Embarrassment and Misery

Now I’m in BIG trouble at home. After the Kudo to the Times post on 7/12 several readers expressed surprise, captured quite well by Pam’s comment: “Billy, after your acknowledgement of Lee being a Methodist in your latest blog….”

Yesterday I tried to clarify the mix-up in SHE was the Methodist where Lee explained that the above phrase was from a great movie Life With Father, and has become a family joke at the Lama’s.

Today I found a comment from new friend Marie: “Assumed Lee was from another Christian group. Two of my best PV friends are also as you two. He comes to 7:30 AM Mass and then takes his wife to the Methodist Church on Crenshaw… Keep up your blogs.”

I laughed, but Lee did not. To set the record straight, I now officially declare: Lee is NOT a Methodist…not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Lee was baptized a Roman Catholic, attended Saint Paul’s parochial grammar school and Saint Rose Academy, both in San Francisco, then Saint John Fisher College in New York. She owns numerous (blessed) rosaries and uses them for prayer and to keep the rain away from our picnics (check the bushes next time you are at an outdoor event at our home) and at least one scapular. When we attend Late Night Catechism she knows all the answers to Sister’s questions. You can check it out. Whew. Hope that’s enough.

It seems appropriate to close this post with the Global Misery Index. In the latest issue of Forbes magazine is a table of countries ranked by their total tax rates, at the highest rate, including both personal and business taxes, social security, sales, … It is our best proxy for evaluating whether policy attracts or repels capital and talent. Misery is the sum that can exceed 100%, though anything over 100 reflects socialist policies and is not good. "USA reform" represents a proposed flat income tax with a federal consumption levy. Here are selected results.

France…………175
China……………160
Italy……………..146
Japan…………..123
Germany……….117
Britain………….111
Australia………..98
USA………………. 85
India………………84
USA reform…. 79

Very interesting! Not surprisingly France (175) is the worst country in the world when it comes to taxes (and many other things). No wonder the French voters rejected the EU constitution that would have added even more taxes to their happy lot. Note that France is even worse than Communist China where the tax rate used to be 100% of everything. China is now a lower tax country than France. No wonder China’s economy is growing like gangbusters while France is in the doldrums.

Among the European countries, our friend Britain is much more tax friendly than France, and England’s economy is also percolating nicely. Another USA buddy, Australia, is also a great place to live, where you get to keep most of your income.

The USA is terrific (85), in spite of the Democrat’s unending attempts to increase our taxes. According to Forbes the USA reform (79) is even better, good reason to examine the flat tax.