🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <pjkCDqp58.Iny@netcom.com> pjk@netcom.com (Phil Koenig) writes:
>Whoa now, wait a minute:  let's not get carried away.  The very form you 
>use as an example of excess paperwork used to be the ONLY form you could
>use to file with the IRS.
>
>As you may recall, back in the late '70s or early '80s, the government 
>ACTUALLY SIMPLIFIED THE TAX PAPERWORK for MILLIONS of Americans by 
>introducing the "short form" 1040A, and later the "very short form" 1040EZ.

Yes, and once upon a time, I used to be able to file with these forms. For
a very short time.

Until I bought property (a house), started a consulting business and making
(or losing) money. If you engage in any activity which resembles
self-employment, put your CPA on a contract, because you've got gobs of
paperwork to fill out.

>It just so happens that the vast majority of my adult income-tax paying 
>life was spent filing just these forms.  Let's not go off the deep end
>with your "holy pronouncements" about the government's "inabilities" 
>now.

You don't like my pronouncements about tax forms? Well, I suggest you try
different areas of the government. Let's take the business tax forms. Let
us consider the reams of forms you have to file with the government if
you're doing business with the government as a customer.

"Holy pronouncements?" Sorry, I'm a secular type. Don't look for sanctified
pronouncements from me.

>Even ** IBM ** is shaping up nowadays, fer gosh sakes...    :-)

Really? Last I looked, IBM's financials were pathetically poor and they
were laying off people. The federal government's financials are worse, but
unlike a real business, they're not laying people off. If IBM ever does
shape up, it will be because the board of directors, representing
shareholder interests, told IBM's management "shape up, or _else_."

The government bureaucracy, having no accountablity to anyone, can not be
forced to streamline as a business can be. Bureaucrats are not elected,
have no term limit, and cannot seem to be removed by anything short of a
knock0down, drag-out fight.

I repeat: if you think the paperwork involved in getting medical care is
bad now, just wait.

dsa