Cashiers

 High Living in the High Country
   Cashiers is a very small town located in the mountains of North Carolina, southwest of Asheville. To pronounce the name properly say "KASH-erz" or "Cash-ERS." I suppose the demonym applied to the residents would be simply, "Cashiers." 
   The derivation of the name for the town apparently is related to the fact that those who founded it, often acted as cashiers for the gold miners in the area. Curiously enough, Cashiers is still a good name for the town, since some of those who now have homes there, handle large amounts of cash.
   There are now over 1,000 billionaires in the U.S. and Cashiers has more than its fair share. These Hillbillionaires were drawn to the area for the same reason the Vanderbilts went to Asheville;  the natural beauty, cool and clean air and peace and tranquility.
   You will likely not spot many in the town square since they tend to congregate close-by in clubs with names like "Chattooga" and "Cullasaja." A house at the latter club just sold for $12 million. At the Mountaintop Golf & Lake Club, the initiation fee will be $275,000 starting on Jan.1, which is about $375,000 Canadian if I have aroused your interest. 
  I don't think many of the rich are residing in those huge mountain homes at this time of year and I doubt if they have to cover the costs by putting them on VRBO.  Visit in the summer and fall when you can mingle with the families that provide us with Tabasco and Russell Stover candies, or perhaps play a round of golf with the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. 
  For more information see these two articles: 
"What We Know About America's 1,135 Billionaires --- Exclusive, up-close Look at the Richest people in the U.S..." by Theo Francis and Inti Pacheco, Wall Street Journal, Sept. 6, 2025.
"The North Carolina Village Where America’s Wealthiest Go to Fly Under the Radar: Home to at least four billionaires, the low-key, ‘no frills’ enclave of Cashiers has one of the country’s highest concentrations of wealth," E.B. Solomont, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 26, 2025.
  "In the Blue Ridge Mountains, the unincorporated village has no mayor, no local police force and no central public water supply. There is a limited public sewer system, just a handful of sidewalks and one Ingles supermarket, affectionately known as "Mingles" because it is where locals tend to socialize. But what Cashiers does have is uber-wealthy homeowners who have been coming to the area for more than a century. With a full-time population of just 825 -- and at least four billionaires with homes in Cashiers -- the unincorporated village has one of the highest concentrations of wealth in the country, according to data from Altrata, a wealth-intelligence firm. It also remains one of the most under-the-radar -- by design." [Now you know where they are.]
   For 'normal' tourist information, see "Cashiers Valley, N.C. 

   For a more upscale view, see, The Laurel Magazine
If you are just curious about demonyms see: "Unobvious Demonyms." 
The Bonus:
A recent film has a demonym in the title: The Baltimorons: A Christmas Movie. That is a joke, of course, since those from that city are "Baltimoreans."

Factlet (6)

 

Extraordinary Times....         Desperate Times.....

That's Billions With a 'B'

   For review, a Factlet is true, whereas a Factoid is only widely believed to be true. I have not provided a Factlet for a while, so here are a bunch of them in one post. My last one was about the Opioid Epidemic and was negative, and this one is about the Covid Pandemic, but is positive. The pandemic has been profitable for some and not just the manufacturers of Purell or the makers of plexiglass. To wit:

   To put the chart in context, consider this:

A Wealth Tax??

   Jeff Bezos has already decided to give $10 billion to causes relating to climate change. He started by donating $791 million to various organizations, including $100 million each to: The Environmental Defense Fund, The National Resources Defense Council. The Nature Conservancy, The World Resources Institute and The World Wildlife Fund.  This will certainly help, since in 2019 only 2% of the $730 billion given globally was for the fight against climate change.

   Elon Musk has decided to move from California to Texas. The decision may be related to the fact that the Lone Star State has less regulations and lower taxes.

   Short of pleading for these individuals to be more philanthropic, what could be done? Instituting a wealth tax is one option and it is being considered in the UK. It is suggested that the tax could be a one-time one and there appears to be a fair amount of public support for it. That would likely be true here, but perhaps not in the Lone Star State during the time of Trump.

Sources:

   The chart is from a report produced for Americans For Tax Fairness and The Institute for Policy Studies. The title: "Net Worth of U.S. Billionaires Has Soared by $1 Trillion - To Total of $4 Trillion - Since Pandemic Began." A sub-heading indicates that the "Wealth Increase in 9 Months Exceeds Likely $908 Billion Cost of Covid Relief Package GOP Has Stalled as Too Costly."

   The charitable actions of Bezos are reported in the Washington Post - see: "Bezos Makes First Donations From $10 Billion Earth Fund For Fighting Climate Change," Steven Mufson, Nov. 16, 2020.

Bezos owns the Washington Post.

   The title of the Wealth Tax Report is: "A Wealth Tax For the UK", Wealth Tax Commission Final Report, by Arun Advani et al. The full 126 pp final report is available. 

The defining feature of a one-off wealth tax is that it would be a one-off exceptional response to a particular crisis. Individuals would only be taxed once based on the wealth they owned valued at a particular date. They would still be allowed to pay the tax in instalments over a number of subsequent years, to reduce the cost in any single year, but the amount of tax would be based on their wealth on the initial assessment date.

For two articles about the report: "Economic Cost of Covid Crisis Prompts Call For One-Off UK Wealth Tax," Richard Partington, The Guardian, Dec. 9, 2020 and "U.K. Urged To Levy $350 Billion Wealth Tax to Fund Pandemic," Andrew Atkinson, Dec. 9, 2020.

The Bonus: 

   You will have noticed the names of three Waltons in the chart. To see what Alice did with a bit of her money a few years ago, read this earlier post or, when the pandemic is over, travel to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

The Bright Side

   Not all the news is bad during this time of the Great Flu. As someone who specializes in the contrarian, I thought I would provide you with a few good bits.

   One does not have to read the following article since the very good news is obvious in the headline: "Corporate Insiders Pocket $1 Billion in Rush For Coronavirus Vaccine," David Gelles and Jesse Drucker, New York Times, July 25, 2020.

  Jeff Bezos also continues to do well and you don't need to be concerned about his ex-wife. This was found on Bloomberg News:

Jeff Bezos added $13 billion to his net worth on Monday, the largest single-day jump for an individual since the Bloomberg Billionaires Index was created in 2012.

Bezos, Amazon’s 56-year-old founder and the world’s richest person, has seen his fortune swell $74 billion in 2020 to $189.3 billion, despite the U.S. entering its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. He’s now personally worth more than the market valuation of giants such as Exxon Mobil Corp., Nike Inc. and McDonald’s Corp.

and

Mackenzie Bezos, his ex-wife, gained $4.6 billion Monday and is now the 13th-richest person in the world.

   If you are among the fortunate ones and are healthy, but still worried about the coming of the fall and the prospect that we might have to remain hunkered down, there are options like these:

   The marketing folks at Hilton Head are suggesting you can rent a home there and your kids can "Go Back to School Island Style."

   If you would rather be locked down this winter somewhere really warm, consider Barbados. 

Here are some related headlines:

Out of Office: Barbardos Prime Minister Welcomes Remote Workers: Proposes 12-Month Visa.

Working From Home Can Soon Mean Working in Barbados For Up To A Year.

The Bonus:

   Additional good news: The NHL resumes play on August 1, and you can watch the Kentucky Derby on Sept.5 and view The Masters in November. [the normal dates for these events were altered due to Covid.]

   So there; things aren't so bad.