I do sleep better at night knowing the military at least puts thought into many diverse potential threats. Maybe people are reading a bit too much into the Pentagon's certainty of this outcome. They study _lots_ of things that are potential threats. It doesn't mean they have certainty that they will happen. But yes, it should give pause that they expect at least some of the enumerated possibilities to occur. And yes, if the potential warrants more budget, then so be it. We don't live in a world where everything is 100% predictable and known, but we can prepare and adapt, or even preempt.

Not true either: https://cotap.org/per-capita-c...

What surprised me was Australia.

Most of Europe is about half of where we are. Frank and UK notably lower (high proportion of nuclear power.)

It is great marketing to use the 'free filing' phrase even though you still pay for the software box. Kinda like going to a restaurant where you pay for your meal, but the waiter will submit the order to the cook 'for free'

Been there, done that. Add-in normal life events and you eventually fall off the DIY wagon.

Exactly. Not everyone values time as much as they should.

We've been brainwashed into thinking any of those situations need to be complex. The tax law patchwork simply codifies that.

They make assurances about 'audit protection', but I'm pretty sure that is a hollow promise.

I suspect you are British or Canadian based on your spelling of offense? Maybe they are more forgiving than the IRS. There are penalties beyond the interest for making mistakes honestly or otherwise..

I used to do that. It was educational and entertaining, but still a waste of time. (time is money)
Also, not allowed to submit paper forms anymore in many states (yeah, I know this is about the Federal filing, but they are related.) Just wait until that reaches the Federal level.

Simple is very limited. If you have anything like a savings account, aunt Ida's inheritance, homeowner, etc., you may be forced out of the simple case. Whether the law specifically limits the simple case or not; you have to work through a provider that is not going to make the free option easy to find. Alternately, the fly-by-night free filing services may not be trustworthy with your privacy.
Just out of curiosity, why didn't the simple return apply to you as well?

Yes, and this for-profit industry makes sure as many people as possible fall into that category. They want to give the illusion that only applies to some, or that they will find some magical loophole for you. But none of this should be necessary for individuals.

This, exactly. I get tired of the liberals' comparisons to 'other developed nations' (however that is selected) on an array of issues. While, in fact, 'other developed nations' have major restrictions that are quietly omitted.

Maybe a literal wooden model is a silly way to look at it, but at least in some figurative sense it shouldn't be a patent on something speculative that is still basically unsolved. It doesn't have to be a useful device per se, just that the specific claims are actually embodied in a working form now with the technology claimed. i.e. producing a specific microscopic material. Lying about results should be a specific criminal offense (besides just fraud), i.e Theranos. It is too easy to troll a wide range of industries with a vague idea, then leech off others' work when they resolve the specific efforts of an actual implementation.

Competing businesses at least have to make some token effort to win your trust. Socialism isn't the utopia people want it to be in this regard when consumers have no choices.

Failure to appear _is_ a big deal in the US. Watch LivePD sometime, seems like 50% of what cops do is pick people up on bench warrants. The thing is, most of those people admit they knowingly missed their court date.

They key is how much reasonable effort the system attempts to inform people of those dates. If discovering your court date is set up as an Orwellian nightmare (seems to be the case in the UK from documentaries I've seen), vs. the US where the court date and jurisdiction is most likely printed right on the violation ticket at the time of issue. Or at least the court has a phone / email / web contact of some form.

If people only acted openly in their own best interest it might actually be easier to resolve. The problem is people build a mental groupthink coalition with topics that really don't matter to them, or even work against their own benefit.

That seems like part of it. But it depends on the motives of the individual. Otherwise, people would just be willing to admit things are complicated and they don't know the whole answer.

If you are a part of the political machine, then it is all about building a coalition. It doesn't matter how unrelated the issues are, all that matters is to get more groups of voters in your camp that are hopefully not infighting. Get them all to agree with a common set of values; it's not so random. This is more like a jigsaw puzzle being assembled deliberately. Maybe the pieces seem random, but it is no random accident they were put together.

For people arguing for their economic benefit (or convincing others to act on their behalf), its not hard to see how quickly these seemingly random issues align with profit motives over the benefit of civilization.

Same thing for various other voters driven by some ideology: religion, civics, environmentalism, pacifism, etc. Whatever their motives, the arrows all point in the same direction regardless of reasoning on the individual topics.