Tahnee & Tyler: October 2012

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Swearing in

A couple months back we found out that Tyler will be receiving the Army scholarship for dental school. This is a huge accomplishment for Tyler, and it truly is going to help so much with the dental school debt. The scholarship is for 3 years, which means it will start in July. The way it works is they pay for all of your schooling (plus a little extra), and then you give back (as a dentist) however many years they helped you with. So...it could be 3 years, it could be more depending on whether or not he specializes. We're really excited for this opportunity, and feel that it will provide Tyler with so many great experiences.

On Monday, Tyler was "sworn in" to the Army. He is now officially a "second lieutenant." There were 2 Army representatives there, as well as one of the deans of the dental school, who happens to be a full colonel in the Army. Tyler and our friend Chris (who also received the scholarship) were sworn in together. Emily (Chris' wife) and I got to talk to the full colonel while the boys signed papers, and he only had great things to say about the army. He was very encouraging and positive, which is always a great thing.

We're super excited for this scholarship, and can't wait to see where it takes us when we're done here in AZ.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Taxes

I don't usually post about politics, but this is a good analogy of how our taxes work. Enjoy, but don't get mad at me if you don't agree :)

--Taxes in a nutshell
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for a beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.00
The sixth would pay $3.00
The seventh would pay $7.00
The eighth would pay $12.00
The ninth would pay $18.00
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.00
So that’s what they decided to do. The men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with arraignment, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.
“Since you are all such good customers, he said,
I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.00.
“Drinks for the ten men now cost just $80.00
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men – the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get there “fair share?”
They realized that $20.00 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share,
then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount,
and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay!
And so:
The fifth man like the first four, now paid nothing ( 100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of 12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid 14 instead of 18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before! And the first four continued to drink for free.
But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
“I only got a dollar out of the $20“ declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,
“but he got $10!”
“Yeah, that’s right, shouted the seventh man. “why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!”
“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in union.“ We didn’t get anything at all.
The system exploits the poor!”
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalist and college professors, is how our tax system works.
The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact,
they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.--