Tag: history

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What I Learned about Taxes from Revolutionary Paris

054April, our traditional tax month

I spent one full weekend pulling all my information together just so I could hand it over to the CPA and they could fill out some forms (and then charge me $850). Now I don’t expect you to feel sorry for me but I really did spend all my time compiling information that weekend (from when I got up in the morning until I went to bed). You see, I have four tax entities to prepare (Stew & Sandy, Southeast Business Forums, Yooper Publications, and our HOA).

As I’m sitting at the dining room table doing all of this, I got to thinking about France, the three estates, and the French tax situation back in 1789. I decided I was part of the 99% known as the Third Estate. The other two estates—the clergy and the nobility—did not pay any taxes. Now I’m certainly not part of the clergy. And although I do own land (that was one of the prerequisites for being a noble), I still live from paycheck to paycheck. So that really does eliminate me from the nobility class.

So I guess I’m just a poor peasant or a member of the Third Estate

I suppose the kings figured out the clergy (or the first Estate) were non-profits even back then. I think it may also have been they didn’t want to get on the bad side of the pope. But the real reason for the clergy not paying taxes was the fact that they did perform necessary services for the folks in their respective parishes and therefore took that burden off the monarch’s shoulders (and treasury).

Now the nobility on the other hand, didn’t pay taxes because they were expected to bear arms and join the king whenever he declared war on someone. This was the quid-pro-quo of the day. That may have worked in medieval France, but by 1789 the king couldn’t afford to go to war. The days of the Crusades were over and all the Third Estate saw were the nobility prancing around in their fancy clothes, fast carriages, and going to endless parties. Read More What I Learned about Taxes from Revolutionary Paris

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Petting a Lethal Snake

“Is Common Sense in Travel Dead?”

Christopher Elliott, writing for USA Today (February 7, 2014), asks that question.

Coming off a vacation in which we took a cruise to the Caribbean with Sandy’s parents, I’m going to answer in the affirmative.

In fact, I’m going to go further. I think the American traveler has lost their perspective of not only common sense, but also common courtesy. I’ve seen enough to conclude the Ugly American has returned (or did they ever leave?).

For the time being, let’s stay on track with the extinction of common sense.

We’re on a shore excursion in Guatemala, in a bus, and full of the ship’s passengers. Sitting diagonally across from us is a woman who is hacking up such a cough that I honestly thought she was going to die (her companion told her to quit smoking—we found out later that she was deathly ill in addition to the smoking issue). Common sense would have told her to stay on board the ship so as not to potentially infect the rest of us. Perhaps that falls under common courtesy?

Our bus stops at the local cemetery. Since the water table is about a foot below the surface, people are buried above ground. Our guide makes it a point to tell us this. Boxes, coffins, and other assorted final resting places were stacked one above another. Sometimes these were 12 high. The colors were beautiful. Everything was painted in pastel colors: orange, yellow, blue, mauve, purple, etc. I thought I was in Miami Beach. Read More Petting a Lethal Snake