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Starting The Day Off Thinking About Taxes

by Clare Briggs · April 8, 2019

Tags: How To Start The Day Off Wrong taxes

Clare Briggs

Clare Briggs is a famous cartoonist who lived from 1875 to 1930. Poems by Wilbur Nesbitt.

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Kolohe says:

April 8, 2019 at 9:22 am

Found this*, a 40k-50k tax bill in 1924 means a salary of somewhat under 100K to about 150k in those dollars, and 1.2-1.8 million in today’s dollars.

(eta – also I’m pretty sure my marginal rate calculation is off, so the salary numbers are a hair lower)

*didn’t double check the numbers, source definitely has an agenda, though it doesn’t at all mean he’s wrongReport
Jaybird says:

April 8, 2019 at 10:08 am

The paper discussed how much various people paid in taxes?Report
- Kolohe in reply to Jaybird says:
  
  April 8, 2019 at 11:07 am
  
  My county’s public library allows access to the NYT & WaPo online archives with a borrower account. Here’s something I found; I’m trying to link to it from outside any paywalls, but I don’t how how much you can see.Report
  - Jaybird in reply to Kolohe says:
    
    April 8, 2019 at 11:10 am
    
    Huh.
    
    I don’t know if that’s a horrible thing that I’m glad we don’t do anymore or a terrific thing that we need to bring back.Report
- Kolohe in reply to Jaybird says:
  
  April 8, 2019 at 11:13 am
  
  Here’s another one (1926)
  
  FRENCH CHAMBER VOTES INCOME PUBLICITY; Lists Will Be Posted in Income Tax Offices and Published in Some Form.
  
  PARIS, Feb. 4. — France is going to follow the example set by the United States and publish the lists of income tax payments. It is not likely that in this country of four-page newspapers the publicity will be extensive, but the principle is acknowledged that instead of being a secret to be guarded by the income tax collector every man’s payment will be a matter of public interest and the lists will be posted in the income tax offices and published in some form or other.
  
  Report
Kolohe says:

April 8, 2019 at 11:16 am

Skimming some of the archives on that same search results page, one criticism against the publishing the tax lists was that it was a ready made list of people with money so that scam artists could more easily target those people in various confidence schemes.Report
- Jaybird in reply to Kolohe says:
  
  April 8, 2019 at 11:19 am
  
  “Does the fact that something *MIGHT* happen really outweigh the need of the public to know?” would be, I imagine, the ready-made counter-argument.
  
  Because, at the end of the day, the fundamental argument is about privacy and whether people should have it.Report
  - Kolohe in reply to Jaybird says:
    
    April 8, 2019 at 11:40 am
    
    It wasn’t just theoretical; the tax list was apparently a prospective client cold call list for every stock market manipulator of the twenties.Report
    - DavidTC in reply to Kolohe says:
      
      April 8, 2019 at 2:19 pm
      
      All thing being equal, wouldn’t we _rather_ scam artists go after the wealthy than the poor?
      
      If we assume that the scam artists are going to continue to work regardless of whether they have a good list or not, surely the wealthy can afford the losses better.Report
Michael Cain says:

April 8, 2019 at 3:26 pm

When I worked for the state as an exempt employee (salaried rather than hourly, not subject to overtime limits) my salary was published annually. Or at least something approximating my salary — I don’t think the published figure was ever right.Report