Another institution bites the dust? I used to gobble up Reader’s Digest at college. Then the articles got a little too cute, too much family, not enough fact. Maybe I’m not all that enthralled by articles about surviving breast cancer. So I switched to reading just “Life’s Like That” and the page-bottom clips. Even then, only in the grocery checkout. For me, magazines and cars are some of those things that should go down in price over time, so I never bought them much. Looks like nobody else did either. Reader’s Digest about to tank.You know, I forgot to tell you last time I was in Borders, there were magazines with $15 and $17 price tags. (Maybe we’ll have to wait until they come out in hardcover?) In this day and age, if you can’t produce a quality rag for under $3, maybe it is time to learn about this new invention called the Internet. Mind you, there was a revealing documentary on food prices this morning. The largest component of the price is now distribution. It costs more to package and ship the food than to grow it. Maybe publishers have the same dilemma, and that is why they began cheaping out on basic quality.
Eddie never showed for rehearsal, giving me time to do some advanced tax planning. Don’t say it isn’t fun until you try it. There is a great satisfaction in arranging your affairs to pay the very least tax possible. This reminds of when I worked for a Canadian company and tax planning was frowned upon amongst the employees. In fact, there was at one time a law in Canada saying that it was illegal to even plan to avoid taxes. Then some Eastern judge, in a surprise move, ruled that doing so was not only legal, it was a good idea. He was never heard from again. No, I’m not kidding. He wasn’t murdered in cold blood, but his career was.
I hated the Canadian tax system because it was based on the make-believe premise of the nuclear family. That is something I think no government should stick its nose into for tax purposes or otherwise. In Canada it was particularly disgusting because nuclear families have been in the minority for what, fifty or more years. That means the “average” Canuck family does not have a father and a mother and 2.7 children. Yet that is who got all the tax cuts and it pervades all of Canadian society. Even bus fare, theater tickets and fees for the State, pardon me Provincial, Parks. But like many other things in Canada, even though these families are a minority, they are a larger group than any other minority (except the French) and in their voting system, that allows them to shove their greedy paws down everybody else’s throats.
It has become so disgusting that the Canadian Tax Act now has something like 45 different “definitions” of family (read “dependents”). A child is a dependent for tax purposes (meaning a tax cut) until 18, or if a student, until 24, or if disabled until 24 even if not a student, but not married unless disabled. If you find the family clauses fun to follow, you should see the Canadian definition of a “resident for tax purposes”.
I am a very “user pay” believer. You got six kids, you pay for six kids. You got six kids in public school, you pay three times the school tax rate of the couple with a reasonable two kids. They say the government should not regulate family size, but the fact is they already are for all these wrong reasons. It is disgusting that the highest producers in society, single men, have to pay the highest taxes for social programs they don’t qualify for. Last I heard, having kids was voluntary, so nobody beyond those involved in the decision should have to pay a penny over it. And I’ll wager anyone who thinks otherwise is related to someone on welfare.
I realize we have a similar tax structure in the USA. But I’d like to point out that in total, I pay only one-sixth as much tax as on a similar income in Canada. It costs generally ten bucks per carload to enter a park, most admission discounts are based on age, not family relationships, and yes, like the majority of Americans, I have medical.
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