Pension-Smoothing

Pension-smoothing is a silly gimmick.  But it's a red herring.

Okay, yes, pretty much no one thinks it's a good idea.

It's dumb.  And wasteful.

Of course, the real solution is to raise taxes on gasoline, right?  Though that wouldn't solve the problem of people driving less, or the "problem" of more fuel efficient cars. (Problem?)

No, the real solution is to stop looting the highway trust fund for pork barrel projects, and use it for maintenance.  At present, 40% of the Fed's highway trust fund goes to "earmarked programs."

Stop that.  Easy peasey.

Here's the thing:  the states are supposed to pay for maintenance of the highway system.  And the STATE taxes are more than double the Fed excise tax.  The states you would expect (CA, CT, MI) all charge more than TRIPLE the Fed rate.  And these states all loot that money and use it to buy votes from developers and corporations.

There's this canard:  the rate of gas taxes has fallen, adjusted for inflation.  Well, the Fed tax rate has fallen, because all they do is use it to build bridges to nowhere.  It's just a slush fund for payoffs to campaign contributors.  The average rate of state gas tax was 20 cents/gallon in 2002.  It's 31 cents/gallon in 2014.  That's a 55% increase, in 12 years.  Inflation is only a 33% increase over that period.  The point being that state gas taxes have increased more than 20%, adjusted for inflation, since 2002.  Why do we need to raise gas taxes?

The answer is that politicians use your tax money to buy votes.  And they can never, ever have enough.  Votes, that is.

Just spend the actual money that we already raise on roads.  Take the 40% of the Fed highway trust fund that's spent on pork, and spend it on maintenance.  Stop enabling the states to use gas taxes for anything except roads.  We collect plenty of taxes for roads.  We just don't use it for roads.

Gas taxes are a pretty good example of a "user fee."  You pay more if you use more, and the money can be used to provide the service.  Except that, to paraphrase Gary Trudeau, "But the highway trust fund was just sitting there!"

Yogurt Tax

The District of Columbia is considering a "yoga tax," which is strange enough.

But Marion Barry is protesting the "yogurt tax," because yogurt is healthy and it's a breakfast food.  He does admit that it's a problem that 10 year old girls have "fully developed breasts," though, from the hormones in....wait, I'm lost.  I don't understand what fully developed breasts have to do with the burpee fence.

The snake eating its own tail?

The symbol of the snake eating its own tail is ancient.  The idea of this kind of circle is appealing, because it is so paradoxical.

So...Obamacare imposed a new tax.  But then panicked, because the tax would have to be paid, and if someone has to pay something they can't claim that their chosen role as Santa is viable.  Santa claims he doesn't like naughty kids, but in fact even the naughty kids want to keep stackin' that paper.

So, the plan is to pay the tax that is being charged to finance Obamacare.  But then who will pay the tax that will be used to finance the subsidies that go to pay the tax that was supposed to finance Obamacare?  Ummmmm.......tail.

I bet I kin break 10,000 aigs....

Remember that scene from "Cool Hand Luke," where he bets he can eat 100 eggs?  This is a remix, I guess you'd call it, but it's pretty great:  "When it come to the law, NOTHING is understood."



French farmers went one better:  They bet they could break 10,000 eggs.  Outside a tax office.  To protest low prices.  (Note:  not to protest high taxes, to protest low prices.  Even though higher prices would in effect be a higher tax, on everyone else.  Gotta love Gallic logic.)

The French version.  An English translation (sort of). M.K. offers this interpretation (edited a bit, don't blame him):

It announces breathlessly that some goods will be on sale from June 26 to July 30.  Note that also that certain "economic zones" are excluded from this, and their sales dates are different, being carefully rotated in accordance with the....MASTER...PLAN! If you live in Guyana, you'll have to wait until October 3 for your cheap socks. 

The paragraph below the list notes that, thanks to the Economic Modernization Act (lol) the number of days for permitted discounts has been restricted. Now you know why the French drink, and smoke those ridiculous cigarettes.

And then, M.K. offers this lagniappe: Apparently in highly competitive or struggling businesses, the final weeks leading up to the sale period is a time of rising bankruptcies due to shrinking cash flows amplified by consumer hold-back and retailers' inability to lower prices to save their bacon...  

Rent-Seeking: Examples 457 and 458

Amazing.  Also totally unsurprising.

Imagine filing your income taxes in five minutes — and for free. You'd open up a pre-filled return, see what the government thinks you owe, make any needed changes and be done. The miserable annual IRS shuffle, gone. 

It's already a reality in Denmark, Sweden and Spain. The government-prepared return would estimate your taxes using information your employer and bank already send it. Advocates say tens of millions of taxpayers could use such a system each year, saving them a collective $2 billion and 225 million hours in prep costs and time, according to one estimate. 

The idea, known as "return-free filing," would be a voluntary alternative to hiring a tax preparer or using commercial tax software. The concept has been around for decades and has been endorsed by both President Ronald Reagan and a campaigning President Obama. "This is not some pie-in-the-sky that's never been done before," said William Gale, co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. "It's doable, feasible, implementable, and at a relatively low cost." 

 So why hasn't it become a reality? Well, for one thing, it doesn't help that it's been opposed for years by the company behind the most popular consumer tax software — Intuit, maker of TurboTax. Conservative tax activist Grover Norquist and an influential computer industry group also have fought return-free filing. Intuit has spent about $11.5 million on federal lobbying in the past five years — more than Apple or Amazon. Although the lobbying spans a range of issues, Intuit's disclosures pointedly note that the company "opposes IRS government tax preparation."

"Government tax preparation"?  Seriously?  That's absolutely breathtaking.  In Chile, they send you a bill.  You pay the bill, or you can figure it out yourself and appeal it.  Either way, it takes about 20 minutes.

ATSRTWT

Example 458:  A nanny "bill of rights."  The effect of which will be to make it impossible to hire nannies, forcing people to use much more expensive means of child care, all of which benefit unions and the health care cartel.

Smokin' Hot Policy Choices

Two studies on tobacco control policies.  Interesting.  Pretty long, though, so I put them after the jump.

California was a friend of mine. Maryland, you are no California.

 California may be able to get away with constantly increasing taxes, because it's beautiful.  Or would be, except for the fact that it's full of Californians.  

 But Maryland?  The urban parts are a dungheap.  Now wonder people are baling out.  Maryland apparently wants to be the new Michigan.

Lagarde unguarded in the Guardian

Mister Burns, er, a freakishly tan IMF chief Christine Lagarde gave a fascinating interview on, among other things, her views about the Greek debt crisis.

Here's a great excerpt:

So when she studies the Greek balance sheet and demands measures she knows may mean women won't have access to a midwife when they give birth, and patients won't get life-saving drugs, and the elderly will die alone for lack of care – does she block all of that out and just look at the sums?

 "No, I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger who get teaching two hours a day, sharing one chair for three of them, and who are very keen to get an education. I have them in my mind all the time. Because I think they need even more help than the people in Athens." 


She breaks off for a pointedly meaningful pause, before leaning forward. "Do you know what? As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax." 


 Even more than she thinks about all those now struggling to survive without jobs or public services? "I think of them equally. And I think they should also help themselves collectively." How? "By all paying their tax. Yeah." 


 It sounds as if she's essentially saying to the Greeks and others in Europe, you've had a nice time and now it's payback time. "That's right." She nods calmly. "Yeah." 


And what about their children, who can't conceivably be held responsible? "Well, hey, parents are responsible, right? So parents have to pay their tax."

Wow, ok. So taxes fix every thing eh, Christine?

And, while the sentiment on poor children in Niger is quite noble, the IMF doesn't do squat about education in Niger. A restructuring/forgiveness of Greek debt is not going to cut aid to Niger.

The IMF was asleep at the wheel as Greece loaded up on debt and became totally uncompetitive. The IMF was asleep at the wheel as the Eurozone drifted into untenability. Now its head is blaming the Greek people and implying that if they'd just do the right thing and pay their taxes, there would not be a problem.

And that's pretty much a pile of horsesh*t.