WEALTHY & WISE ADVICE
FOR APRIL 15, 2013
The dread April 15 income
tax filing deadline is upon us …
again.
Thank goodness this year’s deadline is Monday.
Partly because, for filing procrastinators, that means at
least you had the weekend to “git `er done” and – if you still support the Post
Office by filing the old fashioned paper way – get your bundle properly
postmarked today.
Not that that makes the process any less arduous or
exasperating (which, I would observe, is one literal definition of “taxing”).
And partly because it gives me a specific TGIM
Topic Target to shoot at.
I suspect most of the good citizens reading these posts feel
a certain ambivalence about their mandatory participation in the process of
progressive income taxation as currently practiced in our version of a
capitalist economy.
- We all have moments when we look at what our taxes are funding and agree with the sentiment of respected jurist John Marshall (1755-1835), “The power to tax involves the power to destroy.”
- And yet we can also find a number of instances to agree with Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935) that “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.”
And those two quotes lay the groundwork for today’s TGIM
subject matter:
WEALTHY & TAX-WISE
ADVICE: No, not from me. My mastery of the mysteries of tax-savvy
strategies is limited and strictly nonprofessional. I stand with the wit who
said, “Few of us ever test our powers of deduction, except when filling out an
income tax form.” My personal feeling is, even when you believe you’ve made out
your tax return in a scrupulously honest way, you still don’t know if you’ve
done right or not.
So I’ll concede the advice-rendering portion of this taxing TGIM
– and it’s wise and wealthy guidance – to one of the smartest Americans that
ever was or will be--
Benjamin Franklin
“The
Way To Wealth”
Ben’s essay “The Way to Wealth” was published almost two
decades before the Declaration of Independence -- July 7, 1757. While packed
with amazingly timeless messages, it is nearly 3,500 words long (and you think
I go on!) and has a certain 250-years-old style that makes it challenging to
read.
 |
| Franklin first published what later became known as The Way to Wealth as the preface to his almanac for 1758. It began at the top of the left-hand page and continued in the available spaces on the calendar pages. This image is from The Library Company of Philadelphia -- the largest public library in America until the Civil War. Founded in 1731 by Franklin, it is America's oldest cultural institution, |
So I will spare you it in its entirety.
The point is: This
long tale is Franklin’s made-up story of stopping in his Richard Saunders --
aka, “Poor Richard” persona -- unrecognized, at a village market and
overhearing the local “wise man” regale the crowd with insights he has gained
from Poor Richard’s Almanack.
HIGHLIGHTED FOR APRIL
15: In what follows I’ve exercised editorial privilege to focus on the
portions that reference taxation particularly. And I dared to modernize Ben’s
telling somewhat to get right down to what’s most relevant for us on April 15,
2013:
*****
They were conversing on the badness of the times, and one fellow
called to a plain clean old man, with white locks, "Pray, Father Abraham,
what think you of the times? Won't these heavy taxes quite ruin the country?
How shall we be ever able to pay them? What would you advise us to?"
Father Abraham stood up, and replied, "If you'd have my
advice, I'll give it you in short, for a word to the wise is enough, and
many words won't fill a bushel, as Poor Richard says."
[Editorial aside:
Franklin was always a master of self promotion; that was just another part of
his genius. And as you’ll see, he keeps referencing his Poor Richard sources – by name and in an italic typeface -- throughout his essay.]
The crowd joined in desiring Father Abraham to speak his
mind and, gathering round him, he proceeded as follows:
"Friends,” says he, “and neighbors; the taxes are
indeed very heavy, and if those laid on by the government were the only ones we
had to pay, we might more easily discharge them.
“But we have many others, and much more grievous to some of
us.
“We are taxed twice as much by our idleness,
… three times as
much by our pride,
… and four times
as much by our folly
-- and from these taxes the commissioners cannot ease or
deliver us by allowing an abatement.
“However let us hearken to good advice, and something may be
done for us. God helps them that help themselves, as Poor Richard says,
in his almanac of 1733.
"It would be thought a hard government that should tax
its people one tenth part of their time, to be employed in its service.
“But idleness taxes many of us much more, if we reckon all
that is spent in absolute sloth, or doing of nothing, with that which is spent
in idle employments or amusements, that amount to nothing.
“And sloth, by bringing on diseases, absolutely shortens
life. Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key
is always bright, as Poor Richard says.
“But dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for
that's the stuff life is made of, as Poor Richard says.
“If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time
must be, as Poor Richard says, the greatest prodigality, since, as he
elsewhere tells us, Lost time is never found again, and What we call time-enough, always
proves little enough.
“Let us then be up and be doing, and doing to the purpose;
so by diligence shall we do more with less perplexity.
“Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy,
as Poor Richard says; and he that riseth late, must trot all day, and shall
scarce overtake his business at night. While laziness travels so slowly,
that poverty soon overtakes him, as we read in Poor Richard, who adds, Drive
thy business, let not that drive thee.
"So what signifies wishing and hoping for better times?
We may make these times better if we bestir ourselves.
“And, as Poor Richard likewise observes, He that hath a
trade hath an estate, and He that hath a calling hath an office of
profit and honor. But then the trade must be worked at, and the calling
well followed, or neither the estate, nor the office, will enable us to pay our
taxes.
“If you would be wealthy, says he, in another
almanac, think of saving as well as of getting. The Indies have not made
Spain rich, because her outgoes are greater than her incomes. Away then
with your expensive follies, and you will not have so much cause to complain of
hard times, heavy taxes, and the expense of families.
Get what you can,
and what you get hold;
'Tis the stone
that will turn all your lead into gold,
-- as Poor Richard says. And when you have got that Philosopher's
Stone, surely you will no longer complain of bad times, or the difficulty of
paying taxes.
"This doctrine, my friends, is reason and wisdom.
“But, after all:
Do not depend too much upon your own
industry, and frugality, and prudence.
“Though excellent things, they may all be blasted without
the blessing of heaven. Therefore, ask that blessing humbly. And be not
uncharitable to those that at present seem to want it. Comfort and help them.
Remember Job suffered, and was afterwards prosperous.
"And now to conclude: Experience keeps a dear
school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that. It is
true, we may give advice, but we cannot give conduct, as Poor Richard says.
“However, remember this: They that won't be counseled
can't be helped, as Poor Richard says.
“And farther: If you will not hear reason, she'll surely
rap your knuckles."
*****
“Thus,” says Franklin as his essay wraps up, “the old
gentleman ended his harangue.”
And we shall as well.
TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Bestir yourselves.
Or have your knuckles
rapped. April 15, 2014 will be upon us all too soon.
Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing
P.S. “The
only thing that hurts more than paying an income tax is not having to pay an
income tax.” Lord Thomas R. Dewar (1864 – 1930) of whiskey-distilling fame
is credited with that observation. Cheers!
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