Year: 2002

Letter from Einstein

Cute letters to Einstein from kids.

Dear Sir,

I probably would have written ages ago, only I was not aware that you were still alive. I am not interested in history, and I thought that you had lived in the 18th c., or somewhere around that time…

Tyfanny

Dear Tyfanny,

… I have to apologize to you that I am still among the living. There will be a remedy for this, however. …

Einstein

via MetaFilter

Does education really pay

Does education really pay? An interesting article on Forbes arguing that education does not cause higher salaries, but is merely correlated with it. The logic sequence is broadly:

  • Labour markets want smart people.
  • Smart people tend to want education.
  • Hence labour markets appear to want educated people.

Tax complexity

Interesting article on the Kelkar report on tax reforms. The point about simplifying tax and removing exemptions reminds me of a statement by George Winston in Tom Clancy’s Executive Orders:

The purpose of taxes is to provide revenue for the country’s government so that the government can serve the people. But along the way we’ve created an entire industry that takes billions of dollars from the public. Why? To explain a tax code that gets more complex every year, a code that the enforcement people themselves do not understand with a sufficient degree of confidence to undertake responsibility for getting it right.

Well, frankly, I thought Clancy was being naive.