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This blog is the work of an educated civilian, not of an expert in the fields discussed.

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

I Do Taxes

I did my and someone else's taxes recently.

We both have easy times of it but one other person I do it for is much more complicated (one thing involving pensions and such is truly confusing, the website giving you some sort of chart to fill out).  New York basically requires people to e-file except in certain circumstances though like declaring sales taxes, they don't really enforce it to my knowledge. And, for many, it won't be free using most services. TurboTax to me is pretty good.

A blog post* and the resulting comments led me to opine:
I just did my taxes as well as someone else's so this whole conversation is somewhat topical for me personally. It is striking how many different things pop up in the tax code, in my case three levels of government. Government itself is basically about taxes on some level -- the parliament at core about the power of the purse.

Some years ago, a progressive blog or something reminded us that rich people are rich on the back of us all. It's akin to someone I know upset about needing to pay for local services when he isn't living there. As if the roads etc. do not benefit him. Or, the idea people are paying for health insurance for "doing nothing." Patently absurd.

This talk about democracy underlines, as the House debates the "for the people" voting legislation (see Rick Hasen's piece in Slate), that we are again at a moment essential for the fight of democracy, comparable to the fight for voting rights of blacks and women. The power the rich have these days, ever more so given economic policy over the last few decades, is an important part of this. The discontent that helped elect Trump is real. The problem is to address it without further enriching the plutocracy.
What more attractive person ala Marty Ginsburg will play be in the movie?

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* Dorf on Law is an interesting blog with contributors with very different styles. The person here favors long, rather boring if erudite posts that often focus on economic issues. I like the style of Michael Dorf's posts the best. His wife tends to have more academic posts though her passion shines thru them as well, particularly about gender and animal issues. Eric Segall also comes off as more argumentative and less academic though when he goes into "academic mode," you remember he is a law professor too. 

The commenters are mixed too. One who used to occasionally provide argumentative conservative comments with a bit of venom is now in the Trump Administration. One of at least two I have engaged with online.

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