Friday, March 03, 2017
A Tax Based on Skin Color, Gender, and Sexual Orientation?
An unidentified author at Wesplain has proposed an “equality tax” designed to “level the economic playing field.” According to the author, minorities suffer economically because of “racist employers, a disproportionate targeting of minorities by law enforcement, racial wage gaps, poor inner city schools.”
The proposal is that “the privileged should pay more.” The author concedes, “I don’t know how much more, but it must be more.” The author then suggests, “Let’s start at 5% . . . Certainly, the privileged can stand to spare 5% with all of their economic advantages.” Five percent of what? The computation used by the author to calculate the revenue reflects 5% of the federal income taxes paid by “white Americans.” The revenue would be distributed to those with “non-Caucasian race status.” The author also proposes that the 5% rate would apply only to “single heterosexual Caucasian males,” whereas a 4.5% rate would be applied to “single heterosexual Caucasian females,” a 4% tax to “married heterosexual Caucasian family,” and a 3% tax to “non-cisgender Caucasian.”
This proposal is a magnificent example of what happens when emotional reactions to a problem trump the use of reasoning. Let’s look at the proposal more closely.
First, there is no question that “racist employers, a disproportionate targeting of minorities by law enforcement, racial wage gaps, poor inner city schools” cause economic woes, and that those woes are borne almost entirely by minorities. But that does not mean that all minorities are afflicted by economic woes. There are minorities of every background who are economically successful, and some are economically privileged. Does it make sense to permit the economically privilege to share in tax revenue designed to shift wealth from the economically privileged? Of course not.
Second, if “the privileged should pay more,” and perhaps they should, identification of “the privileged” ought to be based on something that measures privilege. Income and wealth, demonstrated by asset holdings, income statements, and lifestyle, measure privilege. So, too, does being left alone by authorities when committing a crime, receiving weak sentences when convicted of crimes, and having doors opened because of family wealth. Those benefits of being privileged mesh with wealth and income.
Third, there are people in this country who are not privileged, who suffer from poor schools and poor health, who are unemployed, and who struggle economically, and yet who are not minorities. The array of mostly white, rural, and economically distressed individuals who shifted their traditional voting allegiances are proof enough that income and wealth inequality don’t afflict only those who are not white. Does it make sense to shift money from economically unprivileged non-minorities to privileged minorities?
Fourth, aside from the absurdity of equating “privilege” with “white” and “non-privilege” with “minorities,” how does one define a minority? The unidentified author of the article uses the word “Caucasian.” What does that mean? Who is Caucasian? Is Barack Obama Caucasian because his mother is “white” or a minority because his father is “black”? If, as many people conclude, he is black and not white because he allegedly “identifies as black,” does that mean he is not privileged? Would he be eligible to receive a slice of the revenue stream proposed by the unidentified author? He is far from alone, in terms of being bi-racial or tri-racial, and though some individuals with multiple racial ancestry are in dire economic straits, others are not.
Fifth, why the assumption that women necessarily are less privileged than men? There are women who are far more economically privileged than many men. Should Betsy DeVos pay a lower rate because she is a woman even though she is drowning in money?
Sixth, why the assumption that non-cisgender individuals should pay an even lower rate? Again, there are individuals who are non-cisgender who are economically privileged, and there are those who are not. Should Caitlyn Jenner pay a lower rate because she is non-cisgender even though she is not economically distressed and certainly is afforded privilege unavailable to most Americans?
Seventh, the unidentified author claims that the economic success of the privileged “was only made possible by the blood and sweat of minorities.” Does that mean “minorities” include the Irish who worked for almost nothing on canals and railroads to enrich the robber barons of the late nineteenth century? Does that mean “minorities” include the Italians who labored for peanuts in mills and on construction sites to enrich the manufacturing real estate barons of the early twentieth century? Does that mean “minorities” include the Poles who worked for scraps in the stockyards of Chicago? Those are just three of many examples of how minorities as described by the unidentified author, namely, non-Caucasians, do not have a monopoly on being oppressed and marginalized.
Whoever at Wesplain fits within the word “We” explains that they contacted the author of the article to answer a question. The author responded “that if you were born white, but identify as a different race or otherkin, you would not void from paying” the tax, though proof of “this transformation” would need to be “genuine.” How does someone generate genuine proof that they have transformed into a dragon or butterfly? Presumably, the same “self declaration” would apply to sexual orientation. Who would audit these claims? How would their validity be determined? Would the revenue officials investigate the sexual behavior of individuals to determine if their self-declared sexual orientation was genuine?
The underlying flaw in the author’s proposal is a reasoning defect that has led to the very inequities of which the author complains. To conclude that all Caucasians are privileged, that all women are not privileged as much as men who are privileged, and that all non-straight non-Caucasian individuals are not privileged is to exhibit the same sort of gross overgeneralization and specificity deficiency that appears in statements claiming that all people of a particular race or ethnicity are thugs, rapists, or criminals, or that all persons of a particular sexual orientation are diseased, perverted, or dangerous.
There is no doubt that the inequities described by the unidentified author exist. Those inequities are not caused or exacerbated by race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. They are caused by two major socio-economic conditions. One is income and wealth inequality. The other is ignorance. The solution is two-fold. First, educate people so that they learn to stop over-generalizing based on singular events and anecdotes. Second, reduce income and wealth inequality.
The unidentified author laments that “With the republicans in power and the rise of the alt-right, this new tax initiative is sure to enrage the privileged.” Actually, the proposal will not enrage the privilege. They simply will laugh because they know it will go nowhere. But it will enrage those who enabled and continue to enable the privileged and the alt-right, because it is the very sort of poorly developed analysis that generates fear among those who, rightly or wrongly, feel unappreciated and marginalized.
Ignorance and analytical deficiency are sad things. They produce nothing of value.
The proposal is that “the privileged should pay more.” The author concedes, “I don’t know how much more, but it must be more.” The author then suggests, “Let’s start at 5% . . . Certainly, the privileged can stand to spare 5% with all of their economic advantages.” Five percent of what? The computation used by the author to calculate the revenue reflects 5% of the federal income taxes paid by “white Americans.” The revenue would be distributed to those with “non-Caucasian race status.” The author also proposes that the 5% rate would apply only to “single heterosexual Caucasian males,” whereas a 4.5% rate would be applied to “single heterosexual Caucasian females,” a 4% tax to “married heterosexual Caucasian family,” and a 3% tax to “non-cisgender Caucasian.”
This proposal is a magnificent example of what happens when emotional reactions to a problem trump the use of reasoning. Let’s look at the proposal more closely.
First, there is no question that “racist employers, a disproportionate targeting of minorities by law enforcement, racial wage gaps, poor inner city schools” cause economic woes, and that those woes are borne almost entirely by minorities. But that does not mean that all minorities are afflicted by economic woes. There are minorities of every background who are economically successful, and some are economically privileged. Does it make sense to permit the economically privilege to share in tax revenue designed to shift wealth from the economically privileged? Of course not.
Second, if “the privileged should pay more,” and perhaps they should, identification of “the privileged” ought to be based on something that measures privilege. Income and wealth, demonstrated by asset holdings, income statements, and lifestyle, measure privilege. So, too, does being left alone by authorities when committing a crime, receiving weak sentences when convicted of crimes, and having doors opened because of family wealth. Those benefits of being privileged mesh with wealth and income.
Third, there are people in this country who are not privileged, who suffer from poor schools and poor health, who are unemployed, and who struggle economically, and yet who are not minorities. The array of mostly white, rural, and economically distressed individuals who shifted their traditional voting allegiances are proof enough that income and wealth inequality don’t afflict only those who are not white. Does it make sense to shift money from economically unprivileged non-minorities to privileged minorities?
Fourth, aside from the absurdity of equating “privilege” with “white” and “non-privilege” with “minorities,” how does one define a minority? The unidentified author of the article uses the word “Caucasian.” What does that mean? Who is Caucasian? Is Barack Obama Caucasian because his mother is “white” or a minority because his father is “black”? If, as many people conclude, he is black and not white because he allegedly “identifies as black,” does that mean he is not privileged? Would he be eligible to receive a slice of the revenue stream proposed by the unidentified author? He is far from alone, in terms of being bi-racial or tri-racial, and though some individuals with multiple racial ancestry are in dire economic straits, others are not.
Fifth, why the assumption that women necessarily are less privileged than men? There are women who are far more economically privileged than many men. Should Betsy DeVos pay a lower rate because she is a woman even though she is drowning in money?
Sixth, why the assumption that non-cisgender individuals should pay an even lower rate? Again, there are individuals who are non-cisgender who are economically privileged, and there are those who are not. Should Caitlyn Jenner pay a lower rate because she is non-cisgender even though she is not economically distressed and certainly is afforded privilege unavailable to most Americans?
Seventh, the unidentified author claims that the economic success of the privileged “was only made possible by the blood and sweat of minorities.” Does that mean “minorities” include the Irish who worked for almost nothing on canals and railroads to enrich the robber barons of the late nineteenth century? Does that mean “minorities” include the Italians who labored for peanuts in mills and on construction sites to enrich the manufacturing real estate barons of the early twentieth century? Does that mean “minorities” include the Poles who worked for scraps in the stockyards of Chicago? Those are just three of many examples of how minorities as described by the unidentified author, namely, non-Caucasians, do not have a monopoly on being oppressed and marginalized.
Whoever at Wesplain fits within the word “We” explains that they contacted the author of the article to answer a question. The author responded “that if you were born white, but identify as a different race or otherkin, you would not void from paying” the tax, though proof of “this transformation” would need to be “genuine.” How does someone generate genuine proof that they have transformed into a dragon or butterfly? Presumably, the same “self declaration” would apply to sexual orientation. Who would audit these claims? How would their validity be determined? Would the revenue officials investigate the sexual behavior of individuals to determine if their self-declared sexual orientation was genuine?
The underlying flaw in the author’s proposal is a reasoning defect that has led to the very inequities of which the author complains. To conclude that all Caucasians are privileged, that all women are not privileged as much as men who are privileged, and that all non-straight non-Caucasian individuals are not privileged is to exhibit the same sort of gross overgeneralization and specificity deficiency that appears in statements claiming that all people of a particular race or ethnicity are thugs, rapists, or criminals, or that all persons of a particular sexual orientation are diseased, perverted, or dangerous.
There is no doubt that the inequities described by the unidentified author exist. Those inequities are not caused or exacerbated by race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. They are caused by two major socio-economic conditions. One is income and wealth inequality. The other is ignorance. The solution is two-fold. First, educate people so that they learn to stop over-generalizing based on singular events and anecdotes. Second, reduce income and wealth inequality.
The unidentified author laments that “With the republicans in power and the rise of the alt-right, this new tax initiative is sure to enrage the privileged.” Actually, the proposal will not enrage the privilege. They simply will laugh because they know it will go nowhere. But it will enrage those who enabled and continue to enable the privileged and the alt-right, because it is the very sort of poorly developed analysis that generates fear among those who, rightly or wrongly, feel unappreciated and marginalized.
Ignorance and analytical deficiency are sad things. They produce nothing of value.
Thursday, September 02, 2021
To Tax Snitch or Not Tax Snitch?
For years, the IRS has had in place a tax whistleblower program, under which it makes payments to persons who provide information that the IRS uses to collect taxes otherwise being evaded. The program is established under Internal Revenue Code section 7623(b). There are various procedural rules for filing a claim for the reward, a list of individuals ineligible to participate (mostly tax and other officials), and rules for computing the amount of the award. To qualify for an award, the information provided to the IRS must relate to a tax noncompliance matter in which the tax, penalties, interest, additions to tax, and additional proceeds in dispute exceed $2,000,000; and relate to a taxpayer, and for individual taxpayers only, one whose gross income exceeds $200,000 for at least one of the tax years in question. In addition, if the information does not qualify for an award under section 7823(b), the IRS has discretion to make an award under section 7623(a), which provides the IRS with wide-open discretion. The program is successful, with the IRS collecting more the $5.9 billion between 2007 and 2020, and paying more than $1 billion in awards.
But some people don’t like the idea of being ratted out. According to this story, the finance minister of Baden-Wuerttemberg state in Germany proposed a plan to let people make anonymous tips about tax evaders. In response, he was subjected to hate mail, including racist tweets, as well as accusations of proposing totalitarian measures. Critics likened the idea to Nazi and Stasi practices. According to the story, “In Germany, tax evasion is considered a widely practiced ‘national sport.’” Apparently those engaging in tax evasion don’t like the plan because it threatens to put an end to their game.
Once upon a time, people protected each other by reporting crimes that they observed. Now, a cultural rejection of doing so has silenced witnesses, whose recession into the background because of fears that they will be tagged and targeted as snitches has made it increasingly difficult to solve crimes and identify perpetrators. Of course, failure to take steps to assist in identifying criminals makes it easier for the criminal to repeat the offense, time and again.
Understandably, people ought not be rewarded for intruding into other people’s personal lives to look for possible crimes. That difference is a serious distinction that puts the proposal in a different category than the sort of privacy intrusions characterizing Nazi and Stasi practices. When a crime is being committed in a public venue, reporting the crime or testifying about the crime is not an invasion of privacy. No one should be rewarded for hacking into someone’s computer to look for their tax software inputs and outputs, but when an employer asks an employee to collect receipts without entering the amount into the point-of-sale interface or into the appropriate accounting software field, the employee who chooses to report that employer is not invading the employer’s privacy. When someone brags at a party about having circumvented the tax laws by laundering money, transmitting that information to the tax authorities is not an invasion of privacy.
No employer for whom I have worked has ever asked me to assist in tax evasion. I have never heard anyone brag at a party about their tax evasion success. I have witnessed crimes, and accidents, and have reported and provided the relevant information. None of those crimes, though, involved tax evasion. At least not yet. And hopefully never. But it leaves readers with this question: what would you do if you were asked to help someone evade taxes?
Friday, October 26, 2007
The Power of Chocolate
Yes, folks, chocolate has so many good qualities. It is medicinal. It tastes good. It has many culinary uses. And now comes news that chocolate can enhance the ratings received by a teacher on student course evaluations. According to Sweetening the Deal, an article that appeared in last week's Inside Higher Ed, a study demonstrated that higher scores on student course evaluations were attained when the students doing the evaluations were given chocolate. The title of the study, to be published in "Teaching of Psychology," is worth noting: "Fudging the Numbers: Distributing Chocolate Influences Student Evaluations of an Undergraduate Course." There's no doubt the same outcome would ensue if the study had focused on law students.
The study's authors became interested in the impact of externalities on evaluations when they were graduate students. They noticed that it was a fairly common practice for faculty to distribute candy to students when evaluation time rolled around. In the study, however, the candy was distributed by someone not otherwise connected with the course. In all three test groups, the half of the students getting the chocolate gave higher ratings on the evaluations.
The results do not surprise me. Nor am I surprised by the practice of some faculty of handing out treats. It happens. I've seen faculty have wine and cheese parties at the end of the semester, I've seen faculty bring in brownies, I've seen faculty bring in chocolate candy, and even, I, myself, once, a long time ago, when I was inexperienced and younger, brought in chocolate chip cookies that I had baked. I should not have admitted to being the baker, because students refused to eat them. It was near the beginning of the semester and I simply had made too many cookies. Perhaps they thought I was going to poison or sicken them. A tax guy making cookies? Impossible. Well, my friends and family know better even if my students don't. It's not as though students here don't like treats or object to chocolate. When, some years later, I noticed that the trays of brownies left over from the class preceding mine had been pretty much scarfed clean, I thought to myself, "Is it a gender thing? Somehow, men ought not bake, or admit to baking, chocolate chip cookies?"
It appears that in some instances the distribution of treats by law faculty is yet another attempt to soften the harsh realities of legal education, in part by persuading students that their teachers are not the ogres portrayed in Paper Chase. There is a good bit of "I want my students to like me" in all of this. Perhaps the desire to be liked is connected with a notion that the more a teacher is liked, the higher the evaluation scores. It's important, though, that a teacher be liked for the right reason, namely, that he or she is doing what needs to be done to educate the student and prepare the student for law practice. Unfortunately, much of what needs to be done to accomplish those goals doesn't create a fun-time, let's party, teacher-is-cool atmosphere in the classroom.
And that brings me back to evaluations. If, as I believe and some others do not, the task of the law professor is to prepare students for law practice, the best way of measuring the professor's teaching proficiency through student reactions is to canvass the students after they have graduated and practiced for a few years. It's amazing how much light the realities of the practice world can shed on a student's perception of a law school course. The ideal question, "Rate this professor in terms of his or her ability to prepare you for law practice," isn't one that a law student can answer, simply because a law student, even if enrolled in a clinic or externship for a few months, hasn't been immersed in law practice as a lawyer. Thus, the suggestion by one of the study's authors that evaluations be done several weeks before the end of the semester is unwise. The more of a course that a student experiences, including the final examination difficult though that may be, the more the student can appreciate what the course has or has not done for the student's learning development.
Yes, there are questions that ought to be asked of students. These are the questions designed to identify faculty who make racist comments, who throw things at students, who come to class late, who don't respond to student emails, and who otherwise are violating the terms of their contracts. It doesn't make sense to ask all the students whether there was a syllabus in the course, because the administration can figure that out for itself. The only possible reason to ask the question is to identify evaluations on which a student responds that there is no course syllabus when, in fact, there is one. Such an evaluation should be thrown out, and its responses ignored, because the answer calls into question the mental competence of the responding student. To the best of my knowledge, these evaluations are treated just as are the others. Scary, isn't it? The worst question is the "compare this professor to your other professors." Aside from turning the evaluation into a popularity contest --- does one get points for bringing in goodies?--- this question does nothing to determine the teaching competence of the faculty member as measured against a standard. The numbers available for answering that question have no meaning. Is someone getting a "2" twice as good a teacher as someone getting a "1" and does getting a "5" mean that the person is perfect? It matters because some faculty and administrators put all sorts of value on the responses. Fortunately, other administrators and faculty give these things the weight they deserve.
Speaking of weight, I wonder how many pounds of chocolate are sufficient to increase evaluation scores. And should it be packaged in brownies, cookies, candy bars, or as coffee flavoring? Should alternative treats be available for the unfortunate few who dislike chocolate or who are allergic to it? Perhaps someone will conduct follow-up studies. In the meantime, another suggestion from one of the study's authors makes sense. Treats should not be handed out with evaluations. I'd go further. They ought not be handed out during the evaluation period, and ideally, ought not be handed out at all.
The study's authors became interested in the impact of externalities on evaluations when they were graduate students. They noticed that it was a fairly common practice for faculty to distribute candy to students when evaluation time rolled around. In the study, however, the candy was distributed by someone not otherwise connected with the course. In all three test groups, the half of the students getting the chocolate gave higher ratings on the evaluations.
The results do not surprise me. Nor am I surprised by the practice of some faculty of handing out treats. It happens. I've seen faculty have wine and cheese parties at the end of the semester, I've seen faculty bring in brownies, I've seen faculty bring in chocolate candy, and even, I, myself, once, a long time ago, when I was inexperienced and younger, brought in chocolate chip cookies that I had baked. I should not have admitted to being the baker, because students refused to eat them. It was near the beginning of the semester and I simply had made too many cookies. Perhaps they thought I was going to poison or sicken them. A tax guy making cookies? Impossible. Well, my friends and family know better even if my students don't. It's not as though students here don't like treats or object to chocolate. When, some years later, I noticed that the trays of brownies left over from the class preceding mine had been pretty much scarfed clean, I thought to myself, "Is it a gender thing? Somehow, men ought not bake, or admit to baking, chocolate chip cookies?"
It appears that in some instances the distribution of treats by law faculty is yet another attempt to soften the harsh realities of legal education, in part by persuading students that their teachers are not the ogres portrayed in Paper Chase. There is a good bit of "I want my students to like me" in all of this. Perhaps the desire to be liked is connected with a notion that the more a teacher is liked, the higher the evaluation scores. It's important, though, that a teacher be liked for the right reason, namely, that he or she is doing what needs to be done to educate the student and prepare the student for law practice. Unfortunately, much of what needs to be done to accomplish those goals doesn't create a fun-time, let's party, teacher-is-cool atmosphere in the classroom.
And that brings me back to evaluations. If, as I believe and some others do not, the task of the law professor is to prepare students for law practice, the best way of measuring the professor's teaching proficiency through student reactions is to canvass the students after they have graduated and practiced for a few years. It's amazing how much light the realities of the practice world can shed on a student's perception of a law school course. The ideal question, "Rate this professor in terms of his or her ability to prepare you for law practice," isn't one that a law student can answer, simply because a law student, even if enrolled in a clinic or externship for a few months, hasn't been immersed in law practice as a lawyer. Thus, the suggestion by one of the study's authors that evaluations be done several weeks before the end of the semester is unwise. The more of a course that a student experiences, including the final examination difficult though that may be, the more the student can appreciate what the course has or has not done for the student's learning development.
Yes, there are questions that ought to be asked of students. These are the questions designed to identify faculty who make racist comments, who throw things at students, who come to class late, who don't respond to student emails, and who otherwise are violating the terms of their contracts. It doesn't make sense to ask all the students whether there was a syllabus in the course, because the administration can figure that out for itself. The only possible reason to ask the question is to identify evaluations on which a student responds that there is no course syllabus when, in fact, there is one. Such an evaluation should be thrown out, and its responses ignored, because the answer calls into question the mental competence of the responding student. To the best of my knowledge, these evaluations are treated just as are the others. Scary, isn't it? The worst question is the "compare this professor to your other professors." Aside from turning the evaluation into a popularity contest --- does one get points for bringing in goodies?--- this question does nothing to determine the teaching competence of the faculty member as measured against a standard. The numbers available for answering that question have no meaning. Is someone getting a "2" twice as good a teacher as someone getting a "1" and does getting a "5" mean that the person is perfect? It matters because some faculty and administrators put all sorts of value on the responses. Fortunately, other administrators and faculty give these things the weight they deserve.
Speaking of weight, I wonder how many pounds of chocolate are sufficient to increase evaluation scores. And should it be packaged in brownies, cookies, candy bars, or as coffee flavoring? Should alternative treats be available for the unfortunate few who dislike chocolate or who are allergic to it? Perhaps someone will conduct follow-up studies. In the meantime, another suggestion from one of the study's authors makes sense. Treats should not be handed out with evaluations. I'd go further. They ought not be handed out during the evaluation period, and ideally, ought not be handed out at all.
