Today’s links Musk steals a billion dollars from low-income Americans and sends it to Intuit: Forcing you to pay Turbotax to send data to the IRS that it already has is the DEFINITION of government inefficiency. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: 2005, 2010, 2015 Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. Recent appearances: Where I’ve been. Latest books: You keep readin’ em, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Upcoming books: Like I said, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Colophon: All the rest. Musk steals a billion dollars from low-income Americans and sends it to Intuit (permalink) Let me tell you about the most wasteful US federal government spending I know about. It’s a humdinger. You and everyone you know are mired in it for weeks, or perhaps months, every year. It will cost you, personally, thousands of dollars over your lifetime. I’m talking about filing your taxes. Not paying your taxes. Paying your taxes is fine. It keeps the country running, though not because the government needs our “tax dollars” to pay for things. The government annihilates the money it taxes away from us, and creates new money to pay for programs. The USA needs US citizens dollars to build highways the same way Starbucks needs its Starbucks gift cards to make lattes – that is, not at all: https://theglobepost.com/2019/03/28/stephanie-kelton-mmt/ I’m talking about filing your taxes. In nearly every case, a tax return contains a bunch of things the IRS already knows: how much interest your bank paid you, how…Pluralistic: Musk steals a billion dollars from low-income Americans and sends it to Intuit (11 Feb 2025)