Children who will never grow up to meet the loves of their lives, share laughter with their friends, or have an opportunity to contribute to society in an immeasurable number of ways
Innocent people who haven’t committed any crime, but were simply born into the wrong place at the wrong time
It’s long past the time for a cease fire agreement, and I hope that all parties involved, including third-parties like my own country, are exhausting quite literally every reasonable option to end the horrors that are taking place.
I think if more people express their frustration and confusion about why this is still going on, it would be a good thing.
In Recent Times…
Last Saturday, I started my day the same way that any fun-loving 28-year old person would; I went to the coffee shop to do my taxes.
I thought it wise to get ahead of the task instead of waiting until I was bumping up against the deadline. Has anyone else had the thought, “Why must I do my taxes at the beginning of each year?”
My employer takes money out of my paycheck and remits it to the government at the Federal and State level (and city level, in my case 🤕). Money also comes out for all the other standard deductions, such as Social Security, Medicaid, etc.
Why are we “squaring up” once a year?
For additional tax liabilities, such as capital gains, or even credits like charitable donations, can’t we handle those at the point of transaction?
Each tax season, tens of millions of American households have a decision to make.
A) They can collectively spend hundreds of millions of hours preparing tax information that the federal government already has.
B) They can pay other people billions of dollars to do it for them.
But let’s add a choice C: They go for a walk. Or, they have a nice dinner. Basically, they do whatever they want with those millions of hours and billions of dollars. Because their taxes are done for them, for free. They receive a document from the government with all of the relevant information already filled out, and they check a box to say, “okay!"
In the United States, the third choice sounds like a fantasy. But the excruciating pain of tax season is just another example of negative American exceptionalism. In fact, about one-half of American taxpayers earn all their income from one employer’s wages (which the IRS can see) and interest from one bank (which the IRS can find out without much effort). The IRS could easily send tens of millions of individuals their nearly completed taxes by mail—or even, by text.
“Rather than some crazy, wild idea that’s never been tried before, this is doable and a lot of countries do it,” said William Gale, a tax expert at the Brookings Institution. Eight OECD countries, including Finland and Norway, fully prepare returns for the majority of its taxpayers. In Estonia, it famously takes the average person five minutes to file taxes.
In Sweden, the vast majority of taxpayers don’t do battle with tax documents and fine-print questions about itemized deductions. They just get a document from the government with all the relevant information already filled out. Some even get a text message with their prepared tax information, and if they respond “yes,” their taxes are done. Andreas Hatzigeorgiou, a chief economist with the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, told PRI that individuals with more involved filings can always spend more time on their taxes, if they like. “If you don’t have any complicated things that you want to do”—like listing business expenses from a sole proprietorship —“it takes you five seconds,” he said.
In any event, getting my taxes done was a fruitful decision in the end. I met two interesting people, had my mom meet me for a bagel, and now have one less to-do on my plate ✅.
As an aside, the conversation with my new acquaintances served as a timely reminder that making new friends is an integral part of life that many of us don’t spend enough time doing. Make sure you get out there and talk to some new people!
An obviously large problem in the U.S. is lack of opportunity for people born into difficult circumstances. Here’s a commonsense program that will likely have immeasurable impacts on the city of Philadelphia and it’s inhabitants:
Temple University on Thursday announced a new program that will make tuition and fees free for first-time, full-time college students from low-income families who live in the city of Philadelphia.
The Temple Promise program would cover costs for students whose families’ adjusted gross income is $65,000 or less and be applied after all other federal, state and scholarship aid is tallied. The new program comes in addition to Temple’s Cecil B. Moore Scholars program, which awards scholarships that cover full tuition at Temple for public school students in eight zip codes in its North Philadelphia neighborhood.
In the 90s and 00s, U.S. fertility hovered right at the replacement rate; since the Great Recession, it has tumbled.
In fact, without immigration, the U.S. labor force would have barely grown at all over the last decade and a half:
Without immigration, our labor force will eventually shrink. A smaller and smaller number of working-age people will be required to support a larger and larger number of retirees — either through eldercare or through taxes. The young generation of America will bear a crushing burden.
In addition, a shrinking America would have a smaller market size, making it a less attractive destination for investment relative to the huge and growing markets of Asia. A deficit of high-skilled immigrants would be particularly harmful, since these workers are a big draw for high-value industries like software, biotech, and advanced manufacturing. Without skilled immigrants, we will have a hard time competing with China’s much larger talent pool.
I would recommend reading the whole piece. I was shocked, frankly, at some of the quotes that Noah dug up for this one. Take for example the following quote from a University of Pennsylvania law professor, highlighting how racist attitudes towards immigration are horrifyingly commonplace in places you might not expect:
Here’s the problem. [Indian immigrants] taught that they are better than everybody else because they are Brahmin elites and yet, on some level, their country is a shithole…They’ve [realized] that [the West has] outgunned and outclassed them in every way… They feel anger. They feel envy. They feel shame. It creates ingratitude of the most monstrous kind.
Legislatures in Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Rhode Island and Tennessee recognized April as financial literacy month.
Idaho established provisions requiring one or more courses in financial literacy for grades nine through 12 in school districts, specially charted districts, and public charter schools throughout the state, effective July 1, 2023. Financial literacy curriculum must include core competencies defined in statute.
West Virginia will require high school students to complete a one-half credit personal finance course during grades 11 or 12, starting with students entering grade nine in the 2024-25 school year.
Small potatoes, maybe. But this is the exact direction U.S. public schools need to be headed.
Why is it that most high school graduates know more about Poseidon than they do about how to save effectively, or what goes into buying a home?
2016 WCF, Game 6
My friend and I were recently chatting about some of our favorite NBA playoff games. There are a few for me where I will simply never forget where I was, who I was with, and the surrounding context of the game.
Flashback to May 28th, 2016, and you will find one such game for me. My friend Chris and I were in Ocean City, Maryland, having a few beers on the boardwalk.
The Golden State Warriors, defending NBA champions, and winners of an NBA all-time record 73 regular season wins, were trying to come back from a 3-1 series deficit against the Oklahoma City Thunder, featuring the duo of Russel Westbrook and Kevin Durant at the peak of their powers.
After winning game 5 at home to bring the series to 3-2, Golden State needed a game 6 road win to keep the series alive. What ensued is simply some of the most heroic shot-making you could ever hope to see, in one of the highest stakes situations you could imagine.
After trading blows back and forth all game, the Thunder had banked an important 8-point lead heading into the fourth quarter. While Steph Curry and the rest of the Warriors were tremendous in the fourth quarter, it was Klay Thompson who snatched the souls of the opposition with his unconscious shooting performance, scoring 19 points in the final frame.
Some of the shots are simply out of this world, given the fatigue that would have set in. Not to mention the pressure of the moment. Thompson finished with a then-record 11 three-point makes in a Playoff game 🎯🎯.
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