May 8, 2026
So, we went to see The Devil Wears Prada 2. For full disclosure, we loved the first movie. And we both loved the fashion show sequences in both movies…so much fun! It’s a bucket list item…we want to sit by the runway in Paris or Milan someday. But alas, I gave “2” a C. Can’t get into too much detail (spoiler alerts being something to avoid). But my bias was to want to like the movie.
I won’t go into the reasons for the C. You decide for yourself. It has gotten 79% on Rotten Tomatoes and the critics are generally positive, so don’t let me dissuade you. After all, I’m the guy who has watched Ford V Ferrari 14 times and Miracle! (1980 Olympic Hockey) probably 25 times. Really highbrow movie-going guy, right?
Anyway, you know me by now, I was braced for the woke message. Blessedly, it was light. I mean how do you trash capitalism when the movie is set in the fashion industry, perhaps the epitome capitalist excess?
But they couldn’t resist. I’ll avoid the spoiler but just to say that a CEO acts “mean”…I.E. defends the need for the company to make a profit. And so has to cut staff. “Journalism matters!” shrieks one cast member. “And he made $11 million last year!” she continues. But I think the producers missed the painfully obvious irony:
Meryl Streep (love her) was paid $20 million to make the movie. OK, so a few weeks spent on pretending to be someone you’re not gets you $20 million (and I guess is OK by their lights) but spending a year killing yourself trying to keep a company afloat for $11 million needs to be condemned. Got it. Me, I’m thinking the CEO should quit that job, take Meryl’s and double his income, plus no one will be mad at him.
For perspective, Juan Soto of the Mets signed for $765 million. That’s nearly $800 million…to hit baseballs. And mind you…the season, including the World Series (which the Mets have already forfeited at 11-22) runs only seven months. He works part time!
Well, here’s the thing. If you can put butts in seats, you get the money. The more seats you can fill the more money. But it’s not butts, its profits…revenue. So, to me, whether the baseball player, or the actress, or whether you come up with a new $9.00 latte to impoverish customers or get people to the stadium (or in the theatre) to drink it…ITS ALL THE SAME THING. Profit.
There is an old saying…the money doesn’t identify itself. It’s a dollar no matter what the source. A dollar in Ms. Streep’s checkbook is the same dollar as yours. And to be clear…she is entitled to the $20 million! The producers are FREE to pay her that and she is FREE to accept it or not and you and I are FREE to go and see her or not. That’s how it’s supposed to work!
Speaking with a friend the other day. Won’t identify for obvious reasons and I’ve changed some details to further hide. But this is essentially correct.
Anyway, he has a client family who just wrote out a check for $230 million. The patriarch passed and roughly ½ the $500 million estate went to Uncle Sam.
Now, there are three grandchildren beneficiaries and so, the $500 million is now $90 million three times. And given the rule of threes when it comes to siblings, we can assume that one of them will screw it up (to be clear, I don’t know the family, just speaking generally), one of them will nurse it along and one might do something remarkable. But, for sure, each of the $90 million will be greeted on death by…. you guessed it. Well, if they each die with $90 million the taxable estate (absent high spin tax-delay revolutions in the tax/trust atmosphere) the net after tax will be roughly $60 million each. Down to $180 million or so total, from $500 million. Just like that (snap fingers).
And then if there are, say, six grandchildren inheritors…and so forth. There is a saying in the financial planning business…Rags to rags in three generations.
People can envy wealth all they want but, in the end, we know where it will all wind up. Taxes, charities, bad investments, spending on yachts or whatever. I’d just say that spending money on yachts, or flying, or big homes or whatever…is very good for our economy. Just ask the workmen, the waiters, the painters and plumbers and deck hands. Not to mention the sales taxes. And property taxes.
Meanwhile, we just need to be patient and wait for it.
Which should give us all time to push back on the Socialists, especially the Socialist/Communists masquerading as Progressives. Nothing progressive about all of that. If we don’t that giant sucking sound will be coming from NYC and Seattle and wherever public policy is morphing into a kind of video role-playing game featuring an avowed Socialist.
Go ahead. When someone says Trump is a Fascist, ask them for examples of that and ask them to define a Fascist. They can’t.
I’m not a fan of that sucking sound. First, because I want to see those great cities stay great and succeed (But I’m now dubious). Down here, people have warmed to government-lite…
You drive on the I-4 in Orlando and it is already a parking lot. Next thing you know, someone will propose a congestion tax…and will be ridden out of town by enraged geriatrics, used to a low-tax style of living. Some media will report that those blue hairs aren’t paying (you guessed it) “their fair share.” Go tell them that. Good luck with that one.
Best line of the week…Governor DeSantis named Mayor Mamdani as Florida’s Realtor of the Year. “No one has done more for Florida real estate.” I’m just saying, we need to elect a guy with that sense of humor. Don’t waste the talent.
One among many great things about our democracy: There are 50 flavors in the state houses of this country. You want to pay a lot of tax and run social spending up the pole…there are places for that. You want to pay minimal tax and be mostly left alone…places for that as well. And every combination and mix in between. Free to choose.
So, I’m not about to condemn people who want to pay higher taxes and feel the lifestyle trade-off worth it. They are making a FREE choice to do that. And people in low-tax states are doing the same thing…exercising FREE choice. None of us should be condemning each other for the FREE choices we’re all making.
It is, we need to keep repeating….how its supposed to work.
Thoughts, questions, or reflections? I’d love to hear them. You can reach me anytime at anthony@workingprofit.com
