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Starting The Day Off Thinking About Taxes

Clare Briggs

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

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10 Responses

  1. Kolohe says:

    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

  2. Jaybird says:

    The paper discussed how much various people paid in taxes?Report

    • Kolohe in reply to Jaybird says:

      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

    • Kolohe in reply to Jaybird says:

      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

  3. Kolohe says:

    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:

      “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:

        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:

          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

  4. Michael Cain says:

    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