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"Exploding" Termite Species Discovered
ananyo writes "A species of termite found in the rainforests of French Guiana takes altruism seriously: aged workers grow sacks of toxic blue liquid that they explode onto their enemies in an act of suicidal self-sacrifice to help their colonies. The 'explosive backpacks' of Neocapritermes taracua grow throughout the lifetimes of the worker termites, filling with blue crystals secreted by a pair of glands on the insects' abdomens. Older workers carry the largest and most toxic backpacks. Those individuals also, not coincidentally, are the least able to forage and tend for the colony: their mandibles become dull and worn as the termites age, because they cannot be sharpened by moulting (abstract)."
Indeed, not a new discovery. Exploding thermite has been well documented in the past.
In addition to the other replies, I found myself wondering who would stop accumulating wealth. I would go to the same job every day, so that wouldn't change. Most everyone I work with probably would, too. The janitors wouldn't quit.
The sociopaths who, despite the decreasing marginal utility of extra money, nevertheless find new ways to extract money, such as complex derivative trading, might find their efforts pointless. They may go into some more productive line of work. After all, some of the most brilliant programming minds are being lured into the high payday world of finance.
People might go back to creating something of value, instead of chasing the big payday. Kinda like when the top tax rate was a lot higher.
Bill Gates was not looking for the big payday, he was selling a product that he created. The business grew beyond a BASIC interpreter, and his fortune came as a result of owning stock in his company. As long term capital gains, that is only 15% tax rate, and the top tier wouldn't kick in. He would have no disincentive for doing exactly what he did The only way to "confiscate" rich peoples' money is to raise the capital gains rate. And then the average investor has no reason to get into the market, with a typical return being 4-6%, and taxes already eat almost 1 of those points. So then you fight over things like alternative minimum, and someone has to define what "rich" means, which differs wildly by locale.
I think the higher tax brackets can be raised without anyone bailing out due to the taxes. I also think there is a way to encourage altruism, we just haven't found the right way. As much money as he has given away, it seems to be a selected bunch of private industry who benefits, and some humanitarian work accidentally gets done along the way. In other words, it looks more like a tax dodge than altruism. As a people, we can do better.