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Legend: Humorous essay describes "how taxes work."
Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2002]
Origins: The The signature block at the bottom of the currently circulating Internet version identifies it as being the work of
Thank you for your message. I previously distributed the "How Taxes Really Work" article (as well as other opinion pieces reflecting different perspectives) to my graduate tax class to encourage them to think beyond the rules and regulations. Unfortunately, it is rather easy to focus on the myriad of complex rules and forget that tax policy frequently influences taxpayer behavior beyond what may have been intended. Thus my students are frequently asked to think "outside the box," and consider such topics a tax complexity, alternative forms of taxation, and the impact of taxes on behavior. The article was not written by me, and I have intentionally avoided commenting on its validity in order to encourage my students to think critically, and to assist in the development of their analytical and communication skills. I am unaware of the true author's identity, which is unfortunate, since the piece has generated considerable interest. Unfortunately, one of my students sent it along and erroneously contributed the authorship to me.
Likewise, Dr. David R. Kamerschen, a professor of economics at the University of Georgia, has also been erroneously attributed as the author of this essay. He has posted a denial of authorship on his personal web page:
Contrary to Internet folklore, Dr. Kamerschen is NOT the author of "Tax Cuts: A Simple Lesson in Economics." Additionally, he does NOT know who wrote it.
A similar version was used in a
I got the idea for this allegory and [sic] from an article in The Taxpayer reprinting an article in the Chicago Tribune. It has been rewritten Mall Arkey style.
William F. Buckley Jr. also reprinted and analyzed a version of this piece in his
A few weeks ago I came across a column by William F. Buckley in the National Review Online that began: "The following parable just came in from a friend, via the Internet." Buckley then reprinted the parable in toto, some three-hundred-words worth, and then concluded with some commentary of his own. What made this episode so odd was that Buckley apparently hadn't bothered to check out who had written the parable to begin with. (According to my two-minute search of Lexis-Nexis, it was someone named Don Dodson of Fort Worth, Texas, in a letter to the Chicago Tribune.) Now, if somebody e-mailed me one of Bill Buckley's columns, I wouldn't just reprint it as having come in "from the Internet," even if I happened to think it was brilliant (which would be unlikely). But perhaps one of the joys of being William F. Buckley is not having to bother with such basic journalistic steps.
As both the Mall Arkey and New Republic articles noted, the "How Taxes Work" piece was published (in shorter form) in the letters column of the Chicago Tribune on
Every night, 10 men met at a restaurant for dinner. At the end of the meal, the bill would arrive. They owed $100 for the food that they shared.
The Chicago Tribune version included no additional information about the item, however, not even an indication that the submitter claimed to be its author. Given that readers frequently send non-original items to newspapers as "letters" (an apocryphal item about President Clinton was published under at least four different names, for example), we're not quite ready to declare this mystery solved.
Every night they lined up in the same order at the cash register. The first four men paid nothing at all. The fifth, grumbling about the unfairness of the situation, paid $1. The sixth man, feeling very generous, paid $3. The next three men paid $7, $12 and $18, respectively. The last man was required to pay the remaining balance, $59. He realized that he was forced to pay for not only his own meal but the unpaid balance left by the first five men. The 10 men were quite settled into their routine when the restaurant threw them into chaos by announcing that it was cutting its prices. Now dinner for the 10 men would only cost $80. This clearly would not affect the first four men. They still ate for free. The fifth and sixth men both claimed their piece of the $20 right away. The fifth decided to forgo his $1 contribution. The sixth pitched in $2. The seventh man deducted $2 from his usual payment and paid $5. The eighth man paid $9. The ninth man paid $12, leaving the last man with a bill of $52. Outside of the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings, and angry outbursts began to erupt. The sixth man yelled, "I only got $1 out of the $20, and he got $7," pointing at the last man. The fifth man joined in. "Yeah! I only got $1 too. It is unfair that he got seven times more than me." The seventh man cried, "Why should he get $7 back when I only got $2?" The nine men formed an outraged mob, surrounding the 10th man. The first four men followed the lead of the others: "We didn't get any of the $20. Where is our share?" The nine angry men carried the 10th man up to the top of a hill and lynched him. The next night, the nine remaining men met at the restaurant for dinner. But when the bill came, there was no one to pay it. Last updated: 2 October 2008 Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2009 by snopes.com. This material may not be reproduced without permission. snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com.  Sources:
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