How To Be Rich: A group of wealthy Germans led by a doctor named Dieter Lehmkuhl have put together a proposal to the German government to increase the taxes on the rich to help increase government revenues. Why would anyone want to ask the government for HIGHER taxes? Because, the group says, the rich have more money than they can possibly ever spend. They estimate the German government could increase tax revenue by 100 billion Euros annually by raising taxes, and that if the did this for TWO YEARS, they could erase their budget crisis. This BBC article has a great pull-quote from the petition:

“The path out of the crisis must be paved with massive investment in ecology, education and social justice,” they say in the petition.

Those who had “made a fortune through inheritance, hard work, hard-working, successful entrepreneurship, or investment” should contribute by paying more to alleviate the crisis.

How NOT To Be Rich: Yesterday’s Boston Globe had this immensely sad and appalling article about former Boston Celtics star Antoine Walker, who has pissed away his $110 million fortune on gambling, cars, and buying bling-bling for himself and his hangers-on and is presently facing trial for writing bad checks to several casinos to pay for hundreds of thousands of dollars in gambling debts.

This being America, most people see absolutely nothing wrong with what Walker did with his money, and look at the Germans as if they were crazy. We really, really need to turn the world right-side-up again, kids.

See Also

• May 25, 2010 -- Worst. Drink. EVAR.
• May 19, 2010 -- But You Still Have To Sit Through A Crap Movie
• November 11, 2009 -- How NOT To Be A Millionaire, Part 2
• October 19, 2009 -- Feed The World
• October 13, 2009 -- It’s Only A Recession If You’re Poor