Halloween & Life Lessons

Halloween was about kids and candy back in the day. Not anymore. I am not sure when the tide turned, but in our neighborhood we now have adults coming to the door asking for candy. Seriously.

I was sitting in my office working on some cool report for a client not 10 feet from the front door. I hear Therese open the door and the "kid" barked out Trick or Treat. It was the deepest "Trick or Treat" I have heard in my life. I ask Therese how old the kid was thinking we got a super mature 12 year-old. She said it was someone who literally looked like he was on his way home from the office. Several other adults also came to our door last night. When did adults hijack Halloween?!?

I know the economy in Michigan is rough, so have some of the unemployed resorted to begging candy to make ends meet?

Ever since my kids were old enough to understand (three years old if I recall correctly) I implemented the Halloween "Dad Tax." When the kids came home with their loot we would dump it on to the table and make sure we picked out the garbage (by parental definition, not kid definition). Once we waxed the garbage I implemented the "Dad Tax." This is where Dad gets to take a certain percentage of their candy and hand it over to the greater good as Dad sees fit. I explained to the kids early on how this is implemented by our governments and how I am teaching them early on what taxation is like before they get a paying job. The kids naturally were against this from the start, especially when they saw how all their hard work took a hit from someone not doing any of the work. Lesson learned.

Last night my youngest came home from her travels and immediately started in on her tax evasion plan. She really showed me how well this life lesson has impacted her. She decided to implement a "Dad Donation" to her favorite Dad charity (me of course), in hope of reducing her tax burden. Sweet, giving to others through a charity of your choice before the greedy politicians decide how to spend your hard earned money. This life lesson went even better than I could have hoped for in my wildest dreams.

By the way, I was the hit with my own life lesson last night while I was thinking of this. My two oldest have moved off to college so the revenue sharing of Halloween is getting thin these days. This means I have to hunt down other forms of candy revenue, or increase the Dad Tax. I began to plot the Uncle Tax and started real long term planning with the Grandpa tax. {g}

{rant}

This is mirroring what we are seeing in Michigan. We are watching people move away to the greener pastures of Texas and Arizona, and the tax base is eroding very fast. So to boost the state revenues the Michigan legislature decided to increase the taxes on those who remain in Michigan. People are losing their homes at alarming rates and personal budgets are squeezed tighter than ever so the politicians decide to make the hurting hurt more. They also decided to tax consultants for the services they provide to the clients. This little law change was implemented by a part-time legislature making full-time salaries and was done without much thought to the impact on small business and the administrative headache they dumped in our laps. Maybe they should have hired a couple of economists to consult on the package before they put it together. Today they extended the deadline of December 1 to December 20th so they have time to rethink this crazy strategy. Ya think there is a better way to balance a budget?

{/rant}

Life lessons, you are never too old to learn them.