Wealth Bondage

Starvation - Leading Indicator of Success

Smoky Joe, JD - Punk for Wealth

AP: WASHINGTON - About 12 million American families last year worried that they couldn't afford to buy food, and 32 percent of them actually experienced someone going hungry at one time or another, the Agriculture Department said Friday. It was the third year in a row that the department has seen an increase in the number of households experiencing hunger and those worried about having enough money to pay for food. This is the exact reason why tax cuts for investment income are needed. Wish we had started earlier. Stimulates the economy. Plus, if we have more money stands to reason we will be more generous. I asked at the club and everyone says they will be more generous this year. Hit 'em up for Heritage. If this tax cut didn't help the homeless, the next one will. Waiter! Take this steak back. I told you I like it raw. 

A Prayer for his Mother

Posted by The Happy Tutor

I dreamt I saw you: sleeping beneath the bridge, in the dead of winter, under a patchwork quilt sewn from designer logos cut from rags you had scavenged from the trash cans in the better neighborhoods. I pray for you every day. Rest in peace!

Minim Family Governance

Posted by Dick Minim

I must bid aieu! I am off to the family compound in Majorca for a gathering of the Minim Clan. The East Coast Minims have extended the olive branch to the West Coach Minims, and now after decades of feuding over the ownership of Grand Central Station, we are meeting to toast our family unity, to agree on a family governance structure, and to ratify our 100 year Succession Plan. I am running for Keeper of the Family Seal - no jokes, we inherited it on my mother's side from the King of East Ruritania. Wish me luck!  (In working out our governance structure, we found Wealth in Families particularly helpful. It is by Charlie Collier, head of planned giving at Harvard.) Mummy says that Tutor is most emphatically not invited, so I am going alone, alas. More anon. Must scoot.

Private Wealth, Public Policy, and Philanthropy

Smoky Joe, JD - Punk for Wealth

Charity and Lobbying seem worlds apart, but both are ways to create a better world, through the application of private wealth for public benefit. Within limits, and through loopholes and workarounds discussed here, all citizens rich and poor can give money to influence public debate. Raise your voice as a Concerned Citizen. Open your heart -- and your wallet. Even $100,000 will help the cause of Freedom.

Let Freedom Ring

We at Smoky Joe and Associates stand ready to help you develop your own strategic philanthropic plan. We will help you pull together your personal giving, your corporate giving, your personal and corporate political contributions, your family and corporate foundations, to reduce your taxes, enhance the transmission of Family Values, and promote the cause of Freedom. Let us show you how our clients have earned cash on cash returns of up to 1,000% percent per annum from their social investment in public policy. With the dividend tax cuts and cuts in capital gains behind us, and corporate tax cuts pending, with the rollback of environmental and regulatory protections, the packing of the courts with pro-business judges, and pending legislation to cap legal judgments against corporate interests, we are now poised for repeal of the estate tax, perhaps the best philanthropic investment you can make. Instead of paying, say, 50% of your $1 bil net worth in estate taxes, why not invest just the interest on that money, or $100 mil a year, to protect your principal and your principles from confiscatory taxation? Wouldn't you rather invest 1% a year in The Heritage Foundation than let Hillary give half of everything you own to the homeless?

Give to Heritage Foundation to Help Bloggers in Need

Smoky Joe, JD - Punk for Wealth

I know WB readers give generously through Paypal to help bloggers who are down on their luck, but the best way to help Rageboy, Jeneane, or Wood S Lot is to send a big tax-deductible check to Heritage Foundation. A rising tide raises all boats. Encouraging dependency among the working poor can only hurt their self esteem, and deprive them of the opportunity to rise through their own efforts. By getting the economy moving again, we will create plenty of good-paying jobs for corporate flacks. Please read Ed's moving appeal below and dig deep to protect our Freedom to do what we please.

The generous support of Heritage members is helping to build a better America.

I know there are hundreds of worthy causes you could support with your charitable dollars. I know we have to earn your support. And I hope our website does just that. If you care about the conservative principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values and a strong national defense and share Heritage's commitment to see public policy shaped by these values I hope you will join us by making a tax-deductible gift today.

Sincerely,
Ed Feulner, President
The Heritage Foundation
(Insert Cracked Liberty Bell Here)

Smoky Joe, JD - Punk to Wealth

Smoky Joe And Associates

Smoky Joe, JD is founder and Managing Partner of Smoky Joe and Associates, punking family office services  to families of extraordinary achievement. (Minimum net worth of $100 mil). SJ & Associates provides whatever services are required to advance the Family Mission and its Vision and Values, while transmitting family values to the next generation, and protecting family wealth from predators, creditors, the ravages of inflation or deflation, and confiscatory taxation. At SJ & Associates, confidentiality is the first concern. Whether procuring a bullet proof car, kidnap insurance, a private security detail, an unbreakable pre-nup, a new butler or maid, a mistress, a race horse, or a political favor, SJ & Associates takes pride in punking for you and your family. Asset protection and tax avoidance are provided through SJ & Associates' Correspondent Bank in the Caymans.

SJ & Associates is about more than wealth and privilege. We encourage our clients to join their peers in the public square. Separately each family of wealth is powerful, but organized as a phalanx with shields locked, and spears aligned, no demos can stand against us. Smoky Joe and Associates works with Heritage Foundation, American Heritage Institute, Philanthropy Round Table, and The Republican Party to quell those who would interfere with our Corporate and Personal Interests.

Smoky Joe

On his own time, Smoky Joe gives back to our community through his investment of time, money and passion in SmokingHunks.com, a forprofit social venture with a double bottom line: profit and social good. Through Smoking Hunks, Joe has helped hundreds of boys and young men of working class origins achieve their full potential as Smoking Thesbians.

Quotation

"Better to take a moment to teach a young person how to blow smoke up his own ass, than to spend a lifetime doing it for him."

Dragged and Dropped

Posted by Captain Blowtorch in hot pursuit

UFOBreakfast: Happy T. has been thinking about the Rapture, and me too, since I looked at this site which promises to distribute post-rapture letters of theological explanation to those left behind. You Yankee intellectuals want to laugh at my religion? And you call me a bigot?

Cross Class Wealth Power Exchange

Posted by Missy Proctor - Cool Rich Kid

I can't believe how much crap I am taking off a bunch of voyeuristic a-holes in the comment section. They obviously hate me because I am rich and pretty.  Daddy did cut my monthly allowance, when I joined WB as an Intern, but it is still more than all you nobodies on the blogroll make in a year.  But I don't care what you think. I have found fulfillment in cross class wealth power exchange. I give more than just checks. I have some skin in the game. And, I give till it hurts. What more can I do for all those hunky under-privileged guys? You brain dead white males may not like it, but what you gonna do about it?

Charitable Design Objectives

Posted by The Happy Tutor

Posted a Word.doc Charitable Design Objectives for charitable advisers to use with clients. By way of background, many tax advisers today suggest to wealthy clients a "Zero Estate Tax Plan," using testamentary charitable foundations. ("Give it to charity rather than the government.") This is what is called, often, "Leaving a Lasting Legacy." But what if the client wants to live a fulfilled and responsible life? Why should he or she wait until death to get started with living right? The most lasting legacy might be a record of civic achievement during one's days on earth. As for passing on "Family Values," nothing works better than parental example.  In any case, the piece is designed to provoke discussion of the donor's ends in view, particularly those that go beyond tax savings.

If you are not yet filthy rich, you might find the questions useful, if you substitute the words "time and talent" for "money." The issues are the same whatever your gift.

God Bless Peter Karoff

Posted by The Happy Tutor

"Public Policy, Politics and Philanthropy - How Close to the Chasm can One Go?" on the WGBH Forum Network. See video.

Panelists:

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  William Schambra, director, Bradley Center for Philanthropy & Civic Renewal

  
  
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  Rebecca Rimel, Massachusetts, president and CEO, The Pew Charitable Trusts

  
  
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  H. Peter Karoff, founder and chairman, The Philanthropic Initiative

  
  
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  Andrew Dreyfus, president, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation

  
  
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  Rodney Berry, president, Public Life Foundation of Owensboro, Kentucky

Sample question, by Mr. Karoff to the Panelists: "What gives you the right to use your foundation money to affect public policy?" The answers ranged from, "We have the power and the money, and we don't need a right per se; to, "We are privileged and so must speak for those who are less fortunate."

Peter is creating a new public space, and opening doors to those "less fortunate," like the bankrupt readers of this blog. Usually insider events have a prohibitive tariff -- $1,000 a plate dinners, country club dues, invitation only from other insiders. With Peter's Symposium, the doors stood wide open, and any loser could walk right in, and tell the panelists -- "How can you speak for me, when you won't even speak to me, much less listen?