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Jonah Golberg notes: "Complexity is a subsidy." The U.S. tax code is a canonical example. It is astounding to compose this reply on a smart phone in a country
by smitty1e 3y ago
Jonah Golberg notes: "Complexity is a subsidy." The U.S. tax code is a canonical example.
It is astounding to compose this reply on a smart phone in a country with such a Byzantine train wreck of a tax system.
The situation would border on acceptable if the tax system actually did a coherent job of funding the government.
However, the arterial bleeding that is the government's deficit spending habit can only be said to have a notional relationship to the tax code.
Rather, the tax code seems to exist as a means to sculpt societal behavior.
Those who read HN and have some insights into stabile systems need to be thought leaders in reforming this mess.
/rant
- ryukoposting 3y agoIntuit has lobbied against policies that would simplify the tax code. They have enormous financial incentive to make people believe that taxes are hard and must be hard. Just look at the new "don't do your taxes" schtick they've been pushing since this lawsuit got off the ground.
- smitty1e 3y agoThis is a textbook example of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking
- datavirtue 3y agoYeah, I realized a long time ago that all federal income taxes do is cancel out a portion of the money supply to keep inflation in check.