Sometimes there are a few stories that break over the course of the week that I want to comment on, but don’t feel like I have enough to say to devote an entire piece to just one story. Rather than force myself to choose and/or develop an idea to feature length (you know, like a good writer would), I instead string these multiple pieces together in a short blurb-y format I am referring to as Short Takes. This is such a piece.
TAX DAY!!!!
A man doing his taxes. (Editor's Note: No one in US did their taxes like this. Nor have they in years.)
Hey, did you know us Americans had to pay our taxes by April 15? It’s true. AND IT IS TOTALLY UNFAIR!
Thankfully, the media was on hand this past week to remind us of both facts. A.) April 15th is Tax Day and b.) the very idea of paying taxes is a hideous torture unlike anything that has ever been perpetrated on man. Including waterboarding.
You know what my opinion on it is? It boils down to this: seriously?
Yes, it is true that if you offered me the option of keeping all my money or 85% of my money, I’d choose the former. However, if you asked that question and added, “But, if you take 100% of your money, you will have to do without things like roads, schools, police, the Navy, unemployment insurance, prisons, and national parks,” I’d stop and say, “Oh, the 85% will do me nicely thank you.”
In other words, unless you live in a cabin out in the woods without any running water, I think you should rethink the whole simplistic “taxation is bad” argument.
Which is not to say that that is the only argument people have for hating taxes. Some people don’t feel they should be made to pay for things they don’t benefit from (ahh, way to participate in society) or don’t agree with (so I can keep all my money that would have gone to the “missile defense shield” we have been trying to build for almost my entire life without success?). There are those who feel that graduated taxes are unfair and that a flat tax (or regressive tax, if you want to be accurate about it) is the way to go. Now, I disagree with all these opinions, but hey, they at least are more well-rounded and nuanced than “I don’t want to pay taxes and therefore I shouldn’t have to! Also, people’s morality should exactly reflect my own! And I would like a pony!”
To summarize: I pay taxes. I am fine with paying taxes. There are years I get a refund (which, by the way, is, from a purely economic perspective, a bad thing) and there have been years I’ve paid out. As a freelancer, I get beat up pretty good this time of year by Uncle Sam and, honestly, I have zero problem with it. In fact, I’d be willing to pay more (not a ton more because I am a little greedy too) if I thought it would help this country I love very, very much. I am willing to acknowledge some people have objections that, at the least, are worth discussing. But the blind panic/hate about taxes? It’s just too damn dumb.
Sarah Palin Wants Bendy Straws? Well Fuck Her!
Yeah...not sure what she's doing here.
Sorry for the salty language, but I bet I’ve got your attention now, don’t I?
Anyway, America’s Favorite/Least Favorite Hockey Mom get herself in the news again this week and, shockingly, it was not for something good. I know, I know…it is all so surprising.
It seems that resigned Governor of Alaska Palin has a rider when she goes speaking and this rider includes things like wanting to fly over a private jet or, at least, in first class and bendable straws for her drinks.
I, for one, think we should applaud her for not demanding crazy straws. Now that is true excess! All that extra plastic!
But seriously…
No! You go too far pajita loca.
Have you ever seen a rider? They are always, ALWAYS, filled with ridiculous stuff. First class flights and bendy straws are literally the least someone could ask for. If it were you and you had to fly somewhere to speak and they said, “What do you want to come out here? Anything at all” would “a private flight” not make your list? If you say it wouldn’t, you are either a.) a liar or b.) like four feet tall with a 30 inch waste and therefore perfectly comfortable in coach.
My point being, if you are in demand enough to command that kind of money she does, you get to make other requests too. And in comparison with other people in her positions, her requests are downright yawn worthy.
The only way anyone should be upset with this is if they think of her as a politician or a down-to-earth, everyday mom who is just like you or I. And really, you don’t still believe that do you? Do you? Oh, sweetie…
Oh Huffington Post…
So on my computer, on the right side on my screen, I have something I think is called a Deskbar. It tells me the temperature, the time, has a little Google search bar, and a rotating set of three headlines to alert me to what’s happening in the world. On Friday, I signed on to my computer and was greeted by this one from the Huffington Post amongst the three:
Tiger Woods’ Alleged Mistress, Joslyn James, Will Strip AGAIN
Now, I did not click it because, honestly, I don’t want to encourage this sort of thing from the Post (or any other news source or blog or whatever the Post is). But I was fascinated by it. I don’t care about Joslyn James (who is she, anyway) and the idea of Tiger Woods have an alleged mistress is only of interest to me because the idea that it is “alleged” kind of makes me giggle. At this point, I think we can drop alleged, don’t you?
What left me pondering this headline was one word. Again. Why on earth, of all the words, was that capitalized? I mean, “again” is not exactly an eye catcher. Strip? Yeah, that’ll do. Mistress? That works, too. Tiger? Hey, animal or golfer, you’ve got my attention. But again?
So maybe it is the most significant part of the headline. But no. A Woods mistress stripping AGAIN would seem, to me
He smiles to keep from crying.
anyway, to be the rule not the exception. You want to shock me, run this headline: Tiger Woods’ Alleged Mistress Keeps Her Clothes on AGAIN. Otherwise, not worth the all caps?
Mets Win! Wait…Really?Yes, it took 20 innings. Yes, they only scored 2 runs in all those innings. It does not matter. I am a Mets fan and I’ll take the wins where I can find them, thank you very much.
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I know several people who read this every week who don’t comment below because, well, the Internet and all that. If that applies to you, feel free to email me at parallax2@juno.com with your comments (and if I get enough, I can do answer columns every now and again). Also feel free to request me on the old facespace (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=836564484). Just be sure to say why you are doing so (I read you on Brendan’s blog, for instance) so I don’t ignore it.
Though I certainly have a terminal case of PDS, the outrage over the riders requiring bendy straws is one of the silliest media shakedowns wrt Ms. Palin.
I doubt anyone could honestly say they don’t have at least a weak preference for the bendy straw over the unwieldy and oft-messy straight straw. From which it follows that, if someone said, in the context of a rider that “you can have anything, anything you want” and your thoughts for even a moment went to a soda, you would ask for the bendy straw too, since, if you were allowed anything you want, why would you accept something you obviously don’t want???
It would be interesting to ask the shakerdowners if they would have more confidence in Palin if, in response to an open-ended rider she said “Well, I’ll be drinking several sodas on the plane…which ride is often bumpy, and those straight straws are unwieldy and messy at the smoothest of times…so on a bumpy plane they increase the risk I’ll goof and make a big spill on my blouse…but whatev, any kind of straw is fine”.
1) If you think you are only paying 15% of your income in taxes you are delusional.
2) I still say that tax day should be the first Tuesday in November, and that instead of withholding taxes during the year, everyone should have to write a check or authorize a fund transfer on that day.
Because that’s practical.
You are right, gahrie, the 15% was just a rattled off the cuff example, not something I had spent any time actually looking into. After all there is social security, sales, sin, etc taxes.
But speaking purely about income tax, between state and federal, approximatley 9% of my household’s (my wife and I) income was taken out. And we are well within the “middle class” income range that we all must fret about the government stealing from.
So, yes, over the course of the year, probably more than 15% of our income goes to taxes. But, in terms of just income taxes (which is what we really are complaining about, come April), we actually gave up just under 9%.
Per your #2, why? What about that is preferable?
Per your #2, why? What about that is preferable?
Because that way every other year you would actually PAY your taxes (rather than get a “refund” which is the way most people think of it) immediately before you voted for the people who were setting and spending your taxes.
Because that’s practical.
Practicality has never stopped the government before.
Brendan #3 – April 15 is only “practical” cuz we are used to it … we have survived Y2K, we keep messing around with when Daylight Savings Time starts and ends (except where given States choose not to do so) – and if April 15 is on a wekend day, stuff isn’t actually due until the end of the Monday following …
The only thing impractical about gahrie’s 2) is that it should be on the first Monday in November … that way, the very next day is when Presidential Elections are held, every 4 years … and, on the off years, 1 of ’em is the midterms, and the other two remain predictable … and they would always be due on a Business Day …
I see. The idea of moving the date doesn’t bother me much (besides the fact that paying for the previous year by November as opposed to by April feels a bit weird to me and the naked “people hate taxes so this will help my side” feeling of it) so much as the practicality of asking people to keep track of what they’ll owe all year.
Speaking as a guy who pays everything at the end (because of the whole freelance thing) it can be a big shock. If it wasn’t for my wife’s more traditional job (the taxes withdrawn from every check kind) I am sure there would times that I would not have the money on hand that I need. And I’m someone who is better at saving than the average American.
It’s the lack of withholding that I was referring to as “impractical,” Alasdair, not moving the date. Moving the date is an asinine, partisan suggestion, the supposedly objective benefit of which is based upon the unexamined assumption that it’s intrinsically good for people to go to the polls thinking solely about the costs of government, rather than what that money pays for. (If a liberal were to suggest that the timing of various government benefits be purposely manipulated to occur right before an election, that would be equally asinine.) But it’s not “impractical” — just stupid and lame. What is impractical, as Tim points out, is expecting the average American taxpayer to have enough money lying around in a bank account, saved up to pay taxes in a lump sum, without thereby causing extreme financial hardship to many, many individuals’ day-to-day cashflow. Let’s just say that’s a “solution” that could only be dreamed up by someone who isn’t really in touch with what life is like for a huge swath of his fellow citizens.
Come to think of it, I’m thinking too “micro” here. When you think “macro,” gahrie’s absurd “lump sum” tax solution would be even worse. Because it would cause severe cashflow problems for countless Americans, it would severely depress economic activity in November and December… just in time for the holiday season, which is when the retail sector makes a huge percentage of its money! So, congratulations, gahrie, you’ve just proposed the destruction of the American retail sector for the sake of making a political point and advantaging Republicans at the polls! Also, this “solution” would lead to an uptick in bankruptcies, since people who haven’t saved enough to cover their lump-sum tax payments would take out credit cards to get them through, which would in term lead to debt, debt and more debt. Congratulations, you’ve worsened Americans’ over-reliance on credit! Furthermore, because of all these hardships, the next liberal administration/Congress would promptly pass some sort of new social entitlement program to help people deal with it. Congratulations, you’ve expanded the welfare state in the name of tax reform!
In short, Dumbest. Idea. Ever.
So, Brendan’s attack on my suggestion boils down to:
1) I don’t like it because it will remind people just how much of their money is confiscated by government before they vote
and
2) I don’t believe the American people can be responsible enough to handle their finances and plan for the future, so they need Big Daddy government to do it for them.
Congratulations gahrie you have completely missed the point.
Gahrie, first of all, what David said, and secondly, you’re still making the “the unexamined assumption that it’s intrinsically good for people to go to the polls thinking solely about the costs of government, rather than what that money pays for.” Please examine that assumption (and re-read my statement “if a liberal were to suggest that the timing of various government benefits be purposely manipulated to occur right before an election, that would be equally asinine”), and get back to me after you’ve done so. You may also want to consider responding to something… anything… anything at all… that I said. kthxbye.
P.S. The fact that, by and large, “the American people [are not] responsible enough to handle their finances and plan for the future” is an established fact, not a matter of opinion. Just look at our personal savings rate, or our average debt load, or bankruptcy rates, or the huge honking mortgage crisis that was triggered by people taking on debt they couldn’t afford. For that matter, look at the Tea Partiers’ favorite topic, the national debt, which is, after all, the product of choices made by politicians who were chosen by voters precisely because the voters wanted them to make those choices, because the voters think they can have their cake and eat it too, and woe betide anyone who suggests to the voters that perhaps we can’t simultaneously have low taxes and endless spending (a.k.a. the Reagan Doctrine). All of these things are very, very strong factual evidence for the inability of the average American to be responsible with money.
As a conservative, you should understand this human fallacy, this inherent and widespread irresponsibility, well. Conservatives are supposed to generally lack faith in human nature; liberals are the ones who are supposed to believe in unrealistic utopias.
If you honestly think it’s possible to demand that people make their tax payments in a lump sum without causing a huge economic impact, lots of bankruptcies, etc. etc, because many, many people aren’t responsible enough to save up the money to make those payments… you really need to go read some more Derbyshire, because your opinion of human nature is waaaaay too rosy for a self-respecting conservative.
Of course, you don’t really think that. You just don’t care about the people who aren’t responsible enough to save enough to pay their taxes in a lump sum — and that, I suppose, is at least arguably a “proper” conservative way of looking at things. Personal responsibility and all that. Screw ’em! Let ’em fail! Problem is, you aren’t considering the macro impacts that those irresponsible people’s irresponsible actions have on the broader population. Which is kind of a remarkable blind spot, because we’ve just lived through the greatest financial crisis in our lifetimes, in which the entire goddamn world suffered massive consequences caused largely by the irresponsible decisions of people lacking personal responsibility, on Wall Street and Main Street and everywhere in between. In the modern world, gahrie, personal choices do not exist in a vacuum, and if you create a system that makes it inevitable that dire consequences will follow from entirely predictable instances of irresponsibility, it isn’t just the irresponsible folks who will suffer — EVERYONE will suffer. So a balance must be struck. But you have no interest in balance, or real world effects. You just want to score ideological points, and damn the consequences. In that sense, you are the worst kind of ideologue. This idea, to the extent you’re serious about it (and, unbelievably, you seem to be!), is just totally untethered to reality, but you don’t seem to realize that. Which is, again, kind of amazing.
Completely unrelated: Brendan, is there a way you could either length the recent comments section or have a link to a longer list of recent comments? On a somewhat active day old comments can scroll off the list really quick and there is no place to go to catch them. If this were at work, I’d file a bug on it 🙂
I’ll file a bug on YOU. 🙂 Um, I don’t know how to make a separate recent comments page, and I don’t want to make the recent comments sidebar thingy too long because then everything else on the sidebar gets seriously buried. But let me see what I can figure out.
Quick responses …
1) Quit imputing to me irrational thought processes that *you* come up with !
Move the requirements/functionality of April 15 to 1st Monday in November – while keeping the rest of the payroll-withholding etc in place … not so big a deal … it’s just as arbitrary a date as April 15 …
2) It is “intrinsically good for people to go to the polls thinking
solelyboth about the costs of government,rather thanand what that money pays for. “ (FIFY)3) April 15 currently triggers folk getting refunds as well as folk shelling out for what they owe … most folk, I suspect, being terrified of the IRS, end up with some level of refund … thus, think of how well all those refuds would benefit the end-of-year buying season !
So – who is being “stupid and lame” ? Projecting *your* thought processes on others ain’t displaying great rhetorical skills …
“You just don’t care about the people who aren’t responsible enough to save enough to pay their taxes in a lump sum “ has yet to be part of how I think … and, while I am not gahrie, I doubt it is part of how *he* thinks … it *is* a fairly typical demonising of opponents that I associate with the current Dem leadership and Congress … csorta like when whoever-the-f*** is was that said (paraphrased) “Republicans just don’t care about starving children” …
Excuse me, but I refuse to engage in the bigotry of low expectations. It is NOT unreasonable to expect people to manage their finances.
gahrie, its not unreasonable to think people SHOULD be able to manage their finances well. It is, however, unreasonable to believe that the DO manage their fiannces well.
Alasdair, just because the inital date chosen was arbitrary doesn’t mean that you can easily move it to some other arbitrary date. Since it has regularly been on the 15th of April (adjusted on occasion one way or the other for the weekend) for over 55 years, changing it involves a significant amount of work. Snapping your fingers and saying “hey its on the 1st of November” doesn’t make everything work magically. If you are unwilling to acknowledge the very real logistical, financial, and other difficulties with changing this day, then its not worth trying to have a rational discussion with you on potential merits of changing it. Its like people who argue for a Div 1A football playoff without acknowledging the various factors at play.