Last week, Jon told you that Mayor Bloomberg wants to charge a tax on plastic bags in New York City to get people to bring their own bags to the store.  Jon made the very good point that five, six cents…that’s nothing.  It may very well do nothing to stop people from just getting a new bag or five every time they go to the store.

Susan Dominus, writing for The New York Times, says that stores in rural France, where she used to live, charged for bags, but had a better form of behavior modification: shame.

You’d start loading your groceries onto the conveyor belt, and then would have to explain to the clerk that you’d forgotten your bags. She would grimace. For some reason, the bags had to be paid for in a separate transaction. This was slightly more laborious for her, and checkout time at [the store] was a precise, even tense, exercise in speed.

Yes, in France (and some other European countries) it’s as simple as making the idiot who forgot his or her bags feel like the world is ending for all the other shoppers, because of that one person.

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The benefits of government expenditures, that is: roads, national security, people sitting in chairs making sure airplanes don’t crash into each other. The two sentiments are in perpetual conflict.

Last week’s vice presidential debate featured repeated exchanges on the subject of tax policy, with each side claiming the mantle of middle-class champion, and each accusing the other of having reckless tax plans. One aspect of the debate concerned fairness, with both candidates making exaggerated claims in support of their positions. Regarding fairness, is it right to increase taxes on wealthy Americans while cutting taxes for the middle class?

For decades, America (like most democracies) has had graduated federal tax rates, meaning wealthier tax payers contribute a higher percentage of their income. That is thought to be fair for a variety of reasons I won’t go into here. Sarah Palin accused Obama of wanting to redistribute wealth because of his plan to roll back tax cuts for wealthy Americans. That’s just a negative spin, because the overall approach is no different from what has been going on for a very long time, including the 1980’s, when, as Senator Biden correctly pointed out, marginal tax rates for wealthy Americans were higher than they are now. From 1932-1986, the highest marginal tax rate was at 50% or higher, compared to 35% today. Obama proposes going back to 39.6% percent, the rate that prevailed from 1993-2000, years of almost unprecedented prosperity.

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So today is April 14th which means I just got back from standing in line for 30+ minutes to mail in my taxes (I did it by certified mail FYI). No doubt my wait time in line indicates that many folks were like me and waited to the last minute to do their taxes.

In that spirit here’s a great video from GOOD Magazine:

It doesn’t make me feel good about mailing in my taxes but what can you do?

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It’s tax season, which can be an especially stressful and confusing time for the self-employed (ahem, most of us bloggers).

But fear not, help is but a click away. Below are the top 10 sites ( in no particular order) I found with understandable tax advice for freelancers.

10: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98551,00.html-IRS offers advice on what documents you shouold keep for your tax records.

9: http://taxtime.about.com/od/tipstricks/a/freelance.htm - About.com’s handy tax guide for freelancers.

8: http://dontmesswithtaxes.typepad.com/ - Money news, notices, tips, commentary, insight and humor by Texas journalist Kay Bell.

7: http://www.freelancewritinggigs.com/weekend-discussion-tax-tips-for-freelance-writers/ - The site offers advice and resources to freelance writers especicaly work-at-home moms. Check out their saavy tax tips.

6: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/06/13/7-things-that-every-blogger-should-know-about-tax/
Tax tips for those in the business of blogging

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