Ahoy me hearties! It’s Talk Like a Pirate day! The Nerd Reich, a book about Tech pirates, describes those blackhearted plunderers of the main, killers of culture (The Tonight Show, The Kennedy Center, among many other casualties), forcing millions to walk the plank (defunding USAID, deadly surveillance, purveyors of weapons of mass destruction), and generally acting like anti-social jerks. It’s clear to me and many of you that the concentration of ill-gained wealth into the hands of individuals is a cancerous anathema that will only get worse.

What to do about it? I’ll throw out a suggestion, a life-raft onto troubled waters, if you’ll allow a nautical analogy: what if hackers and bankers and regulators and all people of good will, including those billionaires who choose to, rig all financial systems plying the capitalistic seas to cap personal wealth at say, what? 900 million?, and divert all excesses to non-lethal public programs – say universal housing and health. Do I hear a gale of “Yes, buts!” Yes, indeed! I think I hear them like waves crashing on a rocky shore. And a welcome sound, because it shows the ability for critical thinking. But don’t let “But” be the last thought  ye have, maties, before running aground! Instead try “Yes and”. It is much more productive. And let’s face it, if we don’t change course, we’ll all soon be foundering on the rocks.