Imagine blaming corporations for the tax code when it’s the govt and politicians who are responsible for it.
▪️The irony is if you proposed a truly simple tax code, like everyone owes 10% on whatever they make, the Jon Stewarts of the world would howl and call it unfair. Instead, in the name of fairness, they want a progressive tax code, with a bunch of different brackets.
▪️But wait, having children is a financial burden. Ok, let’s carve out a child tax credit loophole to help parents. What about homeowners, we want to help them, right? Ok, let’s have a mortgage deduction. Wait, that’s unfair to those who rent, so let’s add a renter’s credit, too. And student loans? Those are also burdensome, let’s let borrowers deduct them.
▪️What about childcare expenses? Ok, add another deduction. And it’s unfair people who are self employed have to shoulder business expenses, so let them deduct business expenses. Same with healthcare expenses. And what about people who take care of their elderly parents? Surely they deserve a deduction, too. Heck, let’s just include a standard deduction, just so no one is left out, and let people add up a hundred things to see if they can itemize.
▪️And we want to encourage people to save for their retirement, right? Ok, let’s have a 401K where their contributions aren’t taxed. But limit it to $23K/yr. Oh, but $30.5K for people over 50. Let’s also add loopholes for individual retirement accounts (IRAs). People can contribute, say, $7K, but of course we’ll let those over 50 shelter $8K. Unless they make over $161K/yr.
▪️Surely, we also want people to donate to charity, right? Ok, let’s add a charitable deduction. But only to approved charities, which have to be recognized by the IRS and file their own tax returns. We’ll make a whole new tax code for them so there’s no funny business.
▪️But what about climate change?! We need to move towards renewable energy. Ok, anyone who buys an electric car can get a…$7,500 tax credit. And if you put solar panels on your home…1/3 of that can be a credit. Of course, only wealthier filers can take advantage of these things, but there’s a climate emergency going on.
How dare the corporations make things so complicated!
The reality is that politicians love having a complicated tax code because it ensures special interest lobby them for favors and carveouts. If the code was truly simple, they’d have no power to dole out favors. And while it’s true that poor people don’t get a lot of loopholes, it’s because most poor people pay zero in federal income tax.
I first critiqued this terrible take by looking at how food has actually improved substantially. Even though I said the same could be done in every category, people said “you’re only doing food.” So let’s do air travel and see why it’s not gotten better, not worse.
▪️Aircraft have greatly improved. Just 15-20 years ago, many domestic routes (~15%) were flown by turboprops like the Brasilia, Dash 8 or Saab. Now, almost everything is in jets, and most aircraft have WiFi. Some even have Starlink, where you probably have faster WiFi than your home. Most major airlines offer dozens or hundreds of movies and shows to watch.
▪️Newer designs like the 787 have lower cabin altitudes and improved humidity, which make a huge difference in passenger comfort on long haul flights. The first/business class international market has gotten very competitive globally, with many carriers offering excellent service and amenities. Pods, suites, showers, etc. Coach still sucks but is dramatically cheaper ...
This is the complete opposite of an empirical fact. The right has now joined the left in being pessimistic about the modern world and completely unappreciative of the amazing abundance we now have. I’ll just focus on food here, but you could do it for almost every category.
▪️Fresh produce used to be available only in season. In the winter it was canned or frozen. People used to send fruit for Christmas gifts, it was that much of a luxury good. Now, you can get giant, sweet berries year around in every grocery store. Corn on the cob in February. Not to mention once rare items like dragon fruit, heirloom tomatoes or baby bok choy.
▪️If you didn’t live on the coast, seafood was either not available, frozen, or extremely expensive. If you lived in the Midwest and traveled to coastal locales you would quite literally be able to eat food you had never seen. Salmon has become much more abundant and accessible. You can get fresh ahi at Walmart today. Sushi and oyster bars exist everywhere ...
▪️This is a proposal that pertains only to graduate level nursing degrees, not undergraduate ones (which were never considered professional degrees). The proposal will have a 30-60 day public comment period next year, where groups can object, before the DoE will decide on it.
▪️This is about how much federal student loans someone can take out for a particular degree. The cap on graduate degrees is $100k ($20,500/yr), while a “professional degree” limit is $200k ($50k/yr).
▪️Under the new rule proposal, professional degrees include:
🔹Pharmacy
🔹Dentistry
🔹Veterinary medicine
🔹Chiropractic
🔹Law
🔹Medicine (including osteopathic medicine & podiatry)
🔹Optometry
🔹Theology
▪️The nursing degrees excluded are ones like master of science in nursing (MSN), doctor of nursing practice (DNP) and PhD in nursing. These degrees would be limited to $100k in federal student loans, like all other graduate degrees.
▪️These changes came from the One Big Beautiful Bill’s...
