(no subject)

In which I shake my tiny fist: How is it that in all the belly aching and complaining about taxes in this country that no one ever complains about the craziness of treating urban salaries like their rural counterparts? Of course I make more money than a librarian in Oklahoma, I live in Boston and I need to make this money to pay living expenses. But according the federal government, I make a lot of money. No, I don't, it all goes out to the high rent, the T pass that only gets more expensive, the food that costs more here than elsewhere.... I don't see why people in Boston/NYC/DC/San Fran/LA/Chicago don't complain more about this, we get shoved into tax brackets we don't deserve to be in. And it's not like many of us city dwellers can afford a mortgage, so we get no special home owning deductions.

Also, I propose that rent should be payable pre-tax. Why not have it possible to arrange with your payroll department for them to send out your rent to your landlord from your paycheck before it's taxed? Electable, not mandatory, of course. That would be super helpful for those of us who live in places where rent eats up a third of your take home pay. Health care is important enough to be treated this way, but a roof over your head isn't?

In non-piss-and-vinegar-news, I feel like I've been rocking the kung-fu lately. My goal is that by the fall I'd like to be able to go up to the advanced class. Maybe. It might be more realistic to hope for that for a year from now.