The headline is misleading. This is about medieval air pollution and how productivity can be affected by political upheaval.
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On of my favorites! I collected some bubble gum cards with weird characters by him when I was a kid.
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Why does the USA have such a uniquely hostile view of taxation- This paper has an interesting theory why:
https://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/194876.html
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Another issue that might be relevant (and might tip the balance) is that the US income tax is a giant pain in the ass to file. Making a simple transaction tax progressive, though, makes stock trades and b2b activity subject to transparency.
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I disagree. The IRS makes both the forms and instructions freely available and they generally donāt require any more than a 5th grade reading and math level. If you run your own business, I understand it might be more difficult. But for most wage/salary people, it should be quite easy.
I have had a couple of cases where it took more than 30 minutes because I had to read into details:
- Iām working from home now, can I and should I deduct something for that? (No, I canāt, and even if I could, itād be way less than the standard deduction.)
- My kidās now an adult, but disabled, can I still claim her as a dependent, and if so whatās the proper way to do so? (Yes, and itās in the instructions, though the result is not much.)
Otherwise, itās basically just enter the number from form A on line X, subtract Y, and look up the result in table Z. Sign, date, stamp and send. Done. I have a couple more lines to fill out due to investments, but still itās trivial.
I think a lot of people complain about how hard it is not because itās hard, but because theyāre scared of it. Much like tests in school. They werenāt hard, they werenāt a pain in the ass, you just read the question, figure out the answer, and fill in the right A,B,C,D bubble. Simple. Scary maybe, but not hard. Not a pain in the ass unless you sat on your freshly-sharpened pencil.
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Itās the longest, most condition-laden process of most Western tax systems. We had a farm when I was a kid. Mom did the taxes long form and it was usually a week of their office turned to one task. Iām not saying the anti-tax crusaders are right in their philosophy, but most taxes that arenāt straight-up transaction taxes are a bunch of bullshit of the most politically tone-deaf kind.
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I have to disagree.
I have no problem following complicated instructions: I have built some large Lego sets, I have built many pieces of Ikea furniture and have changed my carās brake lights.
But when I look at an IRS tax form, all I see is
It says something, but I canāt read it.
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I normally ignore these sorts of things, but Iāve obviously got too much time on my hands these days. I complained to the original poster that this is unsolvable because the terms are too ambiguous. If you look closely, youāll discover that sometimes the witch is holding things, others not. And sometimes the wands and brooms are doubled. But what mathematical functions do these variations represent? Itās not spelled out (although itās easy to guess that itās something fairly simple.)
Anyway to prove my point I solved it two different ways. Iāll tell more if anyone is interested.
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I get 7+4+4. Which would be 13.
But Iām terrible at puzzles and math.
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Uhhhā¦
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Since you failed to multiply, Iāll assume thatās a joke.
I told you, Iām terrible with puzzles and math.
How about 56 and 32?
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Iām getting 109 (assuming multiplication goes first then addition)
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That was my first guess, but notice the differences between the witches in the top line and the one at the bottom. Also, if you look closely, you should be able to see that one of the wands is actually two wands close together and the same for one of the brooms.
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OK, thatās it, I give up.
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Iād bet a couple of chips on 73.
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