About the Author
Revised June 13, 2012
My name is Eugene Patrick Devany and I am a dreamer who yearns for
justice and economic reform. (Hay, it’s my dream!) I have been inspired by
the work of Jesus Christ, B. F. Skinner, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Steve Jobs and countless others.
I have a BA and majored in Psychology. It was during my early collage
days that I became interested in behaviorism and operant conditioning along
the lines espoused by B. F. Skinner. Some close friends thought it might
have something to do with spending a little too much time at Woodstock back
in 1969 - and now you have a good idea of my age and the sins of my youth.
I began my career working for the county Human Rights Commission and
pursued a Masters in Public Administration at night. I figured that someday
I’d be a fine bureaucrat and make a real contribution to the civil rights
movement. This path became more difficult as I realized that there was no
place in the civil rights field for someone who opposed preferential
treatment in employment and education, full gay rights, abortion and
resented taking orders from bureaucrats. I also dabbled in politics.
I decided to turn my hobby interest in stained glass into a business and
to go to law school at night. This explains the occasional use of stained
glass photographs in this website.
Getting back to law school harkens to the seeds of this website. I
devoted way too much time to writing a paper titled, “Positive Approaches
for a Punitive Worldâ€. It was a labor of love and combined my philosophical
interest in behaviorism and jurisprudence with my technical interest in
viewing government control from an operant conditioning perspective. Putting
aside the jargon, the paper was an attempt to look closely at controls and
suggest how government rewards and punishments might be tweaked to improve
things and make people feel better. The challenging part of the law school
paper was to include examples of reform which ranged from simple parking
fines to complex reforms of criminal sentencing, intellectual property and …
an individual net wealth tax.
Alas my interest in government reform was relegated to the back burner as
I spent the next 25 years representing the rich and well insured in the
defense of all manner of civil litigation. I have selected over 300 juries
and argued over 50 appeals. My clients have included General Electric,
ExxonMobil, Long Island Railroad, Cablevision, the City of New York, Metropolitan
Museum of Art and White Castle (yum!); to name just a few. My favorite adversary
was Donald Trump[1]
who was gracious enough to endorse my copy of the Art of the Deal with the
words, “Eugene, Good luck with your legal deals.†(I admittedly
failed to inform Mr. Trump that I had commenced an action
against him, as the owner of a hotel, in New York State Supreme Court).
Now, in semi-retirement, (a/k/a between jobs) I am free to go public with
political ideas that my former clients and employers would have frowned
upon. The new found freedom is exhilarating.
For now, I enjoy this website as I slowly hone my asp .NET web
design skills and solicit your comments and suggestions. Some have suggested
forming an organization along the lines of Americans for Fair Tax a/k/a
FairTax.org. I think the $20,000,000 in seed money
that was given to the Fair Tax people may be a bit much but it worked to
convince many intelligent politicans, reporters and business people to
actually support the horrific and regressive idea (because it was a little
better than what we have now).
I am mindful that many with good intentions and good ideas simply don’t
want to speak up and don’t want to rock the boat (especially if you have a
job that may not be too secure). That being said, I admire the spirit
spurred by the new media as displayed by those dancing to the Occupy Wall
Street banner and protesting across from my old office at One Liberty Plaza.
OWS has faded but at least it may now be politically acceptable to
have a civilized discussion on fundemental economic reforms.
Please send me an email
and let me know what you think of the 2-4-8 Tax Blend.
Thank you,
Eugene Patrick Dvany
Massapequa Park, New York
[1] In 1999 Mr. Trump recommended a one-time net
wealth tax of 14.25% (on those worth over $10,000,000) for the
purpose of paying the national debt. Today, in 2012, the rate would
have to be more than twice this amount to pay off the $15 trillion
in national debt.
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