Strands of Genius: Super Bowl Attention Games,What Bezos Wants, Money Doesn't Trickle Down
Strands of Genius: Super Bowl Attention Games,What Bezos Wants, Money Doesn't Trickle Down
plus our thoughts on: taxes
WRITING FROM | Clayton, GA
WORKING ON | travel planning for our time in the Dominican Republic
LOOKING AHEAD
Feb 4-11: Clayton, GA
Feb 11-21: Nashville, TN
Feb 21-March 21: Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic
:: WHAT’S NEW & WEEKLY GRATITUDE ::
It’s funny that in the USA you get Super Bowl Sunday and Valentine’s Day so close together, as though to provide some, highly gendered and thus potentially problematic balance. Tom Brady’s TB won, reminding us why he is the GOAT, and also there were some ads ;) More on that below. (And for the record, Mike, we love the Chiefs more because we love you more than we love Tom Brady.)
Enjoy your week, and go get ‘em, tiger!
This week, we’re especially thankful for:
A dumping of snow, Josh&Elea&Leona and their lovely new home, Eli and his, some Superb Owl, deviled eggs, homemade salsa and pimento cheese, mushroom risotto, Hades, Rocket League, poppi probiotic soda, stonks, yoga with friends, outdoor heaters, Camp Blue Ridge & John&Dee.
:: THE LINKS ::
18 IMPACTFUL BLACK CREATORS TO FOLLOW
As part of Black History Month, why not take some time to review your social feed, and intentionally add some Black talent to your consumption? Often, we follow and subscribe to individuals that look like us — without even realizing it. This list will not only fill your Instagram feed with great content, but also gives those of you working in social media an awesome list of considerations when it comes to partners and crafting collaborations. (Later)
WHAT BEZOS WANTS
Jeff Bezos announced he is stepping down as CEO of Amazon this year, so it’s a good time for a long read on what his ambitions really are and how he thinks. What does his graduation speech - about space colonization and The Great Lube Scandal at Amazon tell us about the richest man in the world who will suddenly have free time on his hands? (The Atlantic)
THE ATTENTION GAMES
The Super Bowl is the most watched television broadcast in the USA every year and as such is the most competitive canvas imaginable for advertising in the world. Even though it is mostly watched in North America, that’s where about half of all the advertising in the world is so … Faris wrote a timely column about the how brands are trying to gain share of attention. (WARC / ADMAP)
MONEY DOESN’T TRICKLE DOWN
The trickle down argument for tax breaks for the wealthy has been demonstrably false for decades, but the London School of Economics just released a report detailing the impact of such policies. Studying 18 developed countries over 50 years, the clear conclusion is that “50 years of such tax cuts have only helped one group — the rich”. (CBS)
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:: WHAT WE’RE THINKING ABOUT: TAXES ::
Taxes are generally a good thing because they redistribute wealth from the richest to the poorest. (As shown above in the last link,) the lack or reduction of taxes, exacerbates inequality, which ultimately leads to social upheaval such as we have been experiencing. That said, taxes have a specific positioning in the USA, where they are considered bad. There are a number of reasons for this but primarily it is the sense that government should be small and is bad anyway, that money acquired should be kept, that individuals should be free to do whatever they want, and that somehow infrastructure and roads such will just happen by themselves.
American exceptionalism extends to the tax code, which is so long that no one actually knows how long it is. The core book on statutes is at least 1million words long and might be much longer, plus there are a lot of associated rules and regulations a professional in theory should know.
A report from the Taxpayer Advocate Service to Congress in 2008 about the complexity of the tax code, outlined how the word count of tax code has grown from 1.395 million words in 2001 to 3.7 million words when the report was done. That’s a 265 percent growth in word count in seven years.
"The Code has grown so long that it has become challenging even to figure out how long it is," the report said.
But why do we need professionals for this? In most developed countries, this is not how tax works. If you have a job, your income tax is taken at a standard rate from your paycheck, and you only need to file if you are self-employed. Withholding estimated taxes via employers with annual reconciliation was introduced in USA after WW2. This is how it used to be described on the US Treasury Website:
This greatly eased the collection of the tax for both the taxpayer and the Bureau of Internal Revenue. However, it also greatly reduced the taxpayer's awareness of the amount of tax being collected, i.e. it reduced the transparency of the tax, which made it easier to raise taxes in the future.
The system is a massive confusopoly, and increased bureaucracy and complexity inherently favors two groups: those wealthy enough to afford the best professionals and the professionals themselves. Intuit and HR Block have spent millions of dollars over the last twenty years lobbying to maintain the outsourcing of tax calculations to citizens, who then become their customers. They have helped quashed numerous bills that would have allowed US taxpayers to file pre-filled returns, with the government making the calculations. But, in the name of freedom and the possibility of extracting a few more pennies from the system, the US system puts the burden for understanding, managing and following the tax code on its citizens, creating shadow work for HR and Intuit to profit from. The complexity compounds over time, as political machinations underfund the IRS, which means that now the IRS doesn’t have the resources necessary to audit the wealthy with their expensive professional support, so they focus on the poor instead, because their taxes are much simpler.
This part of the year is often stressful, especially for independents, and we wish you all the very best, least stressful tax season.
:: AND NOW… CHOOSE WISELY ::
If we can ever be of help to you, even outside of a formal engagement, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
rockON,
faris & rosie & ashley | your friends over at geniussteals.co
@faris is always tweeting
@rosieyakob hangs out on instagram
@ashley also writes for deaf, tattooed & employed
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It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.
Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.
Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)