An April Fool’s Day Serious Thought

Hi Guys,

For me, April Fool’s Day is always a day of bewilderment. Why? I have mixed emotions on this day.

I usually use that day as a signal to initiate my quarterly Federal income tax payment. For me, April Fool’s Day equals Income Tax Day. I’m not so much sad; understandably, the government needs resources to do their functions. But, I’m puzzled by why the costs are so high relative to our family incomes.

For the very first time, I did a few very simple overall US money flow calculations to explore the issue. Why I never did this analysis earlier is yet another source of puzzlement.

One way to look at this market exchange is that when we’re paying taxes, we’re buying a product/service. My input numbers might be a little off, but I believe they properly scope the total exchange of money for integrated government services.

The annual Federal budget is likely to be in the 3.9 trillion dollar territory. Our population is roughly 320 million people. That translates to a Federal government expenditure of about 12,200 dollars per person. Wow!

That’s a large part of our household income. Our household median income is listed at about 53,000 dollars per year. On an overall US income basis, the Feds are extracting a significant fraction of it, especially given that the average household size is a number slightly in excess of three. Buying the government product is a costly purchase. And this analysis is exclusive of State government costs.

This post is not an April Fool’s joke. It’s definitely not funny. I’m mostly surprised that I never did this calculation earlier. That was probably an inadvertent lucky decision given the magnitude of the forced extraction.

Fortunately, my financial circumstances are such that I don’t worry this date. I hope you guys are in the same position to accommodate it.

For some, taxes are a cause of great anxiety and a little painful. Some April Fool’s Day humor and quotes might help to mitigate those feelings. Here is a Link to one of my favorite quotation websites:

http://www.quotegarden.com/april-fool-day.html

Enjoy. The one from Will Rodgers seems especially appropriate: “The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected”. Amen.

Best Regards.