PBS NewsHour had a hopeful segment called “Brief But Spectacular,” which was all about takes. There’s a company out there called Glass Half Full that recycles glass into sand.
I recall learning 60-plus years ago that glass comes from sand 60. OK glass comes from OK sand, and great glass comes from great sand, but it all comes from sand. So we are digging up sand, making bottles out of it and not putting it back.
But now this company, started by CEO Franziska Trautman, makes sand from bottles. I gather it’s not great sand for making great bottles, but it’s OK sand for conservation purposes, like combating erosion along shorelines, for instance. Also for disaster relief, flooring and landscaping. If they can do all that, I bet they can make coffee mugs and cheap jewelry out of it. Maybe even ashtrays shaped like funny animals. The point is, it doesn’t all have to end up in a landfill. Part of the planet is being saved.
In other cheerful news, Social Security’s new higher benefits are out for the start of 2023. It’s an 8.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). Chances are if you can remember the last time Social Security had a cost of living increase that big, you are imagining it. It’s very unlikely you were collecting Social Security benefits that long ago. You were probably just blindly paying in and giving no thought to how much you’d ever get back from it because you were 30-something, approaching your Jesus year and smoking weed at a back room in a wild party with your crazy debauched friends. You knew not to eat the fudge, but you wouldn’t behave, especially when you found out it was artisanal and made from carob by aging hippies from one of the last remaining communes in the Pacific Northwest.
Where was I? Oh yes: I didn’t actually eat the devil’s fudge, so I survived, and now I’m flush with Social Security COLA. I’m restored to where I was before all the inflation, and I can return to eating 30 days a month instead of 28. I wish I knew who to thank for this. I have no idea who Social Security takes orders from anymore. I need a refresher junior high school civics course. Excuse me: middle school civics course. See how things can change up on me?
Speaking of civics lessons, if Donald J. Trump had ever taken a course in civics, we might not just now be getting to see his tax returns, going back to his days as a young Scottish boy in Manhattan. If his income has been as high as he’s claimed, he’s had to pay income taxes on his Social Security ever since it kicked in. I wonder if he has. These are the kinds of details I’d like to see.
Does he get tax breaks for all the nonexistent payouts to contractors he’s allegedly stiffed over the years? Given his lack of ethics, it’s hard to believe otherwise. Since he somehow managed to keep the IRS from auditing him all the years he claimed he was being audited, it would seem a simple matter of showing the IRS how much the contractors were billing and not bothering to show any canceled checks for services rendered.
The Washington Post revealed amounts of money Trump paid in taxes from 2015 through 2020. While he paid a total of nearly $1.8 million in three of those years, in the other three years he paid only $750. Those must have been some spectacular deductions.
Maybe he doesn’t get Social Security benefits. Has he ever had a job? Surely he’s taken salaries from all his business ventures. But maybe he never reported them? The possibilities are fascinating.
One way we know he skirts U.S. taxes is by claiming foreign tax credits. In my experience making money overseas, the foreign taxes don’t tend to offset U.S. taxes, but then I’ve never licensed my name to be used for golf courses in Scotland and Ireland. Being paid by people who’d rather not so they can use your name must cost buckets of money in foreign taxes. I can’t possibly imagine how much.
It’s a pity if Trump doesn’t get Social Security. With my COLA of $95, I’m feeling like Scrooge McDuck rolling in cash.
Dr. Wes is the Real Change Circulation Specialist, but, in addition to his skills with a spreadsheet, he writes this weekly column about whatever recent going-ons caught his attention. Dr. Wes has contributed to the paper since 1994. Curious about his process or have a response to one of his columns? Connect with him at [email protected].
Read more of the Jan. 4-10, 2023 issue.