Stanford Professor Loses Political Battle To Simplify Tax Filing Process

Re:Stanford Professor Loses Political Battle To Simplify Tax... by mfukar on Thursday March 30, 2017 @04:27AM (#13993771)

> Grover Norquist, the well known promoter of the "Taxpayer Protection Pledge" took the counterintuitive view that just making the process easier equated to a new tax, since taxpayers might end up paying taxes already on the books that they might have previously unintentionally evaded.

I just fail to understand the logic exercised by some US residents. Norquist's argument is insane, and if you're not only trying to be kind to it and not call it as such, your stance towards it seems insane to me too.

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Re:Stanford Professor Loses Political Battle To Simplify Tax... by mannykannot on Thursday March 30, 2017 @08:05AM (#13994630)

Welcome to Alternative Rationality, in which an argument is taken to be a sound one if it has the style of one.

Like Alternative Truth, it has probably been around forever, but what seems to be changing is that the users of these techniques are no longer embarrassed by saying the most ridiculous things, and there is effectively no downside for a politician or lobbyist in doing so.

I have heard that the US SAT essay test scoring guidelines progressively reduced emphasis on judging content (to avoid cultural bias) in favor of judging style (to be fair, this may have changed in the 2016 overhaul.) If so, then, as teachers do teach to the test, this could only have harmed critical thinking.

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Re:Stanford Professor Loses Political Battle To Simplify Tax... by mfukar on Thursday March 30, 2017 @09:46AM (#13995273)

Does embarrassment really have to do anything with it? Whatever motivates somebody to lie is obviously stronger than shame.

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