Nanny Tax

I find this to be an interesting and relatable subject.

To reveal how dumb our current politics are, all one needs to do is focus on a specific issue.

In this case of nanny taxes - 80% of people don't pay them. Guess who those 80% are? Liberal families in SF, LA, and NYC, the exact type of folks who clamor for higher taxes to provide a social safety net. These people don't even provide a social safety net for the people who work for them!

The cognitive dissonance is stunning. So what do I think? Of course, paying payroll tax, etc, is bad for everyone involved. Nanny is a strange job with strange requirements. Decent families, I think, actually do provide decent social safety nets for good nannies by giving extra hours when needed, provided extra clothes, extra food, use of other resources, etc, that far exceed in efficiency and usefulness of what a govt program would provide. And guess what would happen if you added payroll taxes, etc? People at the margin wouldn't hire nannies! An already expensive household cost would go up and the jobs would go down. I can speak from experience.

I've found Liberals often hold Liberal positions on subjects they know little about, and veer into more conservative/libertarian ideas on subjects they know something about.