[GPSCC-chat] Finance industry in the United States and targeting April 15?

[Spencer Graves]

Hello, All:


	  The "Documenting crony capitalism" initiative I announced to this 
group in early February now includes a relatively complete draft of a 
Wikiversity article on "Finance industry in the United States" 
(http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Finance_industry_in_the_United_States). 
Bottom line:  This industry has invested roughly $500 million annually 
for the past 15 years or so in lobbying and campaign contributions and 
has received an estimated $160 for each $1 so invested.


	  If you get time to review this and have questions, concerns or ideas 
for improvement, please either email me or make some changes yourself to 
that article.


	  What do you thing should be a next primary topic for more research in 
"Documenting crony capitalism"?


	  What do you think about trying to create an article on "Tax 
preparation in the United States" with a target of providing background 
for a blog on April 15 or 16?  People who have read Lessig (2011) 
"Republic, Lost" may remember that (on pp. 200-201) he notes that the 
federal and state tax services could fairly easily send a draft tax 
return to every taxpayer.  If the draft is acceptable, you just sign and 
return it (with a check if you owe anything).  Or you can complete and 
file a return as you do now.


	  California experimented with such a system, "ReadyReturn", a few 
years ago.  Intuit, the producer of TurboTax, spent over $1.7 million to 
kill this program.  We could potentially research the amount of money 
contributed by Intuit, H&R Block, and other companies involved in tax 
advice and preparation to candidates for federal and state offices, both 
total and for individual incumbents.  We could them further encourage 
people to contact their elected representatives, noting the amounts they 
reportedly received and asking what they think about simplifying the 
annual tax preparation ritual by having the revenue services send draft 
tax returns to citizens.


	  If you like this idea, a shell of a Wikiversity article on it is 
available at 
"http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Tax_preparation_in_the_United_States" 
waiting for someone individual or group to provide details.  I put it on 
Wikiversity, because (a) anyone can edit it there, and (b) Wikimedia 
provides infrastructure that supports collaborative development of 
material like this of high quality (including effective procedures for 
conflict resolution and management of sabotage).


       What do you think?
       Best Wishes,
       Spencer


p.s.  Don't get angry:  Get curious.  Look for information to explain 
why the system is like it is and use that information to ask public 
officials first for help in understanding it.  If they claim to want to 
fix it, ask them for suggestions on what common citizens can do about it.


p.p.s.  Thanks to Jim Doyle and others who made very constructive 
suggestions for improving the introductory article on "Documenting crony 
capitalism".  It's much better now than it was in early February, partly 
because of the questions and suggestions I received.


-- 
Spencer Graves, PhD
Executive Director
effectivedefense.org
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph:  408-655-4567
web:  www.effectivedefense.org