The Stupid Tax
Hello. Welcome to the first last Weekend Gene Pool of the Old Year, in which we will ask you to examine the subject of head-in-the clouds stupidity, an endeavor for which we believe we will win the coveted Bruno Klopfer Award, recognizing mankind’s highest achievement in the psychology of personality.
But first, please take today’s Gene Pool Gene Poll, which is absurdly drowning in cover-one’s-ass qualifiers.
Whew. Let’s see how we’ll get through this one. Warning: There will be a test, and it will arrive further below, with our second of two Weekend challenges for you.
The first challenge involves the Stupid Tax, a common term for money you pay for being stupid. The term is usually reserved for things like gambling on sports, playing the lottery, etc. These are boring and obvious, though they can have interesting twists and turns. From my story on The Great Zucchini, the children’s entertainer:
The Great Zucchini once went to Las Vegas on a Super Bowl Sunday and lost $100 before the game even began. He'd bet on the coin toss. Then he lost some more. Once, he went to Atlantic City, won more than $2,400, and then proceeded to lose it all, down to his last penny. He didn't have money for tolls on the way home and had to beg the tollbooth attendants for mercy. They gave him bills, which he never paid because he owed too much to others.
So, that subject is not entirely off the table. However, we are mostly looking for more creative examples of The Stupid tax, from your life, or the life of someone you know. In my case, much of it involves parking and speed-camera tickets, which I tend to throw in a drawer to pay later. Soon, you know. When I’m not so angry. I pay a lot of late fees.
Nothing quite compares to the Stupid Tax experience of a woman of my close acquaintance. I asked her to summarize what happened. Here it is:
George W. Bush was President, to begin with.
Going door to door for Obama in the northern Virginia suburbs hadn't felt like moving the needle--mostly I just enraged dogs by coming to their doors. So I started donating tiny amounts through ActBlue, which had options to donate $2 each to the nine most important candidates for whatever the issue currently was, or divide $15 among six races, things like that. And then I'd get scared again the next day and give $20. But I was not careful, and I overdrew my debit account.
My bank had a way to deal with this, by charging me $35 each time it happened and also not warning me it was doing this. It meant my $15 donation to Democrats was actually 6 donations of $2.50 to Democrats and 6 donations of $35 to my bank. I racked up $2000 in overdraft fees before noticing.
My bank had also overdrawn itself hugely that year. My bank had a way of dealing with this too, which was to get bailed out by the government for hundreds of millions of dollars in order to make it a good enough asset to sell in a fire sale. It was a wild time.
My bank, despite being out of money, like me, loaned $8 million to the Republican National Committee, due after the election. So each time I donated my $15 to six Democrats, I was also donating $210 to their political enemies.
Obama became President and I got a job where I can't give political donations, so it all worked out.
Now, THAT is an exceptional application of The Stupid Tax.
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The first challenge today is to tell us examples of the Stupid Tax in your life, or the life of someone you know. True stories only. Send them here, to this mysterious orange button.
The second challenge today is to elaborate on your answer to the Gene Pool Gene Poll today, about men and women. All observations welcome. Anecdotes are even welcomer. Send ’em to the same mysterious orange button, which I republish below.
And finally, as always, a plea for you to upgrade your subscription status. I ask not on my behalf, but on behalf of Malala Yousafzai.
See you on Tuesday, in the scary new year.
The orange button didn't work, so I will tell my stupidity tax story here. I sometimes buy something (usually clothing or accessories) then decide I don't really like it and should return it. Then I dilly-dally for so long that it's too late to return it, so I wind up donating it. I also have a large supply of specialty cleaning products that I've never used (or used once and forgot about). Then there are the projects that required supplies, tools, and accessories, purchased with enthusiasm and often at great expense, that I lost interest in. I sometimes think about how much money I'd have if I hadn't bought so many things I don't use.
Let's start at the beginning with sex-related differences, shall we ? There is a good body of evidence that tells us there are real differences in how men's and women's brains are "wired" and thus how they work. One not better or more advantageous in general than the other, mind you, just different. What is a work in progress from a scientific standpoint, however, is exactly how that translates into differences of behavior and other aspects of the human existence. For example, there is fairly strong evidence of the biological basis of sex-based cognitive differences and on several measures of verbal ability (score one for the female side there). And men appear to excel in visual and spatial skills. But the jury is still out on where to place a great many other differences on the nature/nurture or biology/culture continuum. To all, wishes for a better 2024 but, to misquote "Margo Channing" (Bette Davis) in "All About Eve" --- "Fasten your seatbelts; it's going to be a bumpy ride." And lest I forget, "... a cup o' Kindness..." to Gene and Pat (and part-timers Lexi, Rachel and Valerie) for yeoman's (and woman's) work in helping to keep the Barbarians from the gate or at least, distracting us a few moments each week from the fact that they exist in far too large a number. Cheers!