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How the U.S. Tax Code Privileges White Families

I’ve always wondered, but never researched, why the marriage penalty existed.

Its history is very interesting and worth reading:

How the U.S. Tax Code Privileges White Families [The Atlantic] – “The U.S. tax code can seem like a neutral, or at least equally punishing, system. But that misses how it has privileged white people—particularly white married couples—and preserved the racial inequality that has long defined America. Take the joint return, for instance, a policy that was designed to give a tax break to married (heterosexual) couples in which only the husband worked in the paid labor market. That setup favored white couples, whose familial structure was most likely to fit its mold. And it came at the expense of Black married couples, including my parents.”

The tax code can be discriminatory even if there was never any intent ahead of time. The solution is to fix that system or you are complicit in its discrimination. And, as it turns out, the fix is quite simple.

Letting Go of Childhood Toys and Memorabilia [One Frugal Girl] – “When I see those old toys, I picture my boys’ chubby little hands playing with the pieces. I imagine their smiling faces looking up at me with utter delight. I remember the moments of their first few years and relish in the memories of that time in my life. While I consider myself a minimalist, I struggle to let go of them.” I struggle with this one too.

A Lot of the Woo-Woo Probably Works [Raptitude] – “There’s something I miss about the days when most people I knew thought meditation was nonsense. In the early 2000s, I was a hardline skeptical type, but I did this one woo-woo-ish thing, because its benefits were obvious enough to me.”

My dad once told me that if there is something that people have been doing for thousands of years, it probably works. It might not be provable beyond a reasonable doubt with science but it can’t be all wrong.

Amazing video on how cats walk [via @RexChapman on Twitter] – “Cats have a precise method of walking called ‘direct registering’. Their hind paws fall inside the place of their forepaws — minimizing noise and visible tracks — while ensuring more stable footing. Amazing…”