Currently, about half the population pays no federal income taxes. I submit that not paying federal income taxes causes a loss of IQ. A lot more than a few points. There seems to be a lot more evidence of this than a leaded gasoline connection.
AMEN!!EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE SKIN IN THE GAME!
Absolutely right! In grad school, my econometrics prof told about a 99.9% correlation between cotton crops in the South and rainfall in Iceland. They looked for the reason and studied everything from the Gulf Stream to the Jet Stream and could not explain it. Without a testable hypothesis, correlation is just that...an observable relation with no underpinning theory to support it.
I’d even go so far as to say that, if you don’t pay any federal income taxes (51% of the population don’t), you don’t get to vote in federal elections. Same for state and local taxes. Same reason: No skin in the game, why should you have a say in how the money is spent?
“Correlation is not causality.”
In this case, it most assuredly is, as in ingesting arsenic correlates with poisoning.
The fact that more and more of our work is done for us such as say with computers or the internet could arguably be part of it too.
post of the thread