[THREAD]

1/ I was once in a position to find out from employees working in a regulatory agency which demographic groups cheat and lie the most in running their small businesses. These regulators (split pretty evenly between whites and non-whites) almost unanimously agreed that:

2/ Male business owners were more likely to engage in untruthful or dishonest behavior than female business owners.

Politically-liberal whites cheated a good deal less than blacks and conservative whites (who cheated at about the same rate).
3/ How did they know the political orientation of the owner? They told me that it was because certain areas in their jurisdiction were overwhelmingly liberal, and certain others were overwhelmingly conservative. They assumed political orientation based upon the business location.
4/ But everyone agreed that immigrant business owners were worse than Americans — much worse — and that:

Middle Easterners were usually untruthful.

But not as much as Chinese business owners.

And no one — and all of them made a big point of this — lied like the Indians.
5/ They told me that when they dealt with immigrant Indian businesses they safely operated under the assumption that there would be lying, falsifying, and cheating of all kinds. This was because none of them had ever run into an Indian business owner who didn't do these things.
6/ The most frustrating behavior pattern they ran into with the immigrant Indians was that even when the evidence of dishonesty was overt, unmistakable, and definitive — literally, "caught on tape" — the Indians would continue to lie, without batting an eye.
7/ I've spend some time on the subcontinent, and I recognized this as a reluctance to lose face. But I've also lived in the Middle East, where the same reluctance exists. But, by all accounts, the Middle Easterners didn't lie as prolifically and unashamedly as the Indians.
8/ I asked the regulators about Hispanic business owners, and they generally told me that they hadn't run into enough of them to be able to form an opinion.
9/ One thing that struck me about these regulators was how matter-of-fact and non-PC they were — being direct probably came with the job — and that this did not vary by their race or sex or age. It was really refreshing.

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So, as the #MegaMillions jackpot reaches a record $1.6B and #Powerball reaches $620M, here's my advice about how to spend the money in a way that will truly set you, your children and their kids up for life.

Ready?

Create a private foundation and give it all away. 1/

Let's stipulate first that lottery winners often have a hard time. Being publicly identified makes you a target for "friends" and "family" who want your money, as well as for non-family grifters and con men. 2/

The stress can be damaging, even deadly, and Uncle Sam takes his huge cut. Plus, having a big pool of disposable income can be irresistible to people not accustomed to managing wealth.
https://t.co/fiHsuJyZwz 3/

Meanwhile, the private foundation is as close as we come to Downton Abbey and the landed aristocracy in this country. It's a largely untaxed pot of money that grows significantly over time, and those who control them tend to entrench their own privileges and those of their kin. 4

Here's how it works for a big lotto winner:

1. Win the prize.
2. Announce that you are donating it to the YOUR NAME HERE Family Foundation.
3. Receive massive plaudits in the press. You will be a folk hero for this decision.
4. Appoint only trusted friends/family to board. 5/
This is a piece I've been thinking about for a long time. One of the most dominant policy ideas in Washington is that policy should, always and everywhere, move parents into paid labor. But what if that's wrong?

My reporting here convinced me that there's no large effect in either direction on labor force participation from child allowances. Canada has a bigger one than either Romney or Biden are considering, and more labor force participation among women.

But what if that wasn't true?

Forcing parents into low-wage, often exploitative, jobs by threatening them and their children with poverty may be counted as a success by some policymakers, but it’s a sign of a society that doesn’t value the most essential forms of labor.

The problem is in the very language we use. If I left my job as a New York Times columnist to care for my 2-year-old son, I’d be described as leaving the labor force. But as much as I adore him, there is no doubt I’d be working harder. I wouldn't have stopped working!

I tried to render conservative objections here fairly. I appreciate that @swinshi talked with me, and I'm sorry I couldn't include everything he said. I'll say I believe I used his strongest arguments, not more speculative ones, in the piece.

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