Cha-Ching

Is that baby giving you the finger? No worries..it's the mood dujour for many.
Feeling blue sorta boo hoo today as you mail your taxes to Uncle Sam? Apparently paying a huge amount of ones' earnings makes for happy campers, at least in Denmark where almost 70% of salaries are tax income for the country. It would be a curious beta test to live in a society where bankers earn as much as artists. So as we cry the blues today, this holiday for the IRS let's remember that it could always be worse. We could be Ukrainine. To be taxed in the Ukraine, is much like visiting the proctologist office. A global ranking of countries with the worse taxation system is awarded to this country. From a global perspective if anyone should be cranky it would be this part of the world which come to think of it the weather is just about as miserable. Prozac in the morning coffee is a lot like Cheerios for breakfast stateside. According to the WSJ America has a very small number of taxpayers -- the 10% of the country that makes more than $92,400 a year -- pay 72.4% of the nation's income taxes. They're the tip of the triangle that's supporting virtually everyone and everything. Why am I not Republican again?? Their burden keeps getting heavier. So take it to the streets, as many people did today. Tea Party antics this tax day against what the protesters believe are higher-than-necessary taxes and excess government spending, largely on the part of the Obama administration. The demonstrations mark the culmination of a movement spurred in part by a February rant from CNBC personality Rick Santelli that generated more than a million views on YouTube - and even a White House response. As you might recall, Santelli - surrounded by traders in Chicago - complained that Americans were being forced by the Obama administration to "subsidize the losers' mortgages" and called for a "Chicago tea party" to show his and others' anger. Gotta have a hobby.

Of course, the tea party that seems to have inspired the comment - the Boston Tea Party, that iconic 1773 protest in which Massachusetts colonists dumped tea into Boston Harbor - was tied largely to taxation without representation by the British government. That's no longer an issue for most Americans ( well- maybe the District of Columbia can bitch.)
The antithesis of party mentality this tax day: the tax professionals, like KPMG have the most boring, non creatively packaged information available on the world wide web. I suppose it's tough to break outta that beancounter mentality and think left brain creative. At least spending time reading about the world of taxes globally could be a more appealing experience but then again I can't imagine I would be considered a prime end-user of the website.

Remember cranky pants, the post office will be collecting/postmarking until midnight. Could be worse as you could be in Denmark, paying your taxes perhaps working at KPMG and dealing with that 24 hours of winter darkness thing. Could always be worse.