Bah. The tax code is insane, but isn't easily changed. Somehow I doubt that this petition can make a difference. Here are two current personal examples of how

Bah. The tax code is insane, but isn't easily changed. Somehow I doubt that this petition can make a difference. Here are two current personal examples of how crazy it is: 1) My daughter is a HS senior, who will be going to college in the fall. Together, my wife and I own a house and sufficient assets that my daughter won't get much financial aid (at least at a state college). However if we divorced and my wife kept the house and I kept the money, then my daughter would qualify for a lot of aid. This is because the equity in a house doesn't count, and other financial assets only count for 1 parent (which would be the ex-wife without income or assets, not the divorced dad with income and assets). So, being married means a big financial cost compared to the "free" money of financial aid. Not that we would get divorced for this reason, but it means we won't qualify for $100,000 (or more) in aid over 4 years. And we'll miss out on another $100,000 for our younger child. That's the downside of "needs" based aid. It's easy to game the system. 2) Much more serious, and sad. My daughter's friend is also an HS senior who wants to go to college. Her father died, her mother remarried. But her stepdad has enough income/assets that there is no financial aid available for her. Her stepdad didn't sign up for spending $30,000 or more a year for college for an 18 y/o stepdaughter, he's got his own children to think about. Why should he deplete his assets for a kid who recently entered his life? That's not how a 2nd marriage works in the real world! So my daughter's friend has no assets, her mom has no assets, but there is no financial aid available for her! The real world is full of crazy situations like this.