Tax Bamboozle

This is a post-tax reflection.


Why do the pols continue to blow smoke up the asses of the American people? The basic issue of taxes and how to raise revenue are not hard to understand, yet they are never discussed. The reason being that the top 1%-5% benefit from not clarifying what are really simple issues. Keep in mind who is in the top 1-5%.


1) There is a difference between the marginal tax rates (which the President wants to raise on the top 2%) and the effective tax rate which is never mentioned. The effective tax rate is the percentage of taxable income that is actually paid after deductions. So, if you cap deductions at a certain amount (e,g, $30,000) or eliminate deductions (like mortgage interest, contributions, state property taxes, etc.) without raising the marginal tax rates, the effective tax rates will go up and the government can raise more revenue.


2) Now why would the President, the politicians, and the rest of the high earners, who know the difference between effective and marginal rates, dwell on being for or against raising the marginal rates and resist eliminating deductions? If you eliminate deductions (individual and corporate) you will raise the effective tax rate. Could this debate over marginal rates be a big smoke screen to keep from discussing effective rates.


3) Could the silence on this matter be the fact that the Presidents effective tax rate was 26% while his marginal tax rate was 35% (or whatever the top bracket is). Could the answer be in the fact that probably every member of Congress, every major media owner/manager/anchor/etc. also have lower effective tax rates than their marginal rate, and thus do not want to eliminate or cap deductions at $30,000 and keep the marginal rates as is. Why doesn't the President tell Joe the Plumber the difference between effective and marginal tax rates. And by the way, we wonder where Warren Buffet is on this one; he is very concerned about his secretary's income but he is silent on deductions.


4) Our effective tax rate was higher than the Presidents, and probably higher that Romney, Buffet, or any member of Congress.


When we were kids we could always smell the horse manure because there were still horse-drawn vendors on the street. Today, the horses are gone but the smell is still there. 

Professional Advancement -- Academic Style

This is a summary of offers for academic positions that were received over a 50-year career. Letters are available.


"No amount of having starred/
Atones for later disregard/
Or keeps the end from being hard."       Robert Frost


1963: Faculty position, University of California, Berkeley
1963: Faculty position, Colorado State University
1963: Faculty position, Cornell University
1963: Faculty position, Kent State University
1964: Faculty position, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
1964: Faculty position, University of Waterloo-Canada
1964: Faculty position, Antioch College
1964: Faculty position, University of Nebraska
1965: Faculty position, University of Wisconsin-Madison (visited,
          offer received and refused).
1965: Faculty Position, Dartmouth College
1965: Faculty position, University of Delaware
1965: Faculty position, University of Illinois-Urbana
1966: Faculty position, University of California-Santa Barbara
1966: Faculty position, State University of New York-Stony Brook (visited,
          offer received and refused).
1967: Faculty position, School of Education, Stanford University
1968: Faculty position, Vanderbilt University (visited, offer received
          and refused).
1968: Faculty position, Tufts University
1969: Chair, Illinois State University
1971: Chair, University of Maryland-College Park (visited, offer received
          and refused).
1971: Faculty position, Ohio State University
1971: Chair, University of Nebraska
1971: Chair, University of Missouri
1971: Chair, Kent State University
1971: Chair, Lehigh University
1971 Faculty position, Michigan State University
1971: Chair, State University of New York-Binghamton
1972: Faculty position, Boston University
1972: Chair, Tufts University
1972: Faculty position, Indiana University
1973: Faculty position, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
1973: Chair, University of Delaware
1973: Faculty position, University of Maryland-College Park
1973: Chair, University of Utah
1979: Chair, Florida State University
1980: Chair, Michigan State University (Carolyn visited, offer received
          and refused).
1981: Dean, College of Liberal Arts, University of Kansas
1982: Chair, University of South Florida


CONCLUSION: After all of the above, we remained at Purdue for 50 years. WHY? It was the age of nepotism in higher education. All offers refused were because RP and CCP could not be on the faculty in the same department; the positions offered were in sociology and something else. Purdue was alone at the time for not having a nepotism rule. So much for conservatism at Purdue!