🚀 go-pugleaf

Mike Powell (mikep@sr.hp.com) wrote:
: Karen Kimball (karenk@hprnd.rose.hp.com) wrote:
: : 	Part of that societal baggage is the tax penalty for being
: : married.

: 	I don't think so... witness the recent passage (in the House)
: 	of legal changes to erase this.  What we saw was clearly a
: 	legal screw-up by idiot politicians from years past who totally
: 	failed to recognize how easy it is to damage an institution
: 	such a marriage.  Things are slowly being corrected.



	Sorry, but a measly average $145 per couple doesn't begin to
undo the marriage penalty.
	Additional deductions for children do not help couples without
children and are not restricted to married couples.

	Our taxes increased by about $4000 combined federal/state when
we got married. THAT magnitude of marriage penalty hasn't begun to
be addressed. 


	(below was your comment with regard to my note that gay
marriages, not domestic partnerships, were the real solution to what
people attempt with these 'domestic partnership' laws)	

: 	I don't think so... the real solution is to erase the marriage
: 	penalty, and to take _major_ steps in reversing the _valuation_
: 	of single parents.  Currently, we reward people who have children
: 	but fail to establish a permanent relationship/comittment with
: 	the other parent.  The damage from this foolishness is
: 	staggering... and has put the face of children on poverty.

: 	It has been the careless progressive attitude that has devalued
: 	comittment to stable, long-term relationships, even when children
: 	are involved (where it counts the most).  It is one thing to
: 	make adjustments to an institution, and another to be carelessly
: 	destructive.  We have consistantly moved marriage away from
: 	a social contract of moral responsibility, toward nothing more
: 	than the pro's and con's of legal definition.


	But I don't see how gay marriages have anything to do with this--
we are not talking about people who would be in heterosexual marriages
otherwise (hey, they aren't now).

	I do agree that marriage, and commitment to _stay_ married,
needs to regain value in our society, and that the lack of same is
a major contributor to a lot of our social ills.


----------------------------
Karen Kimball


I  = (NOT(speaking for HP))
HP = (NOT(speaking for me))

{Combine, parse, and apply DeMorgan's.}
{Lather, rinse, repeat.}