Activism is Empty, Virtue is Practice

Underthrow · Aug 13, 2026 · 5m

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You’ve seen the open letters. “Tax me more,” they say. Billionaires at Davos standing with hands over their hearts, pleading with governments to take more of their money. How noble.

Here’s what you won’t find: extra canceled checks at the US Treasury.

The federal government accepts voluntary donations and has done so for over a century. That means billionaires can pay more any time they want.

But virtually none of them does.

Economists have a name for this gap between words and deeds. They call it revealed preference. The idea is simple: what you…