that didn’t even exist 10 years ago, has as many users as India has denizens.
As a company, Burning Man LLC, has created various organizations to help promote its values. There’s The Black Rock Arts Foundation, which supports public art; the year round newsletter, Jack Rabbit Speaks, that keeps the Burners in the know of what is going on in the Burning community; and the Burning Man Project, a nonprofit organization that develops program initiatives in the areas of civic involvement, social enterprise, and education. Perhaps, the most telling signs of Burning Man’s evolution are the executives and companies that it attracts.
TheNew Republic was on the verge of collapse just shy of its 100th birthday. But in March of 2012, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes swooped down to its rescue, saving the iconic magazine from ruin, nursing it back to health, though not necessary profitability. This was not the first time the influential magazine has stood on shaky ground, nor is it the first time that it has operated at a financial loss. And judging from its recovery in recent months, it seems fair to say now that it will likely not be the last.
Counterfactual notions like this occur throughout the book, though they hold little value either as conjecture or informed speculation. Obviously, every aspect of history (and not just in Europe) might be radically different had such-and-such not gone the way it did.For the most part, however, Kershaw moves adroitly through decades of turmoil in Europe. He’s skilled at connecting 20th-century leaders with our current crop.
After a slow start, “Women Talking” falls into a rhythm that drags viewers through the dilemma, asking them to imagine themselves facing the choice. Do they stay, forgiving the men who violated them emotionally and physically, giving implicit approval to their actions by doing so? Or do they leave, uprooting themselves and (in some cases) their young children from the only existence they understand?
