On 10/21/11 07:31 pm, Robert Green wrote:

Cain's flat tax could actually work with the right formula - food would be
tax free and other necessities could be exempted to make it somewhat less
burdensome on the poor. The Tax Code has passed the point of what my CMSC
610 prof (who was the retired head of the FBI data operations in DC) said
was ""intellectual control." It has become so vast, arcane and specialized
that only accountants with detailed specializations can understand it or
when it's been violated. I watched my dad struggle for ten years with an
oil and gas partnership that the IRS took a dislike to. That required
energy tax lawyers, CPAs and years of mail tag and finally tax court by
which time the partnership one, but the profits had largely been paid to
lawyers defending the profits.

Two or three years ago I heard an economics professor with a PhD say on
radio that he lets his wife do their tax returns because he can't
understand it.

Perce