Monday, October 20, 2008

Taxes

If I have learned anything from taking this course on the seventeenth century wars in England, Scotland, and Ireland, it is that the tax code of the United States is a true blessing.

Honestly — you pay your taxes every year, the rules are written down, and you can plan for them. Sure, the rules are tricky and the laws are written to protect the wealthy. I'm not saying America's tax system is perfect. But seriously, we don't have to go to war every time some jackass levies ship money or "fifths and twentieths."

Similarly, eminent domain sucks, but it's noting like confiscation and sequestration.

Pete had a professor in college who used to say that the thing he loved most about America was the DMV. In his native India, you can't get a driver's license without bribing ten different people and even then you might be out of luck. In America, everyone waits in the same line, fills out the same forms, pays a set fee, and that's it.

So, thank you, Early Modern British history, for teaching me that the income tax, while a pain, is at least predictable and relatively easy to understand.

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