Happy Tax Day, everyone!
To celebrate, Michael, Rowen, Tim, and I
switched our work days and worked today instead of tomorrow – though that wasn’t
exactly optional for all of us. Rowen
was drafted to help out at the store while here parents were busy; and it was
an option for Michael because his parents were working at the Inn today to help
with the extra business that comes every year on tax day when people don’t want
to worry about food when they’re dealing with other problems.
You might be wondering about whether tax
day is a big deal for our family business, and the answer to that for me,
personally, is an easy ‘no’. I don’t
handle that part of our investment companies, but even if I did, and while we
do have a lot of business in this country; we’re also very diversified around
the world, and the majority of our business isn’t affected by taxes here at
all. That does mean that we deal with
taxes in countries all over the world all the time, though; but Mom keeps up
with all of that for us.
Unless you’re reading this in some
far-distant future when someone has actually gotten around to making taxation
simple and easy, I don’t need to go into a diatribe about how idiotic taxation
is in our country – or most others – so I won’t. Okay, maybe I will for a moment; but only to
suggest that those billions of hours of time wasted on everything to do with
taxes could be put to way more productive uses.
So why don’t we make it easy? My
guess is that most people would freak out at the numbers if we had just one tax
– something like a consumption tax – and nothing else.
Don’t believe me? Do the math.
Last year, for instance; GDP was around seventeen trillion dollars and
total federal, state, and local government spending was about six trillion
dollars. Without getting all messy about
the numbers, or issues that are really stupid – like government employees
paying taxes when their entire income is derived from taxes in the first place –
let’s just call that government expense a third of all GDP. How would you like to have a thirty-three
percent tax on everything you buy?
I’d better stop there before I do go on a
mini-rant and move along.
It was a bit warmer today, but it’s
supposed to be much nicer tomorrow; so there’s something else that’s good about
switching our work days up this week.
That meant that I needed to work harder tonight than I do on Wednesdays
because we also had band practice after school; but that’s okay – and I’m still
going to be sleeping before midnight anyway.
Okay, I did need to cheat a bit to make that happen; but then Mom, Ethan,
and Ehlana took advantage of my time-phase to do extra work or studying too –
and I made up even more time than usual because Mom let that time-phase
practice be my Magi lesson tonight.
Yes, it is very tiring keeping an entire
room with four people in a time-phase; but it’s also really cool too.
Other than that news, I really don’t have
that much to report tonight that’s particularly newsworthy. The cold weather kept us indoors for Tai Chi;
with Dad in the city, we just went with a cereal and juice or coffee breakfast;
and it was a fairly quiet day around school.
Playing Easter-themed songs at band practice was fun, but our
after-school study session was as short as we could make it so that Rowen and
Michael could help their parents as soon as possible. Dinner was quick and easy, and so was the
clean-up; and I’ve already covered the only highlight from our work and study
evening in the office.
We did a bedtime chat with Dad while
getting Ethan and Ehlana ready for bed; Mom’s now winding down in the Jacuzzi;
and I’ve been tucked in with Mandy since about ten minutes after getting up
here to my room. My nightly computing
didn’t take long tonight, and I don’t have anything worth mentioning from any
of that; so I guess that’s all I have for you tonight. That’s a good thing too, since I’m pretty
much exhausted now and ready to get some sleep.
Until next time…
…Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the
Light!
